cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/15780
Former Federal Trade Commission chair and antitrust trailblazer Lina Khan is reportedly poring over New York City’s laws to help Democratic Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani fulfill the central promise of his campaign: making the metropolis more affordable.
According to the New York Times, Khan—in her capacity as co-chair of the mayor-elect’s transition team—“has spent weeks scouring New York City’s laws to find dormant or underused mayoral authority that could allow Mr. Mamdani to take action in a hurry.”
Potential actions “include specific attempts to drive down apartment rental fees and utility costs and compel businesses to be more transparent about pricing,” as well as “dusting off a little-used 1960s price-gouging statute and policing new protections for food delivery workers,” the Times reported, citing three unnamed people familiar with internal discussions.
As head of the FTC under former President Joe Biden, Khan took groundbreaking legal action against major corporations such as Amazon and, in the words of one antitrust advocacy group, “reinvigorated enforcement of the Robinson-Patman Act, a long-dormant law designed to prevent price discrimination by big corporations, through two separate cases against PepsiCo and Southern Glazer’s—major victories for smaller and independent businesses.”
Khan, according to the Times, hopes to spur similar action in New York City. Members of her team, which includes former federal regulators, have “studied a 1969 consumer protection law meant to prohibit ‘unconscionable’ business tactics, to potentially target hospitals and sports stadiums where consumers typically have little choice but to pay high prices for products that are cheaper elsewhere.”
Additionally, the newspaper reported, “they have looked at whether food delivery companies, which wield significant power in the city, are complying with laws that protect their drivers, and whether landlords are complying with a newly enacted law barring many real estate brokers from collecting thousands of dollars in fees.”
Douglas Farrar, a spokesman for Khan, told the Times that the former FTC chair and her team have “worked closely” with the Mamdani transition “to provide key research support on ideas for hitting the ground running.”
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
Shit man the main thing I liked about this guy was that months ago his team was claiming to have gamed this all out. Not impressive to have already been outmaneuvered by Adams, who just re-upped the terms of his placements on the rent guideline board. (This apparently unanticipated?) The tone of the article is very friendly and doesn’t indicate having asked any obvious questions. Like why, when you are are taking power in less than 1 week, are you just now getting to investigating obscure legal justifications with which to implement your platform?
I don’t know what anybody is expecting to find in laws nobody has heard of since the 1960s. Who’s going to enforce those laws? Lina Khan can’t do it by herself.
It’s ok to let off the despair button. He is not in office yet. They are not hurting anyone by doing this. Adams’ appointments are not under the new admin’s control. Opposition is to be expected.
Please please. Please give me hope.
Hexbears take Manhattan when?
Hell even if making Manhattan affordable remains a pipe dream just making Brooklyn and Queens affordable again would be great
somewhere in the undercarriage there is a special button that will make the orphan-grinding machine require 10% less orphans!
