“Yeah, we may have botched this a little.”
Photo: NYC Mayor’s Office/Youtube
The ownership of every property in New York City is public and searchable through a funky website that takes a minute to master. Last week, when a slice of that data set — some 900,000 names and addresses — was published in another easy-to-search form, the internet suddenly took notice. “The worst mass doxxing I’ve ever seen,” one user wrote in a post on X. The City Council minority leader called the list’s publication “reckless and foolish.” A New York Post front-page story claimed that the mayor was “effectively doxxing thousands of wealthy New Yorkers.” Less exciting was a quote from a City Hall representative further down in the piece. “As per State law, a property roll was released for public inspection,” the spokesperson told the paper. In other words, everyone already had all these names and addresses; they just didn’t know they did. The full tax roll is published every year.
This so-called supplemental roll simply pulled out addresses that could be hit with the new pied-à-terre tax, which applies to second homes worth more than $1 million for co-ops and condos with a second tier for those worth more than $5 million. (Though those properties probably sell for far more, since the city is using a property’s assessed value as the metric.) A New York Times analysis found that the list covered “most non-rental residential properties in the city, not only those likely to owe the tax.” But that came a week later, buried in newsprint. If you didn’t know that part, the list seemed far more selective and targeted than it actually was.
The problem is that City Hall was under scrutiny, Mamdani’s opponents were eager for something to hit him with, and there were errors. The Post found the address of a strip mall in Rockaway that “is definitely not a vacation home.” The residential properties on the list that could be hit by the tax included a bunch of media catnip, too: Anna Wintour’s Manhattan house was included, for example, and she certainly seems to live there. Councilmember Gale Brewer found her own home on it, the one she’s lived in since 1994. “This whole list must be messed up,” she told the Post.
The city had rolled out the tax like most cities share reassessments. As tax attorney Adrian Diaz explained to Gothamist, “ They’re sending it out to everyone who is above the threshold, and then saying, ‘Hey, is this your primary residence or not?’ It seems like what the city is doing is basically asking taxpayers to do a little bit of their work for them.” Gothamist reported that when homeowners tried to do what the city was asking, and appeal by sharing documents proving that they lived where they lived, it didn’t always work. (Here’s an example.) An owner on the hook for $43,000 was “unable to upload her driver’s license to the city website,” the site reported. Homeowners have until August 21 to share the paperwork, a short deadline during vacation season. (Especially if you’re at your primary home in Paris.)
But let’s not forget that some people claiming that a New York residence is their permanent address may just feel that way. As one user pointed out on X:
That said, the appeals process already looks broken. The city could find itself pushing back the deadline, spending millions on litigation, or just failing to collect a buck. Angry New Yorkers have been calling up their council members, including Brewer. She told the Times that she might withdraw her support of the tax itself. “People are already on edge about everything,” she said. “It’s unfortunate.”
