Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Announces La Marqueta as First Site Identified for City’s Public Grocery Stores
Zohran Mamdani on NYC Mayor's Office transcripts.
Passages
Good morning, Harlem. Thank you for joining us on this warm spring day. I want to acknowledge we are joined here by a number of leaders both across our administration and our city. We have our deputy mayor, Julie Su, who is here with us. We have our interim president of EDC, Jeanny Pak, who is here with us. We have our Council members, Elsie Encarnacion, as well as Yusef Salaam, who are here with us. We have our Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal. And we also have the director of Uptown Grand Central, Carey King, who is here with us. Now, we are all here at La Marqueta at the same site where 92 years ago, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia stood. And he was battling a cold and the pouring rain to break ground on this very institution of La Marqueta, a city-owned public market opened two years later in 1936. It cut overhead for pushcart vendors and lowered consumer costs. La Guardia said it was, "an answer to those who said the unemployed had been forgotten.” The New York Times described it succinctly: “City tries experiment.” New York City, it is time for a grand experiment once again. Just as La Guardia used government to respond to the challenges of the Great Depression, we will use government to respond to rising prices and unaffordable groceries. Since the pandemic, grocery prices have gone up and they haven't come back down. Between 2013 and 2023, grocery prices increased in New York City by nearly 66 percent, significantly higher than the national average. During our campaign, we promised New Yorkers that we would create a network of city-owned grocery stores, one in each borough. And we are here today to celebrate the site of the Manhattan store, La Marqueta, which will be open by 2029. Now, here's how it works. The city will subsidize a core set of staples. A private operator will run the store, but they answer to the standards that the city will set. These standards include requirements that at our stores, bread will be cheaper, eggs will be cheaper. Grocery shopping will no longer be an unsolvable equation. And workers will be treated with dignity. Sixty-five thousand New Yorkers live within a 10-minute walk of La Marqueta. 5,000 NYCHA residents live on either side of Park Avenue. And nearly 40 percent of East Harlem residents receive public assistance or SNAP benefits in the last year. And we know those are the very kinds of federal programs that are under attack in this very moment. Now, at its peak, La Marqueta served 25,000 customers per day. We hope to make a similar impact here in this very neighborhood, continuing Fiorello La Guardia's legacy. This is what we mean by a new era. When New Yorkers are being priced out of their groceries, government will step in and deliver affordability. Now, with that being said, I'm going to pass it over to our deputy mayor for economic justice, Julie Su.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThis is not the entire answer to our City Hall's approach to tackling food insecurity. It is one part of it. What I will say is that for a long time, City Hall has relied exclusively on subsidies and tax breaks. There's a program called City Fresh that I've made my criticisms clear of that spent nearly the same amount of money that we're talking about spending on creating this supermarket. And yet New Yorkers have seen a rise in grocery prices across the board. So, what we are looking to do is to provide something to New Yorkers where they don't have to hope, but they have a guarantee that their essentials will be cheaper at that supermarket. And it's something that we also see as one part of a flourishing ecosystem across the city. I'll give you another example. One thing that many of us love as New Yorkers are our bodegas across New York City. Now, we also know that for bodegas, some of the primary revenue generators are tobacco products and lottery products. Our city-run grocery stores are not going to be selling that. We're talking about the very food and produce that working class New Yorkers are so often priced out of while they're being lectured to and told to eat healthier.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou know, we will continue to look at the Fresh program. I've made my criticisms clear of it as a program that has not translated into so much of what New Yorkers are looking for in terms of affordability. When it comes to the products that we will be selling at the city-run grocery stores, there will be an essential basket of goods that will be guaranteed at a cheaper price and cheaper than what they're being sold at currently.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThe exact price points will be put forward over the course of this procurement process. However, the intent and something that we will fulfill is that New Yorkers will be able to recognize the price differential. It won't just be something that's incidental.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceThis store will be open in 2029. The reason that we're announcing it first is because unlike other stores, this will be built from the ground up. We are talking about a vacant lot that is about one or two blocks over there that is currently laying vacant. It is city-owned. We're going to build it from the ground up. We're going to design it. We're going to build it. We're going to complete it. It's then going to open so that Council Member Salaam's great, great, great, great grandchildren can continue to go to it. The other stores that we will open by 2029, some of them will be in preexisting constructed spaces. They won't require the same kind of timeline. Every single one of the five city-run grocery stores will be open by the end of 2029. The first one will be open next year. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI can't give you an exact example of the cost of a cucumber in our essentials basket. But what I can tell you is that — when New Yorkers come to city-run grocery stores, they will see a clear price differential when it comes to those essentials, and I'm not sure if you'd like to add anything to that point.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWe are confident that this is going to be a critical part of not just the business ecosystem, but also the civic ecosystem across the city.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYou heard from the Deputy Mayor of Economic Justice that the standards will be union standards at these sites. They will be union standards — That means that people will be paid the amount of money that they deserve and it’s—
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceNo, that's not what that means. What it means is these are the amounts of money that the city will be budgeting towards it. And to say anything beyond that is then to preclude ourselves in the contract negotiations with private vendors— Because we're making them union standard jobs. And then that opens the door to all of that kind of living wage potential.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think for a few reasons. The first is that we are talking about building something from the ground up. We're talking about this city's first city-run grocery store in Manhattan that we need to both design, that we also need to construct. We're also going to be constructing it using prevailing wages. And it's also one part of a larger ecosystem, not just in terms of La Marqueta, but also here on this strip. We've seen the MTA has just completed their work in this very area. This requires a lot of interagency and intergovernmental coordination that we're going to be seeing. The store that will be open next year in 2027 and the additional stores that will be open by the end of 2029 will not require this same scale of production. The reason that we're announcing this is so that we can get started on this.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWhen it comes to EDC, we are continuing to conduct those interviews. And also, I think what today shows is that the work of EDC is not reliant on concluding those interviews. That work can continue. We're proud, frankly, of the immense amount of work coming out of EDC to ensure that we can deliver something the city has not seen before, which is a guarantee that these prices will be affordable.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, let's just go through a few things. Grocery prices went up across the nation over the course of COVID and the years since. However, grocery prices in New York outstripped even that of the national average. We have heard corporate leaders on earnings calls talking about how those prices have stayed up, even as some of those costs have come down. That speaks to the fact that oftentimes when government creates a subsidy or a tax break, it's doing so in the hopes that it will be passed on to the consumer. The difference in this approach is that we are not hoping for affordability. We're guaranteeing affordability. In the contract we will have with a private operator, it will be required that the savings that are passed on to that operator then be passed on to the consumer. And I think it comes back to what was being said earlier, which is that for too many working-class New Yorkers, they are not able to budget for the grocery store anymore because they don't know what the price will be. I mean, I think it was Gothamist that recently found the cost of beef going up by, what was it, about 16 percent just over six months. That is something that is incredibly difficult for working-class New Yorkers to keep up with.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYour question was about taking actions that you would then hope be passed on in savings to consumers. My answer to you was that many of these actions that are taken are done in the hopes of savings being passed on. But those guarantees don't come. The city has a City Fresh program. It invested $30 million into that program. Those savings have not been passed on to New Yorkers. This will guarantee those savings. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceSo, we have seen the history of La Marqueta, what it means to people in El Barrio and frankly, even beyond that. And when we speak to the local Council member, I remember you were telling me you have photos of this very institution and the memories. And yet what we know is that for too many New Yorkers, affordable grocery prices have also become a memory. They have also become something that they look back on as opposed to something they can look forward to. And we have seen that the history of this site, the need of this site. Again, we're talking about an area where nearly 40 percent of residents are on public assistance of some sort, where we have 5,000 NYCHA residents on either side of this avenue, where we have so many different ways that working class New Yorkers can get here, whether we're talking by train, by rail, by car or even soon by bike. And that is the exact kind of opportunity the city wants to be able to deliver affordable grocery prices. [Crosstalk.]
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI think that these conversations are continuing. This used to be a part of my life when I was serving in Albany. I am encouraged by the nature of the conversations, and I do expect that these will conclude by the time of our executive budget.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceI haven't yet read that article, but what I will tell you is that I'm looking forward to working with anyone and everyone to transform the most expensive city in the United States of America into one that's affordable for New Yorkers across the five boroughs. And I think just over the past few days, we've had an occasion to remember and recall what the first hundred days have looked like. The accomplishments of an administration and frankly of a city workforce that has been incredible. And so, today, what I'm so excited by is that same city workforce has brought us to the verge of delivering something we haven't yet seen in this city. And when it comes to our DOI commissioner, I'm incredibly proud of the track record that she has, the qualifications she's put forward. We're speaking about someone who led the prosecution of R. Kelly and has shown a track record of independence, of accomplishment, and working at the highest levels rooting out corruption. And I think that those qualifications do speak for themselves.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceYes, that is the short answer, the long answer — that is the answer. [It] is that this city is prepared and that we're going to spend every single day — we're now less than 60 days away to the start of the most-watched sporting tournament in the world. And we're so excited that together with New Jersey, we're going to be hosting eight of those games. And we know that those games are not just opportunities for people to enjoy the World Cup, but also opportunities for them to enjoy our city. And for New Yorkers as well to get a chance to reintroduce themselves to the breadth and the beauty of the city. And I'm really excited by all the work that we're doing across City government to welcome tourists and to welcome our neighbors.
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the sourceWe feel good about our staffing levels and we're excited about everything we're going to deliver. Thank you all very much. ###
Zohran MamdaniCheck at the source
Every passage above is taken from this recording: NYC Mayor's Office transcripts, Transcript: Mayor Mamdani Announces La Marqueta as First Site Identified for City’s Public Grocery Stores.