Over the weekend, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban gave New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D-N.Y.) a shoutout for his social media game after the mayor's office dropped a creative video announcing a rent freeze for roughly one million rent-stabilized apartments.
Cuban shared the video on X, where Mamdani used a freezer as a visual metaphor to explain the city's rent freeze, and applauded its execution.
"Social media is an important skill. He nails it. Will the policy work? Does it really matter?" Cuban wrote.
The praise came after New York City's Rent Guidelines Board voted 7-1 to freeze rent increases on one- and two-year leases for approximately one million rent-stabilized apartments, as reported last week.
The measure fulfills one of Mamdani's signature campaign pledges and applies to apartments in qualifying buildings covered under the city's rent-stabilization rules.
"This is a historic victory for New York City tenants," Mamdani said in a statement. "This is the relief that working people across our city deserve."
The mayor has also argued that his administration plans to increase housing supply by accelerating affordable housing construction, saying the city is using "every possible tool" to address its housing shortage.
But the decision has sparked criticism. Christina Smyth, a landlord representative on the Rent Guidelines Board, resigned shortly before the vote, arguing that the outcome had effectively been decided in advance.
In her resignation letter, she wrote, "The rebuilt board was required to deliver a rent freeze. Everything since has been theater."
City Hall rejected those claims, maintaining that the Rent Guidelines Board operates independently.
Critics of the freeze have also warned that limiting rent increases could strain smaller landlords and contribute to higher rents in the city's unregulated housing market.
