Treat small landlords as business owners

Bronx: With one breath, Mayor Mamdani extols small business as the backbone of the city, yet he goes on the attack against small businesses — which is what small landlords are. The hypocrisy is stunning, and frightening.

When small businesses must absorb rising costs in the 10-20% range and can’t raise prices, their ability to make a profit shrinks dramatically. There comes a time when businesspeople say to themselves, “It’s time to close up shop.” It happens all the time. Look at the empty storefronts around this city. It’s no different for small landlords. When this happens, the city becomes the landlord, and the tax base the landlords were contributing to stops coming. It’s a double hit on the public. Someone in the Mamdani administration should look at what happened in the 1970s and ’80s when the city became the largest landlord in the five boroughs. It wasn’t pretty, and it was particularly bad for tenants. The city doesn’t know how to run buildings.

Be careful what you wish for, Mamdani & Co. In the end, it’s very likely that the tenants you claim to represent will bear the brunt of your ideology and decisions. You’ve already abandoned the many small landlords that are the small businesses you so glibly call the “backbone of the economy.” Be careful they don’t abandon you. It’s been done before and it brought this city to its knees.

Bronx: Re “Rent Board resignation” (June 26): On his way out, Mayor Eric Adams appointed this pro-landlord person. When the going gets tough for landlords, she abruptly resigns. Maybe she knows that many are bleeding their........

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