Mayor Mamdani: ‘It Is Time for a Grand Experiment Once Again,’ We’ll Create a Network of City-Owned Grocery Stores

TRANSCRIPT:

MAMDANI: "Now, we are all here at La Marqueta, at the same sight where 92 years ago, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia stood, and he was battling a cold in the pouring rain to break down 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. LaGuardia 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 LaGuardia 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."