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N.Y.C. Mayor Compares Housing Activist to

Mayor Compares
Plantation Owner Housing Activist,
Whose Family Fled Holocaust,
Mayor Eric Adams told Jeanie Dubnau to “treat me with the same level of respect I treat you” and compared her to a to
Plantation Owner
plantation owner when she pointedly asked about back-to-back rent hikes.

Mayor Eric Adams criticized the woman, whose family left

“I don’tGermany the 1930s,
control theinBoard. I make after she questioned
appointments. They makehim theabout back-to-
decision. Everyone knows
rentthe increases.
I don’t control Board.” “That’s not true. And the fact of the matter is that it’s not small
landholders. It’s big landholders, that they’re the main ones. We’re not talking about your
little tiny landlord. We’re not talking about that. We’re talking about the Rent Guidelines
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Board that you said before and after that you supported those rent increases. In Nassau,
they had a 0 percent rent increase. Why in New York City – where the real estate is
controlling you, Mr. Mayor – why are we having these horrible rent increases last year and
this year?” “OK, first, if you’re going to ask a question, don’t point at me, and don’t be
disrespectful to me. I’m the mayor of this city, and treat me with the respect that I deserve
to be treated. I’m speaking to you as an adult. Don’t stand in front like you’re treating
someone that’s on the plantation that you own. Give me the respect I deserve, and engage
in the conversation. Up here in Washington Heights, treat me with the same level of respect
I treat you. So, don’t be pointing at me. Don’t be disrespectful to me. Speak with me as an

1:18

N.Y.C. Mayor Compares Housing Activist to

00:00
Plantation Owner 1:18

Mayor Eric Adams told Jeanie Dubnau to “treat me with the same level of respect I
treat you” and compared her to a plantation owner when she pointedly asked about
back-to-back rent hikes. Andres Kudacki for The New York Times

By Emma G. Fitzsimmons

June 29, 2023

The first question at a community conversation with Mayor Eric

Adams in Washington Heights on Wednesday night was about New
York City’s housing crisis.

Not satisfied with his answer, a woman in the crowd stood up,
accused the mayor of being controlled by the real estate industry
and criticized two years of rent increases on rent-stabilized
apartments . Mr. Adams was not pleased.

“First, if you’re going to ask a question, don’t point at me, and don’t
be disrespectful to me,” he told her. “I’m the mayor of this city, and
treat me with the respect that I deserve to be treated.”

Then he went a step further, comparing the woman, who is white,

to a slave owner: “Don’t stand in front like you’re treating someone
that’s on the plantation that you own.”

The woman, Jeanie Dubnau, an 84-year-old housing activist and

molecular biologist , said in an interview afterward that her Jewish
family had fled Europe during the Holocaust. She said that the rent
increases were a “disaster” for seniors and she believes that the
mayor attacked her because he did not have a strong defense for
allowing them to happen.

“It was a complete deflection from what I was saying because he

has no answer,” she said.

Mr. Adams, the city’s second Black mayor, has often raised
concerns about racism when he has felt under attack. During the
2021 mayoral primary, he argued that his competitors, Andrew
Editors’ Picks
Yang and Kathryn Garcia, had joined forces to prevent “a person of
color” — specifically a Black or Latino person — from becoming ‘The Bear’ Finds
mayor . When he was blamed for Democrats losing the 2022 Optimism in the
Dysfunctional
midterms in New York because he had raised fears over crime, Mr. World of Hospitality
Adams said his critics were insulting the Black and Latino
communities who were most affected by gun violence. Was I Married to a
Stranger?
More recently, he has twice compared himself to Kunta Kinte, a
character from the 1977 television series “Roots” who was beaten How to Wean a
for refusing to accept the slave name Toby. Teen Off Social
Media

“I know you think you can whip me and make me go from saying
Kunta Kinte to Toby, but damn it, Kunta Kinte is all I know,” the
mayor said at a Juneteenth celebration at Gracie Mansion after
receiving criticism for the abrupt departure of his police
commissioner , Keechant Sewell, who announced her resignation
earlier this month.

Mr. Adams also claimed recently that there was a “coordinated”

effort to prevent him from winning a second term . When asked
who was coordinating that effort, the mayor again compared
himself to Kunta Kinte and said, “There’s a body of people who
were pleased with 30 years without having a mayor that looked
like me.”

Fabien Levy, a spokesman for the mayor, said in a statement that

“anyone who believes this mayor isn’t fighting for tenants hasn’t
been paying attention.” He added that the Adams administration
was “advancing comprehensive plans to build more homes, faster,
and across the city, which is the only way to truly solve the
affordability crisis.”

Ms. Dubnau, who lives in Washington Heights, said that she was
not trying to be disrespectful toward the mayor and had simply
wanted to make her voice heard at a tightly controlled event.

“I didn’t have a microphone,” she said. “I had to speak loudly so

that everyone could hear what I was saying.”

The rent increases — including 3 percent hikes on one-year leases

— will affect roughly two million people who live in rent-stabilized
apartments. Housing advocates have said they were too high at a
time when many New Yorkers were struggling, but Mr. Adams has
defended them as necessary for small property owners who face
rising costs.

Ms. Dubnau acknowledged that she did not like the mayor and had
voted for his left-leaning opponent, Maya Wiley, in the primary. She
volunteers with a community group called the Riverside
Edgecombe Neighborhood Association , and this was not her first
mayoral event. She assailed Mayor Bill de Blasio at a similar event
in Washington Heights in 2015 over his affordable housing policies.

She said she was surprised that the video of her exchange with Mr.
Adams went “absolutely viral,” adding that she hoped it made
people realize “how he’s more pro-landlord than any other mayor
we’ve had recently.”

The mayor prides himself on being a lifelong New Yorker; Ms.

Dubnau said she has lived here since she was 8. Her parents were
living in Germany when her mother was pregnant with her , she
said, and fearing persecution, they fled to Belgium, where she was
born in 1938, and then to France, before eventually moving to the
United States.

The testy exchange occurred at a community conversation event

called “Talk with Eric,” one in a series of appearances the mayor
has held across the city. During the panels, the mayor invites top
officials from his administration and fellow elected leaders to take
questions from the public. Wednesday’s event included
Representative Adriano Espaillat, a powerful leader in northern
Manhattan and a political ally of the mayor.

The first question came from a local community board member

who asked about housing insecurity. Mr. Adams responded that
housing was one of the top three issues in New York City, along
with public safety and the migrant crisis. He was criticizing state
lawmakers in Albany for failing to address the housing crisis
during their recent legislative session when Ms. Dubnau began to
interrupt.

Before she began to confront him, Mr. Adams argued that he does
not control the Rent Guidelines Board, which approved the rent
increases and whose members he appoints.

“I make appointments — they make the decision,” the mayor said.

“Everyone knows I don’t control the board.”

Emma G. Fitzsimmons is the City Hall bureau chief, covering politics in New York City.
She previously covered the transit beat and breaking news. @ emmagf

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Explore Our Coverage of the Adams Administration

‘Mindful Breathing’: Mayor Eric Adams announced that all public schools would
be required to offer two to five minutes of mindful breathing work during class
each day starting next fall.
Homelessness: A contentious policy the mayor rolled out in November to send
more mentally ill homeless people to hospitals has helped some move into
permanent homes .

High-Profile Departures: The resignation of Keechant Sewell the commissioner ,

of the New York Police Department, is the latest in a troubling and unusual
exodus from Adams’s administration.
Ingrid Lewis-Martin: The “fiercely loyal” mayoral adviser may be the second most
powerful person in New York City government. But her views, leadership style and
ethics have raised questions .

Tale Teller: Adams has made an art form of telling stories about himself that are
nearly impossible to verify, adding fresh details to often-told anecdotes. But when
his tendency to hyperbole strays into policy, there are more serious implications .

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