Michael Benjamin

NY Post Editorial Bd, OpEd columnist, thought leader, blogger, former state legislator, MMA fan. #54, City & State NY Bronx Power 100. Tweets are my own.

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

https://t.co/2HSOXD1EXw

[Neetu Arnold @neetu_arnold]

NY’s own pilot program on Regents alternatives shows this is about lowering expectations

Here’s a school leader who wants alternatives like projects “because taking a test like that is hard for them”

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

@neetu_arnold An anonymous quote is a typical @NYSEDNews & Bd of Regents dodge. Everyone should know who'd make such a foolish statement.

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

@JCPolancoNYC @BklynDin King Roaster

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

@MrMichaelGerman @SportsPatriotUS Mothers don't raise your sons to be punks.

[Kenny Burgos @KennyBurgosNY]

Follow up on this story — 14 out of the 15 properties in the auction block received NO BID

Nobody wants to own these buildings. How can anyone believe this is a policy that works in the tenants favor?

The tenants are sitting in limbo while violations pile up and now their landlord is a bank. And the last thing the bank wants is to own and operate these buildings.

But greatest tenant protection ever passed in NY, ammirite?

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

Playing the Soul Stirrers feat. Sam Cooke on this Remembrance Day/Veterans Day. 🙏💕🇺🇸🇬🇧🇨🇦

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

Afrikaner gonna Afrikaner @MonaDavids @LittleAfricaUS

[New York Post @nypost]

Why Olympic champion initially gave up swimming before shockingly switching countries https://t.co/fJ1v7zBKA1

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

@RobGeorge @EjmEj

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

@CharmianNeary The corruption voters voted against last week.

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

@jaymart222 Keep 'em coming, Jay.

[Jay Martin 🪾 @jaymart222]

I mean this with complete respect. The Mayor works in propaganda the way Rembrandt worked in oils.

COPA is perfectly designed to enrage people who fear a government takeover of private property, while elating people who think government can solve a math problem that public housing has already proven it can't.

Neither is correct.

COPA isn't new. DC has had a version since 1980, and other cities have tried it since. It never scaled. NYC's version is even narrower, and it faces the same hurdle.

Money.

Bad actors sometimes own housing. Owning cheap housing isn't what makes them bad actors. Plenty of good actors own cheap housing, and their buildings are dying too.

When housing is regulated to death, a bad actor diverts what little money there is to themselves instead of the building. But good owner or bad, the result is eventually the same.
Why?

Because when a building costs more to run than it collects in rent, the math is broken. That's the case for a third of NYC's rent-stabilized housing, roughly 40 times what COPA will touch in a year.

Making taxpayers cover the gap through nonprofits and tenant unions doesn't fix the math. It just buries it in costs the government covers by making everyone else's housing more expensive.

This isn't Red Vienna. More like Viennetta.

Sweet, fattening, and ultimately a cheap imitation of the real thing.

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

@revrubendiaz @JCats2013 @OswaldDenis5 @LattinaBrown @cafecitobreak @ErickSalgadoNYC @NY1 @CurtisSliwa @DominicTV @ccampy @melissadderosa Thank you for your service to our nation.

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

@karol Thanks

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

In Alaska Senate race, ex-Rep. Mary Peltola expanded her narrow lead over the incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan, with 49% of the vote to his 47.2%, surpassing the combined Dan Sullivan votes. https://t.co/2pu8SrWPni

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

@JonCampbellNY Have we no principles that we are willing to defend in the Age of MAGA & its as evil twin, DSA?

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

@CharmianNeary He can't lose what he never earned with me.

[Michael Benjamin @SquarePegDem]

@DavidFBrand 👍✊🏽free market!