Woman likened to slave owner by NYC mayor fled Nazis during WWII, is tenant advocate

New York City Mayor Eric Adams really stepped in it Wednesday after he got offended and arrogantly compared an 84-year-old white woman named Jeanie Dubnau to a plantation owner at a town hall when she grilled him over hikes on rent-controlled apartments.

Dubnau has been a tenant advocate since 1960. Her parents fled Europe to New York City to escape the Nazis and the holocaust. She is also an assistant professor of biology at Rutgers University.

The town hall took place at the Gregorio Luperon High School for Science and Mathematics in Washington Heights. Dubnau interrupted Adams during the meeting and accused him of being responsible for the Rent Guidelines Board voting to allow landlords to hike rent on rent-controlled apartments up to 6 percent.

After Adams was called out by Dubnau, he asked her to stand. She angrily addressed him, pointing her finger at the mayor over the rent increases. Adams insisted that he “does not control the [Rent] Guidelines Board.”

Dubnau wasn’t buying it and shouted at Adams, accusing him of previously supporting the rent increases.

“In Nassau [a county on Long Island], they had a 0% rent increase,” Dubnau could be heard saying. “Why, in New York City, where the real estate is controlling you, Mr. Mayor, why are we having these horrible rent increases last year and this year?”

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Adams was calm but obviously offended and incensed by the accusation, responding, “First, if you’re going to ask a question, don’t point at me, and don’t be disrespectful to me. I’m the mayor of this city and treat me with the respect that I deserve to be treated. I’m speaking to you as an adult. Don’t stand in front like you treated someone that’s on the plantation that you own.”

During the meeting, Adams admitted that he owned a three-family home in Brooklyn but claimed he’s never raised the rent on his tenants.

“I think it was a 3% recommendation,” Adams said regarding the Rent Guidelines Board determination. “I don’t control the board. I make appointments. They made the decision.”

Dubnau told the New York Post on Thursday that Adams’ response was merely “to avoid accountability for his policies. He didn’t have an answer. That was just a deflection that’s all, because he doesn’t have any answers.”

“He’s a landlord himself. He said, ‘Oh, I don’t raise the rent on my own tenants.’ Who cares about his own personal tenants? He’s raising the rents on thousands and thousands of people in New York City,” she passionately charged.

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Of note, most of those having their rents increased are the elderly and poor who can least afford it.

Dubnau asserted that the meeting was proof that Adams is “an enemy of all the rent-stabilized tenants in New York City.”

“You know, Mayor Adams is a landlord stooge and the enemy of tenants in New York City,” she spat. “He gets millions of dollars from real estate. That’s the main issue here.”

She’s not expecting an apology either.

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“Oh, he’s not going to apologize,” Dubnau said. “I mean, you know the mayor. He thinks he’s the greatest and doesn’t want to be criticized.”

Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for the former NYPD captain, defensively stated that “this administration has invested more money for housing than any in New York City history. The mayor’s comments are the mayor’s comments. We stand by the mayor’s comments.”

Dubnau’s family originally fled Germany during the terror reign of the Nazis when her mother was 8 months pregnant. She was born in Belgium in 1938 shortly after that. Her parents hid out in Belgium and France throughout World War II. They eventually made their way to New York City when she was 8 years old.

She is the chairwoman of Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood Association. Dubnau has fearlessly taken other mayors to task before, excoriating Mayor de Blasio at a 2015 town hall over an affordable housing initiative. She accused him of gentrifying the area and forcing businesses along Broadway to close down in droves.

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Dubnau is vowing to never stop going after Adams, claiming she will do it “as much as I can.”

“The reason I went was because I thought we’d have the opportunity to speak which we did not, because the meeting was completely controlled by his people,” she charged. “We have to get rid of him and the tenant movement has to be strong. I know the whole tenant movement is against him.”

Councilwoman Sandy Nurse, a Democrat who represents Brooklyn, commented that the mayor’s comments to Dubnau were “so disrespectful,” and agreed with her that Adams was accountable for the Rent Board’s decisions.

The mayor appoints the Rent Guidelines Board, so this board is a reflection of his values and his priorities,” Nurse told the New York Post in an interview. “We all get hard questions thrown at us and there are times we feel flustered and frustrated because there’s opposition to our points of view… but that’s part of governing.”

“There’s every justification for any New Yorker to enter a town hall and ask a question. Given her backstory and how much she’s been fighting for tenants and New Yorkers… it was just so disrespectful,” she remarked.

“That reaction was an overreaction, and it was very condescending,” Nurse added. “I just don’t think it was justified by any measure. I think he should apologize to her.”

Adams evidently has a racist chip on his shoulder these days. A week before this latest outrage, the mayor claimed during a press conference that there was a racially-motivated, coordinated effort to keep him from winning reelection.

“There’s a body of people who were pleased with 30 years without having a mayor that looked like me,” he claimed and then compared himself to a slave character from the novel and show “Roots.”

Just days before that abysmal claim, Adams compared press coverage of his mayorship to racial beatings, according to the New York Post.

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