‘Greedy Jewish Landlords’ Are Problem: New York Council Candidate

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky

Image by Twitter
Blasting “greedy Jewish landlords” for their “ethnic cleansing” of black and Hispanic renters, Thomas Lopez-Pierre is mounting a bid for New York City Council.
The district he’s running in takes in parts of the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights and Washington Heights – areas that contain large Jewish populations.
“Jewish Landlords … are at the forefront of ethnic cleansing/pushing Black/Hispanic tenants out of their apartments,” Lopez-Pierre writes on his Web site.
He will face district incumbent Mark Levine in this fall’s Democratic primary, which is decisive in choosing who will occupy the seat. Lopez-Pierre is currently angling to raise enough money to secure $100,000 in matching funds from New York City, and he claims to have raised more than half the necessary amount.
This isn’t Lopez-Pierre’s first brush with notoriety. Back in 2013, when he initially faced Levine, he said his rival wanted “to sneak into office like a thief in the night.” Previously, he attempted to found a social club in Harlem that would only admit rich black and Latino men and attractive women of color.
He said at the time: “I want it all, and I got it all. There are men who want the same.”
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story.
But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking. All while we keep you informed of what you need to know each day.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Forward Publisher & CEO
