Mamdani's anti-rent housing advisor is nepo-baby of Grammy-winning producer, now she's getting evicted

A New York City tenant activist who has helped promote Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s housing agenda is facing an eviction lawsuit while continuing to advocate for rent strikes and tenant organizing.

Tracy Rosenthal, 39, has been in a rent strike at her Brooklyn apartment for roughly four years. The building’s current owner, US Bank, is suing Rosenthal and four other tenants for eviction, alleging they have “squatted upon the premises,” according to housing court records filed in November. The cases remain pending, according to the New York Post.

Rosenthal has become closely associated with Mamdani’s housing movement. She helped organize tenants at 93 New York City buildings owned by Pinnacle Group, a campaign that resulted in repairs and millions of dollars in back rent being forgiven. Mamdani’s administration featured Rosenthal and the tenant campaign in a city-produced housing documentary released Aug. 4.

The activist’s own housing dispute began after she moved into a two-bedroom Bed-Stuy apartment in 2021. She said she discovered cockroaches shortly after moving in and became involved with other tenants after alleging the landlord refused to hire an exterminator. “As soon as I moved in, I realized that we had roaches . . . and I lost my mind,” she said. “I was very angry. . . . it’s really gross.”

Rosenthal and other tenants subsequently stopped paying rent. She said, “We’ve been on rent strike ever since.” The property’s former owner eventually lost the building through foreclosure in 2023. Rosenthal has promoted rent strikes in her 2024 book, “Abolish Rent,” and has spoken to Democratic Socialists of America chapters around the country. At a 2024 meeting, she described rent as a form of coercion. “We pay rent at the peril of our need and at the barrel of a gun,” she said.

“It’s a ransom,” she complained. “We know that if we don’t make this payment, our landlords can call on agents of state violence who can use physical force to throw us outdoors.” Rosenthal also comes from a prominent music-industry family. Her father, Steven Rosenthal, founded the Magic Shop recording studio in New York, where artists including David Bowie, the Ramones, Blondie, Lou Reed, Sonic Youth, the Foo Fighters and Coldplay recorded music.

Rosenthal attended the Grammys with her father at least twice, including in 2011 and 2023. The Brooklyn property was placed in the city’s Alternative Enforcement Program earlier this year over tenant complaints, but was removed from the program July 14 after the issues were resolved, according to a city notice.