New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) into law yesterday, the first step in the socialist agenda of the government seizing property. Of course, they're not calling it that, but COPA would mandate that "blighted" or "run down" apartment buildings are offered to city-selected non-profit groups for 90 days before the owner can sell to someone else.

The law also gives those nonprofits 15 days to match those offers, and extends that right of refusal period up to a year. Taxpayers are also footing the bill on this, with up to $380,000 per apartment, plus tax breaks and waived fees.

Of course, the city will widen the definition of "run down" buildings to cast a wider net. Outdated paint colors? That's "run down." Old carpeting? It's "run down," too.

Mamdani called this progress.

This isn't progress. It's laying the groundwork for seizing and outlawing private property, a goal of Cea Weaver, Mamdani's housing advisor.

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Weaver — whose mother owns a fancy house in Tennessee — believes homeownership is racist and that government should "impoverish the white middle class."

There will be legal challenges to this law. Former Mayor Eric Adams vetoed this bill during the last year of his term, citing concerns. When the law takes full effect next November, landlord groups and others will file suit.

In Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid (2021), the Supreme Court ruled that when the government takes away an owner's right to control his property, that's a taking under the Fifth Amendment.