The woman who Mayor Eric Adams compared to a plantation owner during a fiery town hall exchange on Wednesday is a decades-long tenants advocate who’s lived in New York City since she and her parents left Europe fleeing from the Nazis.
Jeanie Dubnau, 84, an assistant professor of biology at Rutgers University, told The Post that Adams’ comments about her were merely “deflection” to avoid accountability for his policies.
“The main point is that the mayor has shown he’s an enemy of all the rent stabilized tenants in New York City,” she said.
“You know, Mayor Adams is a landlord stooge and the enemy of tenants in New York City. He gets millions of dollars from real estate. That’s the main issue here.”
During a townhall in at the Gregorio Luperon High School for Science and Mathematics in Washington Heights, Dubnau interrupted Mayor Adams and accused him of responsibility for the Rent Guidelines Board voting to allow landlords to hike rent on rent-stabilized apartments up to 6 percent.
When Adams insisted he “does not control the [Rent] Guidelines Board,” Dubnau didn’t back down and shouted while vigorously pointing that he’d previously voiced his support for the rent increases.
Evidently perturbed, Adams responded calmly “First, if you’re going to ask a question, don’t point at me, and don’t be disrespectful to me.”
“I’m the mayor of this city and treat me with the respect that would deserve to be treated. I’m speaking to you as an adult.
“Don’t stand in front like you treated someone that’s on the plantation that you own.”
Adams’ response was initially met with applause, but they became muted after his plantation owner comment.
Dubnau told The Post she wasn’t falling for the Mayor’s tactics.
“He didn’t have an answer,” she said.
“That was just a deflection that’s all, because he doesn’t have any answers. He doesn’t have any answers. He can’t answer me so it’s a deflection.”
“He probably is aware how the entire tenant population and many working class people have turned against him with time.”
“When he first answered he said something about his own tenants. He’s a landlord himself. He said ‘Oh, I don’t raise the rent on my own tenants.’ Who cares about his own personal tenants? He’s raising the rents on thousands and thousands of people in New York City.”
Dubnau has been a volunteer tenant organizer since 1960, and is currently the chairwoman of Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood Association, and Adams isn’t the only NYC mayor Dubnau has publicly taken to task.
During a 2015 townhall in Washington Heights, Dubnau laid-into Mayor Bill de Blasio over affordable housing initiatives using market-rate developments she said were gentrifying the neighborhood and closing down stores along Broadway.
“I understand that you want to do the best thing. You want to build affordable housing, but a lot of us are very worried about your plans.” She said in exchange The New York Times characterized as “sharp” assailment.
After Wednesday’s exchange with Adams, Dubnau told The Post she would continue to call out the mayor “as much as I can.”
“The reason I went was because I thought we’d have the opportunity to speak which we did not, because the meeting was completely controlled by his people. And that’s why I had to stand up and spontaneously speak. We weren’t being called on. It was a person chosen by his people at each table who were going to speak.”
Dubnau was born in Belgium shortly after her parents fled the terrors of the Nazi regime in Germany.
After hiding out in Belgium throughout World War II, Dubnau and her parents emigrated to New York City where she has resided ever since.
A spokesperson for Adams, Fabien Levy, stood by the Mayors’ comments at the townhall when contacted by The Post.
“The mayor’s comments are the mayor’s comments. We stand by the mayor’s comments,” he said.