On April 15, Mayor Zohran Mamdani shot a video outside 220 Central Park South. The limestone tower is home to Ken Griffin’s $238 million, 24,000-square-foot penthouse—one of his several pricey city properties, and just a piece of the billionaire’s wide-ranging real-estate portfolio. Standing across the street, Mamdani name-checked Griffin, then tapped the camera lens for emphasis before telling his 50 million viewers that he’d campaigned on a promise to tax the rich and that, “today, we’re taxing the rich.” Specifically, he said, “the richest of the rich … those who store their wealth in New York City real estate but don’t actually live here.” With a snarky lilt, he added, “Happy Tax Day, New York!”
The video was part of Mamdani’s social-media promotion of New York governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed tax on luxury pieds-à-terre. Though details will still have to be worked out, and loopholes will likely remain, the tax targets second (and third and fourth) residences worth more than $5 million, in an attempt to shrink the city’s $5 billion budget deficit.
