During her highly publicized 2018 campaign, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) promised to fight for affordable housing units and railed against luxury real estate developers. Then, when it came time for the freshman congresswoman to move to the nation’s capital, she complained that the price of rent was inaccessible to someone of her income and resources.
Now, it seems Ocasio-Cortez has forgotten the promises she made to her constituents. Several media sources reported that she recently moved into a luxury apartment complex that is notably off-limits to Washington, D.C.’s poor.
Working-class Representative
In December, AOC — as she is commonly known — complained that “our electoral system isn’t even designed (nor prepared) for working-class people to lead,” because she couldn’t find affordable rent. But those struggles are definitely in the past for Ocasio-Cortez now that she earns a $174,000 annual salary.
AOC now lives in a recently constructed high-rise building in the capital’s affluent Navy Yard area. Designed by leading D.C. developer and Democratic donor WC Smith, the luxury apartment complex includes over 100,000 square feet of exclusive amenities for its wealthy residents.
The apartment complex, which the Conservative Institute is not further identifying for privacy reasons, does not offer affordable housing units under Washington’s Affordable Dwelling Units program. In fact, a civil rights attorney sued the local government in 2018 over claims that Ocasio-Cortez’s new neighborhood relied upon discriminatory gentrification policies to push out minority residents and make way for wealthy “millennial creatives.”
Dirty money
During her political rise, AOC repeatedly demonized luxury real estate developers hiking up rent prices to push minorities and lower-class families out neighborhoods across the country.
“We need to kick luxury real estate lobbyists to the curb and defend working people’s way of life,” Ocasio-Cortez said last March. “Skyrocketing cost of living is a national crisis that CAN be addressed. It’s not just an NYC issue — it’s happening in every U.S. metro area.”
Now, Ocasio-Cortez rents from one of these “real estate lobbyists.” W. Christopher Smith, the CEO of WC Smith and the man who developed AOC’s apartment, also happens to be a powerful D.C. donor. He contributed to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, as well as the Senate campaigns of Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Jane Raybould, who lost the Nebraska Senate race in November.
Ocasio-Cortez vowed never to take money from luxury developers during her campaign. “It’s time we stand up to the luxury developer lobby,” she promised last April. “Every official is too scared to do it — except me.”
But according to the Washington Examiner, AOC took money from the real estate firm that developed the new apartment she now inhabits. Ann-Marie Bairstow, WC Smith’s vice president of communications, donated $1300 to Act Blue, a small amount of which ended up with the Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional campaign.
Socialist utopia
Earlier this month, AOC unveiled the details behind her controversial Green New Deal. Besides offering income to those who are “unwilling to work,” the radical plan demanded “[s]afe, affordable, adequate housing” for every American.
Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez lives in a complex which promises to take “luxury apartment living” to a higher level. The building includes private massage rooms with state-of-the-art hydrotherapy beds, a massive demonstration kitchen with a wood-fired pizza oven, a rooftop infinity pool, a cycling studio, and a fireside lounge with a featuring a Steinway & Sons grand piano.
It’s hard to imagine that these luxury amenities would be available for anyone in the socialist utopia AOC envisions for America. While Ocasio-Cortez promotes a “working-class” agenda, she lives a different life altogether — one of privilege and exclusivity.
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