The Grocery Store Math Just Got Worse

When Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced his plan for a $30 million city-owned grocery store in East Harlem, critics called it expensive. Turns out they didn't have the full picture.

According to the New York Post, the proposed site — La Marqueta, the food market running between East 111th and East 119th Streets under the Metro North tracks on Park Avenue — was already approved for a $25 million redevelopment by the city's Economic Development Corporation back in 2017. City officials confirmed that number.

Add it up: $55 million in taxpayer money for a single grocery store.

Mamdani never mentioned the pre-existing $25 million allocation when he unveiled his grocery store plan.

"City officials have not been transparent and open about anything they are doing," said Anthony Pena, president of the National Supermarket Association, according to the New York Post.

What $55 Million Buys You

Stephen Zagor, adjunct associate professor of food studies at Columbia Business School, was blunt in his assessment. "The $30 million is an outrageous number by itself," Zagor told the Post. "You'd expect the doorknobs and cash registers to be solid gold."

He also flagged a detail from the EDC's 2017 plan: the proposal includes a parking lot with electric vehicle charging stations. EV charging stations. In East Harlem. For a project supposedly aimed at serving lower-income residents.

"Electric vehicles tend to be more expensive — so are they catering to a higher income market?" Zagor asked. The mayor's office did not respond.

Mamdani has budgeted $70 million total for five city-owned stores, one per borough. That averages $10 million each for the other four. East Harlem gets $55 million in public investment while the other four boroughs split $15 million.

The Housing Plan Is a Separate Issue

While the grocery story was breaking, Mamdani dropped his $22 billion housing plan Tuesday.

The plan promises 400,000 "affordable homes" over the next decade, with construction mandated to pay combined wages and benefits of at least $40 per hour, plus expanded project labor agreements — meaning union-dictated terms on essentially all new development. The New York Post editorial board noted that this guarantees fewer units built per dollar spent.

Mamdani's housing ideas chief, Cea Weaver, has openly promoted using low rents and high taxes to squeeze private landlords into foreclosure so the city can seize their properties, according to the Post. The mayor himself vowed to "take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners" and transfer properties to "community land trusts, nonprofits or even the tenants themselves."

The NYCHA Problem

One element missing from Mamdani's housing pitch: NYCHA already exists. The New York City Housing Authority is the city's existing government landlord — and it operates with well-documented dysfunction. Elevators broken for months. Mold. Heat outages in winter. Management failures so systemic that federal oversight was imposed.

Mamdani blames Reagan-era funding cuts for NYCHA's dysfunction. The Post checked that claim. Federal spending on public housing operations was $1.1 billion in 1983 under Reagan. By 2023, Washington spent $5.1 billion — a five-fold increase, well above inflation. Funding rose substantially. Conditions declined.

His solution to a government housing system in crisis is more government housing. With a $22 billion price tag.

The Coverage Gap

Most coverage of Mamdani has focused on his primary campaign positioning and his democratic socialist label — framing him as a fresh, unconventional voice in NYC politics. Major outlets like the Times and local TV stations have largely skipped the specific dollar figures, the pre-existing allocations, and named critics calling the numbers unjustifiable.

A $55 million grocery store. A $22 billion housing plan built on union mandates and deliberate landlord pressure. A housing chief who openly advocates engineered foreclosures. These are facts with major implications for city finances.

What's Next

New York City taxpayers are looking at a mayor who either didn't know his flagship grocery store site had $25 million already allocated — or knew and didn't disclose it.

Add a $22 billion housing plan designed to maximize union costs and minimize private ownership, and you have a governing agenda that will cost an enormous amount of money while delivering limited results for the residents it claims to serve.