Socialism is coming to New York City, courtesy of Marxist Muslim Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and it’s coming the way it always does: with a lot of hype, massive payouts, immense burdens on taxpayers, interminable delays, and very little to show for it all.
New Yorkers are going to pay around $70 million, and legitimate businesses are going to be imperiled, and all so that city residents can enjoy the benefits of Mamdani’s low-cost grocery store, which won’t even open until next year in the Bronx and 2029 in East Harlem and will, once all the hidden costs are factored in, likely be far more expensive than the capitalist groceries that Mamdani has targeted with this socialist scheme.
Nevertheless, the city is on the road to socialism at least for as long as Mamdani is in Gracie Mansion, and so on Wednesday, in a fitting display of what socialism actually gets you, representatives of outfits that may actually run Mamdani’s Santa Claus grocery store got a grand tour of its prospective location: a garbage-filled vacant lot.
The New York Post reported Wednesday that “Big Apple officials took prospective bidders on a pathetic tour Wednesday of a trash-strewn empty lot in East Harlem where Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s planned $30 million city-owned grocery store is supposed to become reality.” Even though no construction is actually going on at the site, “the bidders wore hardhats on the city Economic Development Corporation-led tour to the under-the-Metro-North viaduct site next to La Marqueta.” If you think that shows that this tour was more about hype than about anything real, you’re right.
Nevertheless, the prospective vendors did their best to put a good face on the charade. Phillip Grant, whom the Post identifies as “founder and CEO of business consulting firm Phillip Grant & Associates,” said: “We are very cautiously optimistic about this potential project and what this potential project means to the community and food deserts.”
The Post notes that as Grant prattled on about “food deserts,” “he stood a stone’s throw from American Deli Mini Mart along Park Avenue — where owner Elvis Arias, 33, sells sandwiches and worries about losing business to the planned city-owned store.” Mamdani’s socialist scheme is going to put real, hardworking people out of business, and Elvis Arias is one of them.
Arias said, according to the Post, that “the new competition from city government is a slap in the face, especially as taxes are so high,” and added that “City Hall would have to give him a tobacco license to keep the deli competitive.” The city, however, isn’t remotely interested in keeping Arias’ deli competitive. It wants him out of business.
Mamdani, after all, has said that “seizing the means of production" was his "end goal." So why should he want to keep American Deli Mini Mart in business? In his ideal New York City, the city and only the city will operate not just one, but all of the grocery stores.
That end goal is still far off, however, and so Arias said: “I’m lucky I have the beer! They won’t have beer over there.” Will a technocratic socialist nanny state allow alcohol at all? We may be forced to find out.
Meanwhile, Phillip Grant was ready with the blather: “It has to be a full, transparent partnership. We also have to get the public involved. There’s other things we have to think about: market forces, transportation, weather. So we have to ensure whatever model an operator like myself or a group that we put together build, that it can be flexible enough to adapt to those concerns.”
Related: In Mamdani’s New York, It’s 1933 All Over Again
Phillip Grant shouldn’t be even considering the possibility of socialism coexisting with flexibility and adaptation, but he is not the only one who seems to have forgotten that history, and so is condemned to repeat it.
Meanwhile, the city is looking for a sucker: a firm that will oversee the whole operation, and so can be conveniently blamed when it fails. The Post said that “one wholesale food distributor who attended a video meeting over the bids noted that the city preferred a vendor that can run the whole shebang.” This food distributor explained: “When I initially looked into the opportunity, I assumed the scope would be limited to procurement and delivery. However, the City is requiring a single operator to manage the entire project.”
Gotta hand it to Mamdani. He knows he’s gonna need a scapegoat.
Editor’s Note: New York City is now facing the consequences of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist takeover.
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