Cea Weaver, the director of Zohran Mamdani’s Office to Protect Tenants, is the daughter of Celia Applegate, a professor of German studies at Vanderbilt University.
The mother of a senior aide to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani owns a high-value home in Tennessee, despite the aide having previously said that homeownership is a “weapon of white supremacy.”
Cea Weaver, the director of Mamdani’s Office to Protect Tenants, is the daughter of Celia Applegate, a professor of German studies at Vanderbilt University. Applegate owns a craftsman-style home south of Nashville that was purchased in 2012 and is now valued at more than $1.6 million. The property is approximately 3,400 square feet and includes three bedrooms and two bathrooms.
The real estate holdings have attracted scrutiny because of Weaver’s past public comments on housing and property ownership. In a 2019 social media post, Weaver wrote, “Private property including any kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy.”
Weaver has also expressed hostility toward landlords and private property more broadly. In 2024, she said the city should “seize private property” if deemed necessary, and in a 2018 post she wrote, “There is no such thing as a ‘good’ gentrifier, only people who are actively working on projects to dismantle white supremacy and capitalism and people who aren’t.”
A report by the New York Post noted that Nashville has ranked among the most gentrified cities in the United States in recent years, adding to criticism surrounding Applegate’s ownership of a high-end home in the area.
On Tuesday, Mamdani defended his decision to appoint Weaver, telling reporters, “We made the decision to have Cea Weaver serve as our executive director for the mayor’s office to protect tenants.” Weaver previously worked for the progressive advocacy group Housing Justice for All, which promotes housing as a human right. When announcing her appointment, Mamdani said Weaver would “hold landlords accountable.”
The controversy mirrors criticism Mamdani himself has faced over his personal background, including a childhood of luxury living in Manhattan and a high-end wedding in Uganda last year. Critics argue these circumstances reflect a broader pattern in which prominent socialist figures in the US have come from affluent backgrounds yet simultaneously advocate for policies hostile to wealth and private property.
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