02 U.S. Politics

New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani is facing widespread criticism after his administration on Monday published a searchable database identifying wealthy property owners who may be subject to the city’s pied-à-terre tax. The administration says the database is intended to promote transparency. Critics, however, argue it effectively “doxxes” property owners by making them easier to identify and locate, unnecessarily exposing them to harassment, vandalism, and even potential acts of violence.

Mamdani is also drawing criticism for including properties valued between $1 million and $5 million in the database, despite repeatedly promoting the pied-à-terre tax as applying only to properties worth $5 million or more. As it turns out, that was part of the plan — which I’ll return to shortly.

The Department of Finance’s online database allows anyone to search properties and access the names and addresses of owners whose non-primary residences could be affected by the proposed tax.

A Department of Finance spokesperson told Fox News that state law required the publication of the property assessment roll: “As per State law, a property roll was released for public inspection. From this list, DOF will identify properties that may be subject to the new non-primary residence property surcharge.”

It’s true that property records have long been public. Even so, aggregating the city’s most expensive properties into a single, searchable database that anyone can access strikes me as dangerous. There’s no shortage of bad actors who could exploit such a list for nefarious purposes, from political targeting to criminal activity.

Zohran Mamdani has released the names and addresses of everyone who owns a second home in New York City valued at $1 million or more. This doxxing of “the rich” provides burglars and kidnappers with the identities and locations of some 960,000 wealthy NYC visitors. It’s worth…

— Bob Lonsberry (@BobLonsberry) July 28, 2026

The New York Post editorial board called the database Mamdani’s “enemies of the people” list and asked why no one at City Hall stopped this “amateur-hour idiocy?”

Because the Democratic Socialist crew is obsessed with naming and shaming their “class enemies”: As national DSA co-chair Megan Romer explained on Fox News Sunday, “We will win by making conditions so intolerable to the ruling class that they would rather give in to our demands than live with the disturbance we cause.”