A Student-Built Map Exposing New York's Worst Landlords episode artwork

EPISODE · Jun 30, 2026 · 19 MIN

A Student-Built Map Exposing New York's Worst Landlords

from The Bottom-Up Revolution · host Strong Towns

In New York City, the average rent is $4,700 a month and climbing. Over 500,000 housing violations are on file in the city, but the government database where they live is so outdated that most renters never see them. Farid Sofiyev, a sophomore and co-founder of Civic Reset NYC, built an interactive map of 40,000 of those violations and published the names of the 25 worst landlords in the city. This episode gets into how the map works, what the data reveals about NYC's rent crisis, and the zoning choices that got the city there. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Farid Safiyev and Angelo Mazza (LinkedIn) Civic Reset (Site, Instagram, Podcast) Courtyard Urbanism: The Best of Both City and Suburb with Dr. Alicia Pederson (Podcast) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

In New York City, the average rent is $4,700 a month and climbing. Over 500,000 housing violations are on file in the city, but the government database where they live is so outdated that most renters never see them. Farid Sofiyev, a sophomore and co-founder of Civic Reset NYC, built an interactive map of 40,000 of those violations and published the names of the 25 worst landlords in the city. This episode gets into how the map works, what the data reveals about NYC's rent crisis, and the zoning choices that got the city there. ADDITIONAL SHOW NOTES Farid Safiyev and Angelo Mazza (LinkedIn) Civic Reset (Site, Instagram, Podcast) Courtyard Urbanism: The Best of Both City and Suburb with Dr. Alicia Pederson (Podcast) Norm Van Eeden Petersman (LinkedIn) Do you know someone who would make for a great Bottom-Up Revolution guest? Let us know here.   This podcast is made possible by Strong Towns members. Thank you! Join fellow members discussing this episode in The Commons.

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A Student-Built Map Exposing New York's Worst Landlords

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This episode was published on June 30, 2026.

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In New York City, the average rent is $4,700 a month and climbing. Over 500,000 housing violations are on file in the city, but the government database where they live is so outdated that most renters never see them. Farid Sofiyev, a sophomore and...

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