Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) downplayed the amenities available in her expensive Washington, D.C., apartment building last week, saying her unit was comparable to apartments in a new public housing complex in New York City.
Ocasio-Cortez made the comparison during a Bronx town hall, saying people have been conditioned to view things that should be available to everyone as "luxury" amenities.
"What we have been taught that [sic] is a luxury should not be a luxury," Ocasio-Cortez said.
"Another world is possible," she said. "We can live in buildings that are not-for-profit, or tenant-owned, there are so many ways we can slice this and we can structure it in a way where all people have the right to a dignified home."
"What we have been taught and what we have been conditioned is that basic rights are a luxury and a privilege when they are not."
Ocasio-Cortez came to this conclusion after touring a new public housing complex for senior citizens, noticing the units in the building "look just like my luxury apartment."
She began her remarks by downplaying the amenities in the building she moved into earlier this year, a move first reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
"I move into this building, and it's marketed as a 'luxury' building in D.C.," she said. "It's an efficient building, it's clean, it has public space, it has a rooftop garden—y'all watching my Instagram—it has clean air, it has clean water. And I think about this and I'm like, 'Hm, this is what a luxury building is like.'"
She goes on to say the building is just like the new public housing development she toured. Unmentioned by Ocasio-Cortez, however, is that her current residence offers a lot more than just clean air and water.
The newly-constructed complex, built adjacent to a Whole Foods, also features both an indoor lap pool and a rooftop pool, a rooftop dog park and dog wash station, numerous gyms including a Peloton cycling studio and a yoga studio, a demonstration kitchen with a wood-fired pizza oven, private massage rooms with hydromassage beds, a golf simulator studio, a basketball court, a racquetball court, and a rooftop tennis court with a "parabolic hitting wall" in case you're alone with nobody to play with.
The building does not offer affordable units under the city's Affordable Dwelling Units program, the Washington Examiner reported.
Prices in the complex range from around $2,000 for a small studio to over $5,000 for a three-bedroom. Ocasio-Cortez says she moved there because of the 24/7 lobby security.