What in tarnation is a "pied-à-terre tax," you may wonder? The most practical answer: punishment for success. And when socialist regimes want to punish success, they make sure everyone knows who they're targeting.
When Zohran Mamdani and Kathy Hochul first rolled out their pied-à-terre tax proposal, they both claimed it to be reasonable and limited to the wealthiest New Yorkers. The tax applies to non-primary residences within New York City, second homes bought by those who can afford to spend money in the Big Apple. In its proposed form, both Mamdani and Hochul estimated a modest tax roll of around 31,000 properties, the New York Post noted late yesterday.
Instead, the city just doxed nearly a million homeowners with a public list for class-warfare activists to use as a battle plan:
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has published a searchable database of Big Apple properties that could fall under the state’s new pied-à-terre tax, effectively doxxing thousands of wealthy New Yorkers.
The city’s Department of Finance uploaded the comprehensive list – which purports to cover all unoccupied, non-primary residences in the five boroughs worth north of $1 million – including the full names and addresses of every property owner.
“It’s a reckless and foolish move, especially considering there are potentially thousands of properties on this list that do not qualify as second homes or whose owners will successfully dispute their inclusion,” Council Minority Leader David Carr (R-Staten Island) — whose own home appears on the list — told The Post Monday.
For those wondering, "pied-à-terre" literally means "foot on the ground." Mamdani and his socialists want to punish people for spending their capital in their city. Some of these properties may be investment properties, such as normal rentals or short-term Airbnb-style venues that also bring more commerce to the city. Some may be vacation homes that either bring or keep the homeowners and their cash in the Big Apple. These homes likely already have a higher property tax rate as non-primary residences. A pied-à-terre tax is simply punitive.
And it's a lot more punitive than Mamdani and Hochul suggested, too. Who are the targets for this socialist assault on the bourgeoisie? A few useful idiots are included:
Unsurprisingly, the colossal database of names and addresses included several A-list New Yorkers, including director Woody Allen, longtime Vogue editor Anna Wintour and actress Cynthia Nixon — a loyal Mamdani supporter.
Oopsie! That is hardly the only surprise targeting by the socialist regime at Gracie Mansion, however. Mamdani's target list is both large and fiscally diverse, showing the kind of flexibility socialists usually have when it comes to defining bourgeois:
Citywide, The Post counted over 960,000 residences and individuals listed as potentially in line to be hit with Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax, even though just 31,000 homes were supposed to be subjected to the new levy as he and Hochul initially sold it to the public.
Many of the homes included in the database appeared to be misaligned with a tax aimed at well-heeled residents with multi-million dollar vacation homes, including some two dozen modest homes on Chaffee Avenue in working-class Throggs Neck in the Bronx.Challenger Drive on Staten Island was another middle-class enclave with dozens of addresses appearing on Mamdani’s list, though it wasn’t clear that they were in fact second homes.
The average home values on Chaffee Avenue and Challenger Drive ranged from mid-$500,000s to the low $800,000s — a far cry from the price tag of your average New York summer residence.
A working-class neighborhood in the Bronx? The deuce you say. Has the famously working-class socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoken up to defend her constituents? Perhaps she is also defining bourgeois downward as well, although one has to wonder what both AOC and Mamdani think of their mentor Bernie "Three Houses" Sanders these days.
As for the doxxing, the Mamdani regime claims that they are required to identify properties that may be subject to a change in tax policy. That law does not require the taxing authority to disclose the names of the owners, however, and it's pretty clear to everyone what Mamdani intended with his doxxing:
Steven Fulop, president and CEO of the Partnership for NYC, a nonprofit business advocacy group, called it “a mistake, and a dangerous precedent.”
“Publishing names and addresses singles out people who have done nothing wrong, at a moment when the far-left already treats success itself as something to be punished,” Fulop said.
A dangerous precedent? Definitely. A "mistake"? Definitely not. Mamdani and his allies in the Democratic Socialists of America want a revolution from the Left that will dispossess even the arguably bourgeoisie of Throggs Neck in the Bronx. The doxxing provides a handy list of targets for activists, loci of intimidation campaigns no more subtle than Mamdani's earlier doxxing of Citadel CEO Ken Griffin for a "tax the rich" video in April.
Mamdani and the socialists want property owners to fear him and his regime. This is just the first salvo in the DSA revolution in America's greatest capital market. Don't be surprised if capital takes this as a signal to move where it is more valued, especially before it gets confiscated on behalf of the "proletariat."
Editor’s Note: New York City is now facing the consequences of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist takeover.
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