Item — HN Reader

The NYC Mayor’s Office publishing a list of real estate owners impacted by a publicly communicated and recently enacted tax is wrong? I find that incredibly hard to believe as a proponent of open and transparent government. My property valuations are public record, my property taxes due on those properties is public record, any exemptions are public record. This is a sql query, not a witch hunt. Should they hide the data instead? The data is already public.

I’m not in NYC, nor exposed to this tax, but I still support it, even if my name was in the dataset.

1 comments

What do you think the purpose of introducing a new public tool to access the data is?

Immigration status and home address is "public information" for anyone involved in the criminal court system. How do you feel if Steven Miller or the Trump Administration created a new app to easily look up the home address of any immigrant Flagged in those systems.

One might even accuse them of doxing for political purposes

A bit of a stretch to compare an authoritarian enabling his white nationalist and supremacist supporters to harass and harm a vulnerable population vs property tax collection, no? No shared ground if you believe our examples are equivalent. Leftists aren’t going to round up the wealthy in concentration camps, pulled off the street with no recourse. The ask is simply to pay the slightly more taxes being asked, from the wealthiest who can absolutely afford it.

What do you think the point of the tool was?

To demonstrate who is funding the promises made, and that it could be done. What do you think the point was?

I dont get that... So that his base could send their thank you cards or what?

Jump covered my intuitions.

Edit. I would add it reads like an imitation reminder. Kind of like the mob stopping by your kids school for a friendly hello.

E.g. "Nothing gonna happen, but it sure would be a shame if you didnt play ball and someone got upset."

> What do you think the point was?

Vilification. Why was Mamdani TikToking in front of Griffin’s mansion before? It plays well with an angry base. Same goes for right-wing folks who will give you a tool to find likely DSA-voting neighbours.

The base should be angry about the current level of wealth inequality. If you think they shouldn't, perhaps you are not poor and disenfranchised enough, with no disrespect for the luck you've had achieving the level of wealth you have obtained. Griffin is a villain imho, so I see no problem with calling a spade a spade. To not be a villain is easy, it is a choice to remain one.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-wealth-gap-widest-in-three-d...

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-workers-just-took-home-2140...

https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distr...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_Unite...

(i realize this is a subjective, philosophical topic on "what is enough" and "how much unelected power should people have via incredible wealth" that we may simply disagree on)

> base should be angry about the current level of wealth inequality

Sure. This is the same argument MAGA makes. You can be angry without targeting innocent Americans. (And unless you’re solely playing to your base, this is how you turn anger into policy.)

> Griffin is a villain imho

So charge him. Tax him. Performative histrionics don’t do any of that.

I also think the Griffin stunt didn’t look great, but is fine because Griffin is a dick and can afford private security. I don’t think anyone looked at the list Mamdani just published, it’s just fodder. Again, analogous to how publishing names and addresses of likely DSA supporters would be. Legal. But also a thinly-veiled threat.

We need leaders to rise to the current anger at our political and economic system. I thought Mamdani might show that way. I was wrong.