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Saturday, September 5, 2026

NYC DSA chapter moving into luxe new digs

 The revolution is getting a real-estate glow-up!

The New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America is ditching its dingy Lower East Side headquarters and spending $22,000 a month on two new offices — in Midtown and Bed-Stuy.

Co-chair Grace Mausser broke the news to her comrades at a recent meeting, as she presented the chapter’s budget — while also making the case for giving embattled co-chair Gustavo Gordillo and herself $95,000 salaries each.

An interior view of the offices at 315 West 35th Street, where the NYC DSA is relocating.Okada & Co.

The new Manhattan office is in a 14-story building on West 35th Street in Hudson Yards, complete with a doorman, 24/7 security and furnished rooftop. At $15,000 a month, it will be the chapter’s second-largest monthly expense — after Mausser and Gordillo’s salaries.

The socialists — who regularly rail against landlords — didn’t seem to have any qualms renting from one of Gotham’s biggest and most controversial real estate developers as they moved to deluxe digs in the sky.

Their new landlord, the Chetrit family, has faced class-action lawsuits from Brooklyn tenants for allegedly skirting rent-stabilization laws.

The building housing the new NYC DSA headquarters features sweeping views of Manhattan.Okada & Co.
The Hudson Yards building has a furnished rooftop, along with 24/7 security and a doorman.noahre.com

The DSA is scheduled to hold a first meeting in the stylish space, an entire floor spanning 5,150 square feet, on Sept. 27.

“Nothing says ‘we hate capitalism’ like sitting in a high-rise Midtown boardroom cosplaying as extras in Succession,” quipped former NYC Council minority leader Joe Borelli.

“At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if I bump into them in the suite level at the Republican Convention this week.”

The lefties are also adding a headquarters in Brooklyn for the first time, shelling out another $7,000 a month.

The two-level Bed-Stuy office, in the heart of the “Commie Corridor,” boasts “large teardrop lighting” and central air conditioning, which “provides a feeling of a high-end artist loft,” according to the listing.

The NYC DSA just opened a Brooklyn outpost, on Bedford St in Bed-Stuy, in the heart of the “Commie Corridor.”Linda Pedroso Photography

Earlier this week, The Post spotted someone refurbishing the space, whose front doors were plastered with posters of elected Brooklyn DSA officials Jabari Brisport, Phara Souffrant Forrest as well as Eon Huntley — a fashion designer working at Bergdorf Goodman running for state Assembly — next to “ICE out of NYC” and “rent controls” signs.

In May, the organization launched a fundraising drive for the new Brooklyn space.

The new offices are a big upgrade from the graffiti-laden soon-to-be former HQ on Jefferson St on the Lower East Side.Helayne Seidman
The Jefferson St HQ’s walls were painted communist red.socialists.nyc

“Are you tired of taking organizer calls from your Citi Bike?” asked socialist Brooklyn Councilmember Chi Osse, one of the many DSA silver-spoon leaders, in an Instagram video. “To be effective organizers, we need to meet our community where they’re at,” he continued, before taking viewers through a tour of the space.

After the appeal from Osse surpassed its initial goal of $20,000, the organization hiked its fundraising target to $100,000. It’s raised more than $68,000 so far.

Embattled DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo was just approved a $95K salary.unionGustavo/X
Co-chair Grace Mausser announced the new digs at a meeting last week.CBS News

The soon-to-be former headquarters on Jefferson Street, a tiny ground floor room where the walls were painted communist red and DSA meetings were regularly interrupted by wandering vagrants, cost $5,200 a month in rent, according to the budget presented at the meeting.

The DSA is on a month-to-month lease at the graffiti-laden outpost, where it was forced to scrap an in-person “DSA 101” meeting last week because it was having “some kind of a leak.”

https://nypost.com/2026/09/05/us-news/nyc-dsa-dropping-22k-to-move-into-bigger-swankier-offices/

NYC tenants beg for help as splashy squatter and band of naked vagrants terrorize housing project

 He might look like a clown, but he’s no laughing matter to the beleaguered tenants of a NYCHA building in Chelsea.

A vagabond decked out in a kaleidoscopic wardrobe and head scarves has set up camp in a city apartment building where the unhinged squatter and his band of homeless friends have terrorized tenants for more than two years.

Despite daily complaints about the dangerous situation, tenants said the city seems powerless to remove the man who has laid claim to an apartment to which he has no legal right.

The squatter has taken over an apartment at Chelsea’s Robert Fulton houses.Provided to the New York Post

The squatter, named in court documents as Stuart Newman and described as an aggressive man in his 40s, moved in when the former occupant, 77-year-old Harvey Wasserman, died in June 2024, according to a lawsuit filed by the New York City Housing Authority that November.

Since then, he’s refused to leave the Robert Fulton Houses, despite being taken to court and repeated visits from the NYPD.

He was photographed by tenants, emerging from the top of the staircase looking like a deranged parrot, wearing a pastel-colored tropical bird shirt and a makeshift towel turban with dangling multicolored strips of fabric.

Tenants say he brings in a group of vagrants every night, who regularly attack each other and the residents, shoot drugs, strut around naked and set up furniture in the staircases, hallways and balconies.

“The police have dragged them out of there, they come right back. It’s beyond crazy,” the head of the tenant association Miguel Acevedo told The Post. “I think it’s easier to evict a tenant who owes back rent than this squatter.”

Tenants say the squatter’s homeless pals have tried to take over the top five floors of the 25-floor building, run by the New York City Housing Authority on West 17th Street.

A guest of a squatter lies passed out in a hallway at Chelsea’s Robert Fulton houses.Provided to the New York Post

“They piss on my floor, they s–t on my floor,” said Gladys Gonzalez, who lives on the 21st floor, one floor above the squat.

“I get that they’re homeless, but it’s not just the squatting, it’s the drugs, it’s the pissing, it the s–t,” she added. “I come out of my apartment with a hammer — it’s me or them.”

“There’s one that’s transgender, she used to sleep on my floor with her boyfriend. The last time I called the cops, her boyfriend was completely naked, only had a shirt on, no shoes, no underwear, and he was literally rubbing his penis and laughing at me.”

Gladys Gonzalez lives one floor above the squatter on West 17th Street in Chelsea.J.C. Rice for NY Post

Police have made five arrests related to the squatter’s unit since 2025, including charges for menacing a 58-year-old tenant with a frying pan, striking a 56-year-old with a vase in the head, and harassment, an NYPD spokesperson told The Post.

Just this past Thursday, a 42-year-old was hit with a metal pipe, slashing his head, arm and leg. The investigation into that incident is still ongoing.

When The Post visited the building this week, remnants of the chaos from the night before were spotted in an interior staircase, including clothes, syringes and urine. The squatter’s door was marked with a big “A” on it, as well as multiple marks and dents.

“The door looks like that because the homeless they were throwing bricks at it one day because he wouldn’t let them in to get high,” said Gonzalez.

The squatter’s door had a big “A” on it and several marks and dents.J.C. Rice for NY Post
The 20th floor terrace where guests of a squatter often stay.Provided to the New York Post

“They clean it up every day — housing comes every day and brings down stuff from the 25th floor.”

At the monthly tenant meeting last week, representatives from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said they were working to identify the squatters, whose names are not all known, tenants said.

“All of a sudden they have squatter rights. They got a lawyer, so they can’t be evicted,” slammed Amelia Martinez, another tenant of 10 years. “You have to go through the court system. That’s crazy. If I did that, they’d arrest me, walker and all . . . it’s disgusting.”

“Nothing ever happens,” lambasted Gonzalez. “And what do they say? Oh, it’s public housing — we just gotta deal with it. Nobody should be subject to this.”

Amelia Martinez is fed up it’s taking more than two years to remove the squatter.J.C. Rice for NY Post

“It’s a constant battle with NYCHA, with the police, with the borough.”

One tenant, who didn’t want to be identified because she feared for her safety, said she was scared to leave her apartment.

“One day the squatter was dressed in black, he had a black hat and all of a sudden, he gets right there and he pulls out a knife, and he’s just sizing it up and going, ‘You’re not going to kill me,'” she said.

“I don’t think it’s fair for me to face them as a single female. I pay $1,000 a month and they’re living here free and scaring the s–t out of me.”

The squatters’ homeless pals have taken over the building’s top five floors.Provided to the New York Post

In March, a NYC Department of Investigation report found that squatters took over at least 548 vacant NYCHA units between 2022 and 2025.

Since then, NYCHA told The Post it’s found some 40 more, as it’s launched a monthly inspection program into vacant units.

“NYCHA staff routinely work with the NYPD to address issues concerning unauthorized occupants and loitering on NYCHA property,” Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Sklar told The Post.

Tenants say the squatting has been going on for more than two years.Provided to the New York Post\\
But this squatter has been refusing entry to NYCHA officials, Acevedo told The Post.

And with authorities seemingly unable to remove him, residents are losing hope.

https://nypost.com/2026/09/05/us-news/nyc-tenants-beg-for-help-as-squatter-terrorizes-nycha-housing-project/

'Pro-Palestine photographer and friend shot dead by Muslim man in anti-LGBTQ hate crime'

 A Muslim man shot and killed a pro-Palestinian photographer and his friend as they were leaving an Arizona gay bar before turning the gun on himself in what cops say was a hate crime.

Ousman Ceesay unleashed the violence in Tucson around 12:30 a.m. Monday — targeting two men he did not know, Tucson Police confirmed.

Cameron Davis Capara, 33, and Vincent Anthony Siqueiros, 42, were in the parking lot of Venture-N when they were confronted and then shot by Ceesay, according to cops.

Ousman Ceesay left behind notes detailing his hatred against the LGBTQ community, cops said.AP Photo/Rebecca Noble

Ceesay, 44, then shot himself with a 9mm handgun.

The gunman was carrying a note with a list of other gay-friendly businesses in the area, but cops said he never tried to enter the bar near where he committed the heinous crime.

A second note in his home found by detectives “indicated he acted alone and that this shooting was a targeted attack motivated by hate toward the LGBTQIA+ community,” the department said.

Ceesay, originally from The Gambia in West Africa, had no prior contacts with the police department and had only just moved to the area from Oklahoma City in December, the Arizona Daily Star reported, citing sources.

Cameron Davis Capara and Vincent Anthony Siqueiros were killed outside the gay bar on Monday.Berni Brewer/Facebook; Vincent Anthony Siqueiros/Facebook

He and his wife were facing money troubles after racking up more than $76,000 in debt that forced them to declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2018, according to the outlet.

Ceesay previously worked as an Uber driver and was a practicing Muslim who prayed five times a day, his cousin told the Arizona Daily Star.

The victims were remembered at a vigil this week as caring and joyful, AZPM reported.

Capara was a photographer who spent years documenting LGBTQ nightlife, campus demonstrations, rallies over Gaza and protests against ICE.

Ceesay was carrying a list of other gay-friendly businesses in the area.AP Photo/Rebecca Noble

“He cared deeply about people in Tucson or those thousands of miles away. People who were marginalized, overlooked, or misunderstood,” said his father, Jeff Capara.

“One of the things I admired most about him was that he didn’t judge people. He believed that everyone had their own story, their own struggles, and their own reasons for being who they were.

“He wanted people to have the freedom to simply be themselves without being judged for it. And in the same way, he didn’t want to be judged himself. He wanted to be accepted for who he was.”

Siqueiros’ sister, Kate Marquez, said her brother made an eerie statement about his legacy in their last phone call before his death.

“At one point, Vincent wondered aloud, ‘If something happened to me, who would actually be there?’ That was six days ago,” she said at a memorial for her brother and Capara.

“Vincent, look who’s here. Tonight, thousands of people have answered my little brother’s question. And I wish more than anything he could stand here where I’m standing and see this for himself.”

https://nypost.com/2026/09/05/us-news/pro-palestine-photographer-friend-shot-dead-by-muslim-man-in-anti-lgbtq-hate-crime/