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 concerning the implementation of the tax, which has roiled metropolis authorities and instructed 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 energetic litigation concerning the coverage on the agenda, she mentioned. By some means, addressing a tiny crowd below the loud expressway, the speaker was in her aspect.
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 prime 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 businesses 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 improvement supervisor.
The shorthand for her politics is “centrist,” however whereas the speaker is much away from the favored democratic socialist slate, she’s additionally not a simple ally for the actual property trade, 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 struggle their battles, although she has gone in opposition to the mayor on housing-voucher growth and bonuses for varsity paraprofessionals. Take the tax on second properties: although crucial 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 stunned the trade by embracing the premise {that a} new provide of residences will assist hold rents from rising and that personal companies may assist ship 700,000 new properties over the subsequent decade, his housing purpose. Menin has been largely conciliatory with Mamdani on the YIMBY facets 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’ll associate on that, whether or not it’s round affordability or childcare.” Menin mentioned. “When there are areas of disagreement, which occurs irrespective of who the mayor or speaker are, then we simply may need completely different approaches.”
Downtown previous, Uptown current
Menin began her profession within the non-public sector, with jobs as an lawyer at Wiley, Rein & Fielding and Colgate-Palmolive, together with the stint at Crescent Heights.
She bought married in 1999, the identical 12 months she opened Vine, the Decrease Manhattan restaurant, market and caterer, which she then steered by way 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 area people board.
The seven years she spent main Group Board 1 was a busy time for improvement throughout the district, prompting Menin to advocate for a Decrease Manhattan Building Command Heart, a brand new company that coordinated development initiatives.
“Checks and balances are a very good factor.”
“She may actually relate to what was happening with numerous the businesspeople down there,” Peter Braus, president of actual property brokerage Lee & Associates, who additionally sat on Group Board 1, mentioned. “One of many huge points with group boards is that they’re usually so NIMBY and don’t actually consider the wants of enterprise Gural, whose individuals.”
The Menins moved to the Higher East Aspect, the place they raised their 4 kids. Two college-age sons attend Harvard and Princeton; a 3rd graduated Harvard final 12 months. The posh apartment constructing she at the moment calls residence, situated a stone’s throw from Gracie Mansion, incorporates 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 retailers 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, however it additionally was once 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 trade.
Real property fixes
Menin ran for the speaker seat on a platform of reasonably priced housing, common childcare and lowering healthcare prices. Speeches touched on her expertise operating metropolis businesses. 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, operating counter to some rich neighbors’ opposition to signature Mamdani insurance policies.
That didn’t essentially fear the enterprise base.
“I feel it’s necessary to have somebody like her with all of the expertise she has, as a result of whereas Mamdani has some good concepts — clearly reasonably priced housing is necessary and earnings inequality is an issue — he doesn’t have numerous expertise,” Jeff Gural, chairman of GFP Actual Property, mentioned. “We’re all actually thrilled that Julie was voted to change into the speaker, it wasn’t straightforward.”
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 enable 35,000 new properties on properties at the moment too tiny for liveable buildings. Outdoors of actual property, she has vowed to carry insurers and different companies accountable for predatory practices, whereas looking for to supply reasonably priced alternate options, a place knowledgeable by her days in client affairs.
“These have 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 Building Trades Council of Better 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 100% move charge for Uniform Land Use Overview Process approvals, even after the dramatic modifications tied to final 12 months’s housing poll measures.
“Consensus constructing and huge coalition constructing” expertise have been helpful abilities from Menin’s toolbox to this point, she mentioned.
Throughout price range negotiations, she rallied voucher recipients and reasonably priced housing landlord teams to safe funding for a brand new HPD-run growth program.
“I’ve had numerous expertise within the non-public sector,” Menin mentioned. “I attempt to make the most of that have to tell a few of the coverage.”
That’s saying one thing in a metropolis the place, per former Partnership for New York CEO Kathy Wylde, “you can depend on one hand the variety of Council members which have had critical 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 reasonable alignment and polished look might look like anachronistic traits for essentially the most highly effective metropolis lawmaker in an period of polarization and populism.
The place earlier political leaders may flip to a well-worn playbook for messaging and outreach to town’s numerous constituents, Menin is treading rigorously amongst coalitions. She has a five-point motion plan on antisemitism that foregrounds training and safety initiatives; she makes calls to “carry 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 opponents,” each Menin and Mamdani are dedicated to seeing town thrive, based on Wylde, who met Menin in 2001 and labored carefully 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 with regards 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. In reality, she has at occasions gone the opposite course in help 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 immediately 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 is usually a good ally,” Braus mentioned. “She most likely can also be fairly sympathetic to the tenants’ facet, and I don’t suppose you actually advance in New York politics with out being somebody who’s sympathetic to the tenants’ facet.”
Again within the Bronx, below the freeway, Menin credited native Council members Kevin Riley and Oswald Feliz for his or her management on the venture of the day: the examine for 1000’s of recent properties that might come to the Tremont neighborhood, plus the brand new park. She launched The Actual Deal to Riley, her decide to chair the Council’s land-use committee, earlier than heading again to Metropolis Corridor.
“When that is all mentioned and accomplished, persons are not going to take 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!”
