"The City Screwed This Up": Judge Temporarily Blocks Mamdani's Pied-A-Terre Tax Scheme

A New York judge temporarily halted Mayor Zohran Mamdani's socialist experiment to impose a new tax on luxury second homes, ordering far-left City Hall officials to remove a controversial list doxing more than 900,000 homeowners from the public domain

The publicly accessible database exposed names, addresses, and property values, effectively creating an easily accessible targeting list for radical activists, including Luigi-worshipping far-left activists, amid City Hall's escalating war on property owners.

Related:

• "I've Been Doxed": Lefty Podcaster Scott Galloway Rips Mamdani After Landing On Socialist's Rich Target List

Bloomberg reports that Justice Wayne Ozzi temporarily restrained City Hall from proceeding with the new pied-à-terre tax and required the city to remove the online list of properties that would be targeted by the tax and halt further action based on roughly 17,000 notices mailed to property owners.

A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 31.

"The city screwed this up… got it wrong… stop the train and make them do it over," Randy Mastro, a former deputy mayor, told the court. Mastro is the one who brought the suit on behalf of three New York homeowners. 

"We are very gratified by the judge's decision, which has vindicated the rights of hundreds of thousands of New York City homeowners who were subjected to a process they never should have been a part of in the first place," Mastro said after the ruling.

On Monday, Mamdani noted Mastro's role in suits challenging his socialist housing policies. 

"You know, there are few things more certain in New York City than death, taxes and Randy Mastro filing a lawsuit against this administration," the mayor said at a press conference.

"There are a few things more certain here today than death, taxes and Randy Mastro filing a lawsuit against this administration," NYC Mayor Mamdani says when asked about the new lawsuit filed by Mastro on behalf of NYC homeowners over the rollout of the pied-à-terre tax pic.twitter.com/BTnvLPvgly

— Rebecca C. Lewis (@_rebeccaclewis) August 10, 2026

He continued, "So we look forward to vigorously defending our city's position in court as we have done so with the previous lawsuits that he has filed and I'm sure with the lawsuits that he will continue to file in the months and years to come."

Last month, Mastro also filed a separate complaint on behalf of a group of NYC landlords who sued to void a rent freeze approved in June, arguing that Mamdani improperly influenced the Rent Guidelines Board's vote and ignored evidence of soaring operating costs for landlords. This plays into the broader socialist endgame: bankrupt landlords and create conditions for City Hall to seize distressed apartment buildings. 

Mamdani has said the new pied-à-terre tax will help fund safer streets, safer schools, and "the city that New Yorkers deserve."

Yet we know socialists do not live in economic reality, and the fact that they had to dox homeowners suggests an alternative motive: they want to seize the means of production. Putting such a list out in the public domain for their radical left foot soldiers to access suggests that wealthy homeowners will be targeted. This is dangerous, especially given the rhetoric pushed by Mamdani's friend Hasan Piker, who recently said, "Kill capitalists."