Longtime Uptown Tenants Advocate Spars With Mayor: 'Defending Tenants'

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — Mayor Eric Adams and a longtime tenants rights advocate — reportedly a survivor of the Holocaust — entered into a shouting match Wednesday night when she demanded answers about New York City rents and he demanded respect.

"I'm the mayor of this city and treat me with the respect I deserve to be treated," Adams said. "Don't stand in front like you're treating someone on a plantation that you own."

Jeanie Dubnau, who has fought for tenants rights with the Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood Association for 63 years starting in 1960, told Patch she felt Adams had deftly deflected from the point that matters.

"I don’t want to be deflected away from the main issues, which is not what he said or I said," Dubnau told Patch Thursday. "The main issue is what he’s doing to harm tenants."

The heated debate began at Gregorio Luperon High School at 501 W. 165th St., where Adams was joined by a smattering of other elected officials to speak to uptown residents about the city's leading issues.

Roughly 15-minutes in, Dubnau became frustrated at the lack of opportunity for attendees to ask questions, and demanded to know why the mayor had "raised the rent," video of the event shows.

Adams responded by telling to Dubnau to stand up and make her point.

Dubnau was referring to the controversial decision from the Rent Guidelines Board to approve 3.25 percent rent increases in controlled and stabilized units.

The board — appointed but not controlled by Adams — has since faced fierce criticism from housing advocates who say it imperils tenants unable to keep up with staggering New York City rents.

New York City rents have continued to "shatter records" where, in Manhattan, the median rent in June was $4,000 a month, according to a recent recent Zumper report.

"This is about defending the rights of tenants and opposing the policies of the mayor," Debrau said.

"We need to focus on Mayor Adams having caused these recent rent increases from the Rent Guidelines Board. Not only does he appoint members, but we know very well that the mayors always control what they do.”

Adams disagreed.

The mayor fired back, pointing to his tenants in his Bed-Stuy building, whom he said have not seen rent increases, and said he also felt sympathy for Brooklyn brownstone owners fighting off gentrification and struggling to pay bills.

The mayor ultimately argued he had no power over the nine-member board, composed of two tenant representatives, two owner representatives and five representatives of the general public.

"The Rent Guidelines Board is tasked with making difficult decisions based on hard data, and balancing the need to protect tenants with the need to provide small property owners — who have seen expenses go up by the most in two decades — with the revenue they need to make repairs and protect our housing stock," a spokesperson from the mayor's office told Patch.

Terms last between two and four years.

"I don't control the board," Adams said.

"You said, before and after that you supported those rent increases," Dubrau responded, jabbing her finger in the mayor's direction. "The real estate is controlling you Mr. Mayor."

That's when Adams decided he'd had enough.

"Treat me with the same level of respect I'm treating you," Adams said.

"Don't be pointing at me, don't be disrespecting me, speak with me as an adult because I'm a grown man."

Adams then told moderators to move the questions along, but the debate continued on social media Thursday with New Yorkers speaking out to defend both Debrau and Adams.

Adams supporters said he was right to demand to the respect his office entails.

Juan Rosa spoke out for Dubnau, whom he argued was speaking out against an elected official to defend the rights of New York tenants, as she's done for decades.