The New York City Council Quietly Passed Measure to Aid Government-Seizure of Private Property

Oct 23, 2026 7:30 AM
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The New York City Council Quietly Passed Measure to Aid Government-Seizure of Private Property
AP Photo/Julie Jacobson

The New York City Council has passed a measure that's clearly laying the groundwork for the eventual government seizure of private property. The "Community Opportunity for Purchase Act" (COPA) requires some property owners to delay putting their properties on the open market for 90 days so "community land trusts" and nonprofits have an exclusive shot at buying them first.

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But the new legislation, which was recycled by progressive Brooklyn lawmaker Sandy Nurse earlier this year, is a watered-down version of a prior proposal that included a much larger number of properties.

Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) called the bill’s initial proposal an “attack on private real-estate ownership” in the five boroughs.

“We’re sliding headfirst into a communist dystopia where the government and their apparatchik developers own all the property, and the rest of us get forced into perpetual rentorship, and this legislation is helping to get us there even quicker,” Ariola said at the time.


The tweaks brought some real estate groups on board with the legislation.

It's absolutely an attack on private real estate ownership. As of right now, this legislation impacts about 2,100 New York City buildings, down from 10,000 under the previous version of the bill. Former Mayor Eric Adams vetoed similar legislation before leaving office.

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The board president of the Small Property Owners of New York Ann Korchak told The New York Post that this is "just a foot in the door."

"COPA, in any form, is a destructive housing policy for renters, owners, and affordable housing," she said. "COPA will devalue buildings, forcing small often immigrant and multigenerational owners to sell their buildings for pennies on the dollar."

That's the entire point. The socialists who run New York City want to devalue property. They want government to own it all. They're inching their way toward that goal.

"Distressed" will be a broad, sweeping term.

It likely is, and there will undoubtedly be lawsuits over this.

And yet they're trying this.

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They did vote for this, and sometimes you get the government you voted for in a very harsh way.

They see the Constitution as a barrier to their socialist ideals, so they have to destroy it. And they won't stop until they succeed.

Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.

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