Pythia led the citywide campaign to stop dangerous, Airbnb-backed legislation in the NYC Council that would have weakened short-term rental enforcement and put thousands of New Yorkers’ homes at risk. Outspent by millions and facing a coordinated misinformation blitz from Airbnb, our Tenants Not Tourists coalition broke through Airbnb’s misinformation campaign to expose how their bill would hurt working families and worsen our housing crisis.
Working alongside the Hotel Trades Council (HTC) and dozens of the city’s most respected tenant and housing justice organizations, we built a broad, disciplined coalition that earned the support of nearly every major labor union, City Hall and then Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, Attorney General Tish James, and a large majority of the City Council. Despite Airbnb spending over $10 million to get the bill passed, we successfully stopped the legislation in its tracks — killing a multi-million-dollar corporate effort to sell out New Yorkers and roll back our hard-won housing protections.