The mother of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new woke renters’ rights honcho — who’s dubbed homeownership “a weapon of white supremacy” — is a professor at a prestigious college and owns a beautiful Nashville home worth $1.6 million.
Celia Applegate — whose daughter Cea Weaver is the director of Mamdani’s Office to Protect Tenants — teaches German studies at Vanderbilt University and owns a pricey classic Craftsman home just south of the main strip in Nashville, Tennessee.
Applegate bought the property with her partner, David Blackbourn, in July 2012 for $814,000 and real estate websites now list the pad’s value at more than $1.6 million, records show.
The handsome property boasts three bedrooms, two baths and 3,400 square feet.
The revelation comes after Weaver’s past slew of inflammatory social media posts came to light — including comments raging against what Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America ally dubbed a racist homeownership system in the country.
“Private property including any kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy,” Weaver, 37, spouted in 2019.
The longtime tenants’ rights advocate also repeatedly railed against landlords, saying in 2024 that the city should “seize private property” if buildings are allowed to fall into disrepair and officials deem it necessary.
“There is no such thing as a ‘good’ gentrifier, only people who are actively working on projects to dismantle white supremacy and capitalism and people who aren’t,” Weaver also posted in July 2018, according to an archived post.
Despite her railing against gentrification, Nashville — where her mother’s home is located — has experienced some of the most “intense” gentrification of any US city in recent years, according to a National Community Reinvestment Coalition study in May.
Nashville ranked as the most gentrified city in the country during the 2010s, beating other major areas with histories of displacement, the study said.
Mamdani has stood by his controversial pick, telling reporters Tuesday, “We made the decision to have Cea Weaver serve as our executive director for the mayor’s office to protect tenants.”
Weaver quickly hung up the phone Tuesday when a Post reporter identified themself, only saying, “I cannot talk right now.”
The Trump administration made clear it was closely keeping an eye on the Big Apple.
“With the full support of [US Attorney General Pam Bondi], we will protect all legal residents of NYC from illegal overreach!” tweeted Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice.
Weaver’s past work history includes the progressive Housing Justice For All, which is a collection of more than 80 groups filled with tenants and homeless New Yorkers who call housing a human right.
When announcing her new position in City Hall, Mamdani said, “Now she’ll work with us to hold landlords accountable and ensure New York City tenants are living in safe, clean homes.”
