Taxpayers shouldn’t bankroll Mamdani’s grocery experiment

A New York City nonprofit organization representing grocers is fighting back against Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s city-owned grocery store initiative. 

Frank Garcia, the chairman of the Multicultural Business Coalition, told Spectrum News1 that the organization is considering a lawsuit to stop Mamdani outside of City Hall on May 29. Inside, Garcia attended a hearing with Jeanny Pak, the city’s Economic Development Corporation chief financial officer — the steward of Mamdani’s stores — and City Council Speaker Julie Menin. 

The 501(c)(4) is building a $1 million war chest to halt the municipal grocery stores, as Mamdani announced his second store location, called “The Peninsula” in the Bronx. The Economic Development Corporation is allocating $10 million to redevelop a 20,000-square-foot section of a former juvenile detention facility. 

The second location brings the grocery stores’ cost to over half of the $70 million Mamdani has set aside for the pilot program. It’s unclear why the Democratic