Beneath the roaring Cross Bronx Expressway, on the under-attended announcement of a examine for 10,000 potential new properties, Speaker Julie Menin was not anticipating to discipline any queries from the press.
The day earlier than, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration introduced it wouldn’t ship anybody to testify in person at a Metropolis Council oversight listening to on the pied-à-terre tax rollout. Requested in regards to the implementation of the tax, which has roiled metropolis authorities and recommended in a single day political realignments, Menin was fast to contradict the mayor’s rationale: Mamdani mentioned authorized issues prevented his administration from attending. Previous mayors had gone earlier than the Metropolis Council even throughout lively litigation in regards to the coverage on the agenda, she mentioned. In some way, addressing a tiny crowd underneath the loud expressway, the speaker was in her component.
Menin, who has represented the Higher East Aspect on the Council since 2022, ascended to the position of speaker after unanimously profitable in January, beating progressive contender Crystal Hudson. The primary Jewish lawmaker within the high seat, the speaker’s background consists of private-sector and nonprofit work, in addition to management at a group board and a number of metropolis companies throughout Mayor Invoice de Blasio’s administration. She is married to developer Bruce Menin, co-founder and principal at Crescent Heights, the place she as soon as labored as a growth supervisor.
The shorthand for her politics is “centrist,” however whereas the speaker is way away from the favored democratic socialist slate, she’s additionally not a simple ally for the actual property business, nor a dependable foil for the mayor’s less palatable (to them) positions. Menin would possibly know builders extra intimately than most, however she isn’t going to combat their battles, although she has gone towards the mayor on housing-voucher enlargement and bonuses for varsity paraprofessionals. Take the tax on second properties: although vital of the administration skipping the listening to, she known as it a “sensible, wise proposal” when it was introduced.
Politics could make unusual bedfellows, and since his marketing campaign, the mayor has shocked the business by embracing the premise {that a} new provide of flats will assist hold rents from rising and that non-public corporations might assist ship 700,000 new properties over the following decade, his housing aim. Menin has been largely conciliatory with Mamdani on the YIMBY points of his platform.
She maintains her independence vis-à-vis the mayor, refusing to be understood as his reverse pole. “Checks and balances,” she mentioned, “are a very good factor.”
That has meant sidestepping any direct confrontation with Mamdani over his concept to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, focusing extra on Council initiatives she launched to handle antisemitism.
“When there are areas of alignment with the administration, clearly we are going to companion on that, whether or not it’s round affordability or childcare.” Menin mentioned. “When there are areas of disagreement, which occurs regardless of who the mayor or speaker are, then we simply may need totally different approaches.”
Downtown previous, Uptown current
Menin began her profession within the non-public sector, with jobs as an legal professional at Wiley, Rein & Fielding and Colgate-Palmolive, together with the stint at Crescent Heights.
She acquired married in 1999, the identical 12 months she opened Vine, the Decrease Manhattan restaurant, market and caterer, which she then steered by means of post-9/11 challenges. This entrepreneurial expertise was formative, she has mentioned. She went on to discovered nonprofit Wall Road Rising and lead the local people board.
The seven years she spent main Neighborhood Board 1 was a busy time for growth throughout the district, prompting Menin to advocate for a Decrease Manhattan Development Command Middle, a brand new company that coordinated building initiatives.
“Checks and balances are a very good factor.”
“She might actually relate to what was happening with a whole lot of the businesspeople down there,” Peter Braus, president of actual property brokerage Lee & Associates, who additionally sat on Neighborhood Board 1, mentioned. “One of many huge points with group boards is that they’re usually so NIMBY and don’t actually take note of the wants of enterprise Gural, whose folks.”
The Menins moved to the Higher East Aspect, the place they raised their 4 youngsters. Two college-age sons attend Harvard and Princeton; a 3rd graduated Harvard final 12 months. The luxurious apartment constructing she at present calls residence, positioned a stone’s throw from Gracie Mansion, encompasses a porte-cochère, a spa and a wine cellar. She additionally brings a decidedly UES aesthetic to the position of speaker, donning energy fits, heels and meticulous blow-outs.
Within the present political panorama, each information shops and on-line commenters name out the couple’s wealth. Over the summer time, a Metropolis & State article a few airplane owned not directly by Bruce Menin made the rounds on social media.The jet, registered to a Crescent Heights- linked LLC, was not solely non-public, nevertheless it additionally was a CIA airplane that transported suspects to “black websites.”
Menin has emphasised that she isn’t concerned in her husband’s enterprise dealings and tends to distance herself from the actual property business.
Real property fixes
Menin ran for the speaker seat on a platform of inexpensive housing, common childcare and decreasing healthcare prices. Speeches touched on her expertise working metropolis companies. Because the well-heeled consultant of one of many metropolis’s wealthiest districts, she additionally supported free buses and was early to reward the pied-à-terre tax, working counter to some rich neighbors’ opposition to signature Mamdani insurance policies.
That didn’t essentially fear the enterprise base.
“I feel it’s vital to have somebody like her with all of the expertise she has, as a result of whereas Mamdani has some good concepts — clearly inexpensive housing is vital and earnings inequality is an issue — he doesn’t have a whole lot of expertise,” Jeff Gural, chairman of GFP Actual Property, mentioned. “We’re all actually thrilled that Julie was voted to grow to be the speaker, it wasn’t simple.”
Menin has pushed to construct housing atop the city’s public libraries and to revamp their services. She can also be engaged on a small lots code reform program that might permit 35,000 new properties on properties at present too tiny for liveable buildings. Exterior of actual property, she has vowed to carry insurers and different companies accountable for predatory practices, whereas looking for to supply inexpensive alternate options, a place knowledgeable by her days in client affairs.
“These had been new concepts, and that’s what’s so thrilling about them,” Menin mentioned.
She shaped the Advisory Group on Housing Affordability, enlisting co-chairs Gary LaBarbera of the Constructing and Development Trades Council of Higher New York, Barika Williams of Affiliation for Neighborhood and Housing Improvement and James H. Simmons III, CEO and founding father of Asland Capital Companions.
In her eight months on the helm, the Council has had a one hundred pc go price for Uniform Land Use Evaluate Process approvals, even after the dramatic adjustments tied to final 12 months’s housing poll measures.
“Consensus constructing and huge coalition constructing” expertise have been helpful expertise from Menin’s toolbox up to now, she mentioned.
Throughout funds negotiations, she rallied voucher recipients and inexpensive housing landlord teams to safe funding for a brand new HPD-run enlargement program.
“I’ve had a whole lot of expertise within the non-public sector,” Menin mentioned. “I attempt to make the most of that have to tell a number of the coverage.”
That’s saying one thing in a metropolis the place, per former Partnership for New York CEO Kathy Wylde, “you might rely on one hand the variety of Council members which have had severe enterprise careers.”
Not fairly ‘Kumbaya’
After Menin led the passage of the $10,000 one-time bonus for paraprofessionals, Mamdani in August sued the Council for circumventing the collective bargaining course of.
Peace, in different phrases, is elusive. Menin’s average alignment and polished look might appear to be anachronistic traits for probably the most highly effective metropolis lawmaker in an period of polarization and populism.
The place earlier political leaders might flip to a well-worn playbook for messaging and outreach to the town’s various constituents, Menin is treading fastidiously amongst coalitions. She has a five-point motion plan on antisemitism that foregrounds training and safety initiatives; she makes calls to “convey the temperature down” after hate incidents.
“Bodily well being of the constructing follows the monetary well being.”
Regardless of their generational variations and positioning as “political rivals,” each Menin and Mamdani are dedicated to seeing the town thrive, in keeping with Wylde, who met Menin in 2001 and labored intently along with her on 9/11 restoration and has additionally served as an advisor to the mayor and member of his Fee on Authorities Effectivity.
“When it comes to primary agenda, I feel they’re very a lot on the identical web page relating to coverage points.” Wylde mentioned. “She understands enterprise and actual property, she has a very good sense of what makes it work and what doesn’t, however I’ve by no means seen her tip the scales. The truth is, she has at instances gone the opposite course in assist of unions and group pursuits.”
Actual property gamers appear to agree that she has a greater sense of their priorities than most lawmakers, even when that savvy isn’t straight informing the insurance policies she champions on the Council. Gural, whose grandson works for the speaker as a private assistant, cites her position serving to to rebuild Decrease Manhattan for exhibiting Menin firsthand how actual property works.
“She’s an amazing pal to have for individuals who personal property or who work on this enterprise, I feel she could be a good ally,” Braus mentioned. “She most likely can also be fairly sympathetic to the tenants’ aspect, and I don’t suppose you actually advance in New York politics with out being somebody who’s sympathetic to the tenants’ aspect.”
Again within the Bronx, underneath the freeway, Menin credited native Council members Kevin Riley and Oswald Feliz for his or her management on the challenge of the day: the examine for 1000’s of latest properties that might come to the Tremont neighborhood, plus the brand new park. She launched The Actual Deal to Riley, her choose to chair the Council’s land-use committee, earlier than heading again to Metropolis Corridor.
“When that is all mentioned and performed, individuals are not going to have a look at this and say, ‘Hey it was the Council that did this and the admin didn’t do that,’” Riley mentioned. “No, we’re working collectively!”
