Lurie Daniel Favors: You are listening to the Lurie Daniels Favors Show on Sirius XM's Urban Views, where talk empowers and becomes action. And it's not often that I get a chance to talk with people that I actually had an opportunity to vote for. And voted for with some real intentionality behind what it is I want to see happen in my city. And I'm joined right now by someone that I did vote for, his name is Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the 112th mayor in New York City. He was sworn in as mayor on January 1, 2026. Prior to that, he represented the 36th New York State Assembly District and its neighborhoods of Astoria, Ditmars-Steinway and Astoria Heights. And he is here today to talk more about this massive unveiling that took place yesterday in New York City. There is going to be a significant change in the way we buy our groceries. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, welcome to the Lurie Daniels Favors Show, it's a pleasure to have you.
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: It is such a pleasure to be on the show. Thank you so much for having me. And I will just say before we even jump into the topic about grocery stores and our city-run plan; I do really just want to acknowledge and appreciate your work. Frankly, as one of the original commissioners to the New York City Racial Justice Commission, because it has been - it has been the foundation for a lot of what our work has looked like, in releasing our first-ever Racial Equity Plan and even when we're talking about groceries, we know that we can't disentangle that from the ways in which so many neighborhoods across the city have not been provided with the food access that they deserve.
Favors: I'm so glad to hear you say that because that Racial Equity Plan, that was one of my babies, that was one of the things I was very happy and very proud to be a part of. And frankly, I'm still glad to see that there is also a vision within your administration that does the equitable access to resources like groceries and equitable access to data, like the data that would inform what it takes to have a true cost of living measurement in this city. Extraordinarily important, all of which went into, my understanding is - and all of that went into the way that you seek out this NYC grocery recipe for affordability. Talk to us a bit about that and then I do want to turn back to the Racial Equity Plan, because both of them are so intimately intertwined.
Mayor Mamdani: Absolutely. So, when it comes to our New York City-run grocery stores, we're talking about five grocery stores one in each borough. And what we just announced was that each of these grocery stores is going to have a 30 percent discount on core - on a core basket of goods. And this is 30 percent relative to the typical retail price in New York City. And it's going to apply to all fresh produce; meat, seafood; along with around 20 other items like cheese, milk and bread; as well as pasta soup, beans, nuts, rice and flour. And we're expecting that New Yorkers will save $90 a month as a result of this [and] about $1,000 per year.
And the reason for the 30 percent is one, it is something that will make a tangible impact in the amount of money New Yorker's will have left in their pocket. And two, it's also a reflection of the amount that costs have actually gone up since just before the pandemic at the grocery store. And this is one way that we can make it a little bit easier for New Yorkers to buy the things that they need to keep their family healthy and to keep their family fed.
Favors: And so this is why - and y'all know I don't really fawn over politicians, not that I am at this moment - but the one reason I started out this introduction by saying that you were someone I voted for, is because my understanding as to your administration's vision was that you are going to continue the work that the Racial Justice Commission has put forward, equitable access to food and food security being principal among them.
We talk a lot about food deserts, I prefer food apartheid because deserts are naturally occurring, apartheids regions are not. And so, this vision for the five grocery stores, amounting to real dollars in the pockets of New Yorkers, it feels to me like this is really one of the concrete promises - a fulfillment of a concrete promise that you made during the campaign. How will you build and expand on this? You're literally, you know, under two years in your administration, what's your plan to expand on this project so that we are seeing a spirit of affordability, if you will, spread throughout the city?
Mayor Mamdani: Well, you know, I think it's exactly as you said: you have to earn the trust and deliver on the hope that people have had. And what we're talking about with this is - it's not just an idea or an initiative. We are going to deliver these five city-run stores by the end of 2029. The first one is going to be delivered by the next year at La Peninsula in Hunts Point in the Bronx. And just to your point about how this fits in with a longer view of racial equity and also the long shadow of, frankly, policies that have disproportionately impacted Black and brown New Yorkers across the five boroughs - La Peninsula is also where we had Spofford Juvenile Detention Facility. And so, a site that used to be a place which was, you know, found time and time again, to be, you know, taking advantage of so many young people and violating the law in its doing so, is now going to be a place where people come to for affordability and for being that little bit closer to dignity. And then the next site that we've announced is La Marqueta, which is going to be in El Barrio in East Harlem. And that is also carrying the flame forward from Fiorello LaGuardia's opening of that site as a city-run market providing lower-cost produce to those who were being priced out of what was being sold at the time.
So, it has to also be a recognition of what has come before and looking to build on that work. And frankly, Lurie, that's why it's a real pleasure to be on the show because when I think about us releasing the Racial Equity Plan before the end of August, and I think about our implementation of that as a new framework across every single city agency and department - it's only possible because you and others were doing the work prior to the administration, so that we could have something to pick up on as opposed to have to build it from scratch.
Favors: And then I'm gonna pay it forward to thank all of the protestors who took to the streets during the summer after George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor - your protesting in those streets is what forced the then mayor to create that commission, which is what allowed us to get those ballot proposals on the ballot, which New York City voters came out and voted for overwhelmingly. Nothing happened in isolation; we all have to support the work of advancement.
Let's talk briefly about this Racial Equity Plan because it is so significant, and I know that you said it would be out by the end of August. My understanding is that it was supposed to be out at the end of this month. I'd like for you to tell us what you're going to do to address the people's recommendations. I know that commissions like NYC CORE - the Commission on Racial Equity - they set out a report. Talk to us about how you plan to strengthen CORE, and even, if you could, speak to some of the reparations work that they're leading on behalf of the city. I mean, you [can] really talk about what that pursuit of justice will look like.
Mayor Mamdani: Absolutely. So, I think, as you said, one of the critical components of the Mayor's Office of Equity and Racial Justice, as well as the Commission on Racial Equity, is soliciting public feedback as a part of this. We want New Yorkers to actually be engaging with this vision and to help shape this vision. And so, after we made the release of the preliminary Racial Equity Plan in April, we had a 30-day comment period where we were collecting that kind of engagement, and that's helping to shape the finalized version of this plan, which will be released before the end of August - sometime before then. And what we've also been doing in advance of that is disseminating that input that we received from New Yorkers directly to city agencies for review and consideration as we are putting together that final Racial Equity Plan.
And I think the last point I'll just make is that it is critically important that, you know - there's often an attempt to rewrite the history of our city as if we were somehow removed from even the legacy of slavery. And what we see is if we are taking an honest and accurate approach to what New York City's role was, you will see that complicity is something that cannot be debated. And you can also see that the striving for dignity is one that we can celebrate in our own city's history when we look at places like Weeksville, and that we have to be able to both acknowledge that and celebrate what it looked like to fight back against that while we chart a new path forward.
Favors: And as you're charting this new path forward, you've got a number of additional considerations. There's the matter of the significant Haitian population that we have here in New York City and the threat to TPS. There's also that there's the status of the Democratic Socialist candidates - including ones you've endorsed - who have come under a lot of fire lately. Apparently, for winning their race and beating out establishment incumbents. If you could, I know we have just a minute left, if you can speak a bit to the concern of the Haitian community in New York City and some advice, perhaps, for party leadership as to how they should factor in the reality that their base, that their voters, seem to like what the DSA is offering right now?
Mayor Mamdani: You know, what I've said is, "What is the Democratic Party if not its voters?" And as you've made it clear, the voters are speaking loud and clear that they want to see a new vision for our Democratic Party. And frankly, it's a vision that has more in common with the new deal than the raw deal that so many of us have been having to explain away to New Yorkers as to why they have to experience that. And what has been so exciting has been to see that that hunger, it is true in different parts of the city, and what it wants to see is something that really brings working people back to the heart of our politics' focus.
And to Haitian New Yorkers, I know that the judge gave a stay until over the weekend, but Haitian New Yorkers as well as Syrian New Yorker have been having to live in this almost permanent state of insecurity and anxiety because of the refusal of Congress to act, to actually give these families permanent protection. We're speaking about New Yorkers who are part of the life blood of our city. And our administration is not going to allow these communities to be terrorized in these moments of uncertainty. And so, I've directed our Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs to connect families to free and confidential legal help, and our city services as a whole will remain open to every New Yorker regardless of their status.
[Crosstalk.]
Favors: When you vote for someone and you get a chance to hold them accountable, it's a very powerful part of this system, and I'm grateful to you for allowing yourself - for giving us some time to have this conversation.
Mayor Mamdani: Thank you so much, Lurie. Same to you.
