Mayor Mamdani, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, has also advocated for “seizing the means of production,” the Marxist belief in taking private-owned businesses.
The first-term mayor appears to be dabbling with that political theory as mayor, first by launching a plan to seize and transfer privately-owned apartment buildings if city government finds them deficient and neglected.
Those properties, he has said, would be handed over to "responsible stewards," including the tenants themselves.
Mamdani has also announced a plan to open and operate a city-run grocery store in the city’s five boroughs, offering essentials such as milk, eggs, and vegetables to New Yorkers at 30 percent below current market costs.
“In the wealthiest city, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, no New Yorker should have to worry about being able to afford to feed their family,” Mamdani, appearing a July 27 press conference, stated.
The first city-owned supermarket is set to open in 2027 in the Brooklyn, according to news reports.
In an appearance on the “Washington Watch” program, New York Congresswoman Claudia Tenney said there is a bodega operating and competing for business on every New York City block.
“They're mostly run by people, who are really working hard every day to struggle to put food on the table for their own families,” Tinney said, “but to also compete in a very difficult and very competitive atmosphere in New York City.”
Those stores already compete against each other to survive, she said, and now they will compete against the city with heavily discounted grocery prices, too.
New York City is home to an estimated 13,000 bodegas, which are small-scale grocery stores. Those stores are known for being family-owned businesses that provide essential groceries for the neighborhood.
The highest number of bodegas operates in Brooklyn, where the first taxpayer-paid grocery store is opening.
“This is going to be a disaster,” she warned. “There are going to be a lot of people that are hardworking, middle-class Americans, new immigrants, who are going to be put out of business.”
Regarding the Mayor’s plan to crack down on landlords with neglected rentals, Tinney said the very worst landlord in New York City is the City of New York and its public housing and subsidized housing.
“They have problems with everything from heat to air conditioning, to rats, to cockroaches, to doors being broken, broken elevators not working,” she said. “That's what happens when you have government-run operations in most cases.”
