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Mamdani Plans to Open First City-Owned Grocery Store in East Harlem (www.nytimes.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world

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Mayor Zohran Mamdani will announce on Sunday that New York City will open a city-owned grocery store in East Harlem in Manhattan by the end of his first term, taking an early step to deliver on a key campaign pledge.

The mayor wants to spend roughly $30 million to build the store at La Marqueta, a city-owned marketplace under elevated train tracks in a predominantly Latino neighborhood. Mr. Mamdani will announce the plan at a speech on Sunday to mark his first 100 days as mayor.

As a candidate, Mr. Mamdani said he would create five city-owned grocery stores, one in each borough, in hopes of bringing down food costs for struggling New Yorkers.

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[–] AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You already know people are gonna bitch and complain about it because it's Mamdani doing it. As though his idea of a government run food store has never been very successful in the States.

I swear, any military family that complains about it, has zero right to complain when they have access to literal government funded stores specifically for them.

Also, you'd never hear the same people bitching about government run stores complaining about those same government funded stores because they look at the military as nothing but a tool to use against anybody they don't like, like the idolizing bootlickers they are.

[–] shweddy@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

They love the idea in east Harlem. The current area is called la marqueta. It used to be like a bazaar with fruits vegetables and butchers but it didn't survive the recent modernization with giant corporations moving into the neighborhood. Eventually it became a local hangout spot for seniors on the weekends for dancing and playing dominos now it'll be a proper food market again.

[+] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social -28 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

🤣😂🤣😂🤣 nationalizing food brokers, straight up fascism.
Wall Street will know what you eat, how much you buy, how much to data break you, insurance premium, and New Yorkers, who still have deathcamps, will slop it up.

True socialism would made a public foodbank where everyone can eat for free. No questions, no cameras, no cops. Come eat, cook, have a good time.

But that's not Mamdani true praxis.

[–] nerdyshades@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Uh, what? The article doesn't mention implementation. How did you get that he was nationalizing "food brokers"?

There's also no mention of surveillance in this city-run store.

Also, fascism's tenet of merging with corporate power doesn't start with small businesses, it starts with large corporations as an economic boost.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social -4 points 2 weeks ago

nationalizing “food brokers”?

Theory: Why do you need a merchant to set prices for food already cultivated by farmers, when you can directly source the food from locals?

By making state food brokers chains (“grocery stores”), he can capitalize on your desires and needs, instead of you sourcing your needs instead.

no mention of surveillance

I’m wondering your level of naïveté here. Which level of surveillance are you comfortable with? Patriot Act style finance surveillance, or NY’s own infrastructure? I ask, because food brokers already analyze and invest in your habits.

fascism’s tenet of merging with corporate power doesn’t start with small businesses, it starts with large corporations as an economic boost.

New York is quite a big corporation, and if you live in it, you're already paying for it. Unless somehow found a way to exempt yourself from being taxed. The merging of your taxation with your food habits, is quite a power to leverage huh.

[–] HarneyToker@lemmy.world -1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What happens when someone comes and takes/eats more than their fair share and it does not leave enough for everyone else? What happens when “scalpers” come to take the food and resell it?

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social -3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Same thing that happens when capitalists pillage indigenous folks off their resources in the Middle East: they are starved to death.
Starvation is a capitalist arsenal. There’s plenty of food to go around, store, and reharvest.
Mamdani isn't interested feeding New York by nationalizing food brokering, but seeing how well he can starve us just enough to be obedient Little Eichmann.

What happens when “scalpers” come to take the food and resell it?

This quite economically doesn't make sense, since folks could go to the foodbank giving and reharvesting free food. “Scalpers’” competition would be nobody, because they would have none to convert the “stolen” free food into something valuable the scalpers can liquidate. Food spoils btw. It's not in scalpers interests to keep “stolen” free food longer than their expiration.

Are you by any chance confused about what progressive politics are all about?