{"id":988866,"date":"2026-08-08T11:47:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/988866\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:47:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:47:26","slug":"mamdanis-groceries-will-have-him-competing-against-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/988866\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani’s groceries will have him competing against . . . HIMSELF"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Mamdani\u2019s city-owned supermarkets<\/a> are ill-considered for many reasons.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll undercut minority-owned neighborhood bodegas<\/a>. They\u2019ll create an incentive for buyers to resell the cheap goods at higher prices elsewhere.<\/p>\n

These issues may not concern Mamdani, but something else should: Hizzoner will be competing against himself.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because another city program already provides financial incentives to private supermarkets to open in the same neighborhoods where Mamdani wants to open his socialist competitors.<\/p>\n

Since 2009, the city Economic Development Corp. and Department of City Planning have run the Food Retail Expansion to Support Health Program.<\/p>\n

Its goals largely overlap with the mayor\u2019s: \u201cto develop and expand full-service grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

But rather than compete against existing markets, FRESH set out simply to create more of them, and to encourage affordability through private-sector competition \u201cby lowering the costs<\/a> of owning, leasing, developing, and renovating supermarket retail space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The combination of lower taxes and zoning relief to make it possible to build large markets has actually been successful: 30 new 5,000-6000 square foot markets have opened across all five boroughs.<\/p>\n

One, Food Bazaar on 125th Street in Manhattan, is just a 5-minute walk from Mamdani\u2019s proposed \u201cLa Marqueta\u201d site; two others, the Lincoln Market on St. Nicholas Avenue and Ideal Food Basket on Lexington Avenue, are within walking distance or a short bus ride away.<\/p>\n

\"ANew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announces a 30% discount on selected core items at five new municipal grocery stores during a press conference in Brooklyn, NY, on July 27, 2026. Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

An EDC map<\/a> shows a fourth FRESH market of 7,000 square feet planned for Park Avenue in Harlem.<\/p>\n

Anyone shopping at Fine Fair on the Grand Concourse in The Bronx, Food Bazaar on Northern Boulevard in Queens or Key Foods on Sand Lane Avenue on Staten Island is no longer \u201cunderserved,\u201d thanks to FRESH.<\/p>\n

So, too, are shoppers at Ideal Food Basket on Pitkin Avenue in Brownsville.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s especially welcome because it can serve the concentration of nearby public-housing projects, where stores have historically not been permitted to operate (another bad Robert Moses decision) and elderly residents fear to walk with their grocery carts.<\/p>\n

Begun under the Bloomberg administration and promoted by Eric Adams, FRESH was designed to provide incentives for private enterprise \u2014 not to undermine it.<\/p>\n

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Rather than force private operators to compete against city-run markets that pay no rent or property tax, FRESH offers a tax break to private owners \u2014 including an exemption from the from the onerous 8.875% local sales tax on \u201cmaterials used to construct, renovate, or equip the facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the incentives are impressively subtle \u2014 including a reduction in parking requirements and deferral of mortgage recording taxes for project financing.<\/p>\n

The program reflects the understanding that it\u2019s a market\u2019s availability that\u2019s what\u2019s important.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city doesn\u2019t need to subsidize prices \u2014 not when 1.8 million New Yorkers already get help with grocery affordability, thanks to federal food stamps.<\/p>\n

At least until Mamdani\u2019s election, city agencies were crowing about FRESH\u2019s success \u2014 claiming to have generated \u201c$177 million in private capital investments toward local urban real estate and retail economies\u201d and to have helped create \u201cmore than 1,400 new jobs and successfully secured the retention of over 600 existing retail jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewThe discounted items will include all fresh produce, meat and seafood, along with roughly 20 additional categories of pantry staples, dairy and refrigerated goods. Andrew Schwartz \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

Nor were these markets pushing unhealthy products; city incentives required 500 square feet of fresh produce.<\/p>\n

When Adams was in office, city pols gushed over the program.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson cheered, \u201cWith too many of our residents and families in the Bronx living far away from fresh produce, and unhealthy food items<\/a> often seen as the only option, we are grateful for the FRESH program.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Comptroller Mark Levine praised the markets in Harlem<\/a>, saying he looked \u201cforward to continuing to work\u201d with city officials to \u201celiminate food deserts and create a healthier borough and city.\u201d<\/p>\n

But FRESH markets in Harlem will now have to compete with Mamdani\u2019s \u201cMarqueta.\u201d<\/p>\n

And city agencies have now turned their attention to finding sites for more Mamdani Marts<\/a>, rather than pushing for more FRESH markets, as planned under Adams.<\/p>\n

Rather than compete with existing stores, the city should find ways to bring markets to the worst food deserts \u2014 i.e., the NYCHA \u201ccampuses,\u201d many of which are distant from fresh food.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That includes some of America\u2019s largest public-housing developments: Cypress Hills (pop. 3,400) in Brooklyn; South Jamaica (pop. 2,380) in Queens; and Manhattanville (pop. 3,055) in Manhattan \u2014 all a long walk or expensive Uber from fresh groceries.<\/p>\n

Maybe the city could provide 24-hour security for markets willing to open in a public-housing project.<\/p>\n

Of course, that would require Mamdani to admit limited access to fresh food is not the fault of capitalist greed but threats from crime.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, City Hall would do well to build on the success of its practical, existing market program \u2014 rather than indulge in its misguided socialist scheme.<\/p>\n

Howard Husock is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of \u201cThe Projects: A New History of Public Housing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Mamdani\u2019s city-owned supermarkets are ill-considered for many reasons. They\u2019ll undercut minority-owned neighborhood bodegas. They\u2019ll create an incentive…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":988867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,24587,4219,5289,5231,12862,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,36798,1269,39810,10452,24590,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5301],"class_list":["post-988866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-bodega","tag-crime","tag-eric-adams","tag-harlem","tag-michael-bloomberg","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nycha","tag-opinion","tag-public-housing","tag-socialism","tag-supermarkets","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117059733002436343","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=988866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/988866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/988867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=988866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=988866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=988866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}