Isn’t that rich!
Tone-deaf former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger papered her luxe Upper West Side building with flyers pushing radical “tax the rich” socialist Zohran Mamdani and other lefty candidates — horrifying her well-heeled neighbors.
Residents of 91 Central Park West — a preeminent 15-story, 92-unit pre-war gem overlooking Central Park where fashion icon Giorgio Armani once lived in the $18.5 million penthouse — discovered the campaign literature in their mailboxes “at least” three times over the last week.
“We believe he [Mamdani] is most strongly committed to making New York more affordable and fairer,” reads the shameless flyer signed by Messinger, 84, and fellow Dem, ex-Assemblyman Richard Gottfried.
“The forces lined up against him include those closest to Trump and supporters of excessive development in our community,” pleaded the appeal to vote for the radical socialist — who has said billionaires shouldn’t exist.
“It would take a longer letter to outline our concerns about his main opponent, Andrew Cuomo,” they wrote to neighbors in the building, which was once home to actor Liam Neeson and publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, and where Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe lives.
The leaflets ticked off places to vote, and all of Messinger and Gottfried’s preferred lefty candidates, apparently judged on the basis of who will do the “best job of standing up to Trump.”
Residents were in an uproar over the duo’s chutzpah.
“It’s weird, stupid, insulting and angering,” one self-described Democrat in the building fumed.
“They didn’t say why they’re supporting him — just that there’s some evil conspiracy against him and that we should support him as a result,” ripped the tenant. “It’s disgusting.”
And also clueless, given the tax bracket of the tenants.
“How much do you want to tax the rich before they get out of town?” the resident wondered. People pay a lot of taxes — real estate tax, this tax, that tax — at the end of the day, how much tax is enough?”
The progressive pair also backed soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, arguing that he’s “currently our district attorney” — an unpersuasive argument that the resident found “insulting.”
Another neighbor called it “proselytizing.”
“You’re not supposed to do that,” the person told The Post.
In a charged response, the building’s managing agent issued its own letter blasting the inappropriate “distribution of political materials within the building” to promote “personal political views.”
Messinger insisted to The Post on Friday that the flyer was a response to “four different people” in the building soliciting for “voting information and information on ballot initiatives.”
“We told people what we thought. Information-sharing is a valued element in a democracy,” she said defiantly. “It’s not proselytizing – it’s giving people information. They don’t have to agree.”
Her goal wasn’t to disrupt anyone by putting the flyer under their doors, she claimed.
“I appreciate that the building asked that this not happen [again]. I’m not going to do this anymore, except for people who ask me,” she added.
Julie Kopel, a real estate broker who recently sold an apartment in the swanky building, wasn’t buying it. “It’s totally inappropriate to send out your own personal views, and do it in a misleading way that makes it sound like the board or building’s views. I would not think this is OK.
Gottfried said he’s been sending the “Dear Neighbor” flyer for years — with no objections, until now.
“A few people are annoyed that our letter endorses Mamdani,” he said.
Read the full article here
