Block & Build – NYC Tenants in Co-Governance

First we are joined by New York City tenant organizer and communications expert, Ritti Singh, who recently published an article with Convergence, covering a strategy – which has been implemented in NYC tenant organizing – she calls “surround sound” communications. Then, in early 2025, a group of tenant organizers in New York City began a campaign to “Freeze the Rent”. The language and values of this campaign were adopted by then mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Now as acting mayor for five months, Mamdani has yet to fully implement a rent freeze or meet other housing goals laid out by his coalition on the campaign trail.  But the roots of progress are beginning to show. Mamdani has replaced six out of nine seats on the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, which determines city policy on rent control and more. Housing affordability was a major part of Mamdani’s platform and the project of co-governing with his coalitions to deliver on those goals is now under way. So we’ve put together a panel of tenant organizers who have been a part of this work throughout the whole process and beyond. In today’s episode we’ll explore how “freeze the rent” was part of the narrative infrastructure for Mamdani’s win, and how it has become a center of gravity for developing the practice of movement-driven co-governance in New York. //Panelists Include// Membership Coordinator of the New York State Tenant Block, Lex Rountree Communications Manager for CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities + CAAAV Voice, Irene Hsu Co-Chair of the Freeze the Rent campaign and Community Action for Safe Apartments Leader, Joanne Grell Support this show and others like it: convergencemag.com/membership