New York City’s socialist bad boy mayor Zohran Mamdani just made his latest move against the city’s business leaders — and this time, he hit the leadership of Gracie Mansion’s own Mayor’s Fund Board of Advisors. Plus, I have the latest news on Mamdani’s incredibly wrong-headed plan for city-owned grocery stores in today’s double-header of socialist stupidity.
The New York Post reported early Tuesday that Mamdani “axed the advisors of a major nonprofit that channels private sector donations to fund city initiatives in his latest hostile act toward New York business leaders.”
Also, according to the Post, the board has “raised hundreds of millions since its 1995 inception – including a staggering $107 million to support family members of rescue workers killed or injured in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.”
The mass firing marks “the first time in at least three mayoral administrations that all members were let go.” At least? If I’ve done my counting correctly, you only have to go back four mayors before Mamdani to reach the Board’s founding under Rudy Giuliani.
“The creation of a new advisory board is an important next step in reimagining how philanthropy can augment, but not replace, public dollars and public goods, and we are eager to share more about our new board of advisors later this year,” Mamdani senior advisor Dora Pekec told Bloomberg.
Well, that’s exactly what the board did prior to the mayor sacking its entire membership. The mayor’s office told Bloomberg that Mamdani would select new members “later this year,” and it’s a safe bet that his picks will be more in line with his socialist vision for the city.
Which brings us to the latest report on Mamdani’s city-owned, taxpayer-subsidized grocery stores — and no matter how bad you or I thought they would be, now they’re worse.
And Another Thing: If it seems like at least once each week I write something about some new idiocy coming out of Mamdani’s New York City or Gavin Newsom’s California, well, it’s because there’s always some new idiocy.
Finance and winemaking guy Nick Kokonas actually downloaded and read Mamdani’s just-released Request for Proposal (RFP) asking large private grocers for their plans for running city-owned stores. “Forget for a moment whether or not the government should own a grocery store,” Kokonas wrote, and “Let’s review the doc instead.”
It’s… well, let’s just say it’s even more dumberer than you could have imagined.
Then there’s the little matter that the city will give preference to companies willing to bid on operating all five stores, but will award operations one store at a time. The city wants “scale pricing while refusing to award scale.”
According to Kokonas, Mamdani wants stores to run on a “limited SKU model” that reduces costs by limiting selection. But Mamdani also insists that the stores stock “full grocery departments, household goods, culturally specific products, plus kosher, halal, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free and diabetic options.”
There’s much more, but two stick out as particularly thick-headed.
First, the stores’ subsidized goods aren’t means-tested, so “anyone can shop there.” What that means is that as bodegas are forced out of business, or at least to stop carrying non-subsidized staples, “taxpayers will subsidize groceries for affluent shoppers who happen to live nearby, while needy families elsewhere get zero.”
Think of Bane Grocers (as I refer to Mamdani’s government stores) as subsidized Whole Foods for his wealthy white supporters.
But here’s where the stupid leaves third-degree burns.
“The ‘best’ bid promises 30% discounts, best-in-class wages/benefits, local sourcing, sustainability, community programs and full-time jobs,” Kokonas noted, incentivizing bidders to promise the world. But when choosing the winning bid, “20% of the score goes to whoever claims they need the least subsidy.”
So the incentive is to lowball the city, guaranteeing cost overruns that will be paid for by city taxpayers.
Or maybe the new crony members of the Mayor’s Fund Board of Advisors will stop raising money for the families of first responders, and start raising money to pay for the mayor’s stupid city-run grocery stores. I’m just spit-balling here, but it hardly seems impossible.
This is gonna go great, and I have a fresh supply of I Told You Sos all ready to go.
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