Insufferable liberal activists were mocked as “gentrifiers complaining about gentrification” — after a series of cringey campaign videos that included one hipster whining about affordability while wearing a pricey designer sweatshirt.
In a roundly-ridiculed ad supporting progresssive City Council member Christopher Marte, several trendy young progressives bemoaned the construction of new homes on the Lower East Side, as one of them wore a Balenciaga sweatshirt that retails for $1,150.
The activists accused so-called pro-development “YIMBYs” — short for yes in my backyard — of pushing poorer people out of the neighborhood.
But the video’s cross-section of hipsters slamming the construction of new housing — at a time when New York City’s rents have hit record highs — came off as as tone deaf by social media users.
“Incredible video of gentrifiers complaining about gentrification,” one user wrote.
“A dude wearing a $1,250 Balenciaga sweatshirt complaining about the city selling out by building affordable housing for seniors is just perfect,” another added.
“These people want an art student ethnostate and until we understand that, their politics aren’t going to make sense,” a third wrote.
Another pointed out that some of the activists appeared to be recent arrivals in New York, with one seemingly having a strong British accent.
“The whole ‘I have a British accent and I’m in America telling you not to build,’ thing,” one X user said.
New York City rents rose 5.6% since December 2023 while rental rates in other top cities decreased during the same time period, according to the latest Realtor.com report released in January.
One of the videos, shared on Instagram by the group Youth Against Displacement, raged against the building of One Manhattan Square, an 80-story skyscraper constructed on the site of a former Pathmark grocery store on Cherry Street in Two Bridges in 2019.
Another female activist wearing a red beanie and a military green coat bizarrely claimed students aren’t gentrifying the Lower East Side, then asked New Yorkers to vote for Marte, in a second video.
“If you’re a student or a young worker and you’re living in New York City, you’re probably also struggling to afford your rent. You are not a gentrifier. You are not supporting developers, but you know who are? The YIMBYs,” the unidentified woman said.
YADt has boasted about its successful blocking of four high-rise apartment towers in Two Bridges in 2019, claiming they would have “driven up the rent and property taxes and displace people in Chinatown and the Lower East Side,” in a statement on its website.
But as many pointed out, the new towers built by ExTell would have been built on surface parking lots in Two Bridges, and not on top of existing housing.
Mayor Eric Adams and other Dems have blamed the so-called “NIMBY” (Not In My Backyard) movement last year for standing in the way of Adams’ rezoning plan he said could lead to needed housing in New York City.
The confusing campaign videos for Marte went super viral, racking up more than 11 million views on X, with users blasting YAD for playing identity politics.
Marte’s campaign and YAD did not respond to requests for comment from The Post inquiry.
