Happy Friday in New York City, where Mayor Frozone has found his supersuit (if you don’t get that reference, please pause what you’re doing and go watch “The Incredibles” immediately).
After a year of pushing to freeze rents on NYC’s roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, Mayor Zohran Mamdani took his most significant step toward victory yesterday when the Rent Guidelines Board — the independent board that annually determines how much landlords can raise rents on stabilized apartments — voted to advance proposed rent increases of 0% to 2% for one-year leases and 0% to 4% for two-year leases, with final rates to be decided later in June.
It may not sound like much, but this preliminary vote keeps the rent freeze alive and reflects serious consideration among the Board’s majority. It is only the third time in the last decade that the RGB has left the door open for a rent freeze on one-year leases, and the first time they’ve ever considered one for two-year leases.
The RGB will host a series of public hearings over the following weeks before convening for a final vote in late June. Any increase within the approved range is on the table, but the political math is hard to ignore: six of the nine members of the Board were appointed by Mamdani.
Though careful not to explicitly call on the RGB to freeze the rent, Mamdani has made his preferences clear.
“New Yorkers are being crushed by the cost of living, and they need real relief,” Mamdani said in a statement. “I’m encouraged to see the Board taking seriously the data around affordability, operating expenses, and the pressures facing both tenants and small property owners as it sets this preliminary range.”
It remains to be seen whether the RGB will follow through on Mamdani’s vision, but for rent-stabilized tenants hoping for relief, the forecast just got a few degrees colder.
Two separate community forums with NY-10’s Democratic congressional candidates, incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman and former comptroller Brad Lander, are set to take place in Carroll Gardens over the next two weeks.
Today is the deadline to submit comments on the Brooklyn Marine Terminal’s Draft Scope of Work, used to develop a project’s consequential Environmental Impact Statement.
Teresa Hennigan, a fourth-grade teacher at Bay Ridge Catholic Academy, received the Educators Inspiring a Generation Award on Thursday from the New York State Senate.
UOVO Prize winner Keisha Scarville is set to unveil an outdoor art installation today at the Brooklyn Museum that draws from her family history.
Junior’s Restaurant and Bakery, known for its famous cheesecake, and the Brooklyn cult classic Other Half Brewing partnered up on a line of four unique, limited-edition dessert-inspired beers.
Our World In Photos
Photo: John McCarten/Brooklyn Eagle
BROOKLYN NAVY YARD — Celebrated artists supporting Brooklyn Youth Chorus: Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan, a Brooklynite, joined French-American jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant as honorees at the Thursday night gala for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Though Egan won her Pulitzer Prize for “A Visit from the Goon Squad,” her award-winning novel “Manhattan Beach” was set largely in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, just a few blocks from her home.
For more pictures like this, see Our World in Photos.
State Sen. Chan celebrates this year’s ‘Woman of Distinction’ in Albany
State Sen. Steve Chan with this year’s Woman of Distinction honoree for District 17 Marina Cassiliano. Photo: State Sen. Steve Chan’s office
Marina Cassiliano, the director of operations at Our Lady of Guadalupe Roman Catholic Church, received the 2026 Woman of Distinction honors for District 17 from the New York State Senate during a ceremony in Albany on May 5.
The Woman of Distinction award celebrates individuals who demonstrate exceptional leadership, compassion and dedication to their communities. Each year, the New York State Senate recognizes outstanding women from across the state whose contributions have made a lasting and meaningful impact.
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By Pat Bagley
For the Road
Propaganda Pamphlets: “Office of War Information (O.W.I.),” a new interactive exhibition about American war propaganda, opens at Pioneer Works in Red Hook on Friday. The public opening reception will be from 7 to 9 p.m. The show builds on materials that Khajistan, a New York-based archive and publishing platform, along with filmmaker and archivist Saad Khan and Joey Chriqui, have gathered for the past four years. Learn more.
Happy Birthday to “King of Latin Pop” Enrique Iglesias!
On This Day in 1932, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The Metropolitan Museum in a preliminary announcement notifying the press that a special exhibition of women’s costumes would open tomorrow gravely questioned whether women’s dress was subject for a special exhibition in a so-called fine arts museum.”
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