A newly formed association representing community supermarket and warehouse owners, along with several business groups, sued New York City on Monday to try to stop Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to create city-run supermarkets.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, claims that the city has not conducted required studies on the impact of its proposal to establish five municipal supermarkets and that, by doing so, it would be violating state law.
Frank Garcia, president of the Multicultural Business Coalition (MBC), the nonprofit that filed the lawsuit on August 24, told our sister publication, amNewYork, that the legal action is part of a broader political effort to confront New York leaders linked to the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
In the lawsuit, the MBC claims that the city has not adequately evaluated its proposal to build a municipal supermarket in each district, one of the main campaign promises of Mamdani, who is a member of DSA.
The organization also maintains that the project has not gone through the environmental and community reviews required by law.
Mamdani responded Monday that he is confident his proposal will withstand court challenge.
“I continue to have full confidence in both the legality and importance of our initiative to offer five city-run supermarkets, one in each district, to the residents of our city,” Mamdani told reporters. “We are talking about a response to a cost of living crisis that has caused food prices to increase by around 30% in recent years.”
Merchants fear not being able to compete with municipal stores
The supermarket and warehouse owners who support the lawsuit maintain that businesses from minority communities could be at a disadvantage compared to establishments whose prices would be subsidized by the city.
According to the lawsuit, this competition could cause economic losses and even the closure of some businesses.
Asked what steps he would take to help winery owners, Mamdani said he would seek to generate savings through the municipal initiative aimed at reducing bureaucracy and removing administrative obstacles.
Garcia said he could theoretically support a city-run supermarket if his association were involved in planning the project. However, he claimed that Mamdani and his administration have refused to meet him.
During the same interview, García also expressed his opposition to other initiatives by the mayor, including his support for the City Council’s Delivery Protection Act, a measure that seeks to force Amazon to modify its delivery model through contracting companies.
García, who claimed to have directed the state’s Coalition of Hispanic Chambers of Commerce for 20 years, helped create the MBC as a nonprofit organization under the 501(c)(4) tax classification. This structure allows the organization to lobby while avoiding some of the donor disclosure requirements that apply to other entities.
“We are going to fight against this mayor. Now we are learning from the unions and we are going to fight,” said García, who added that the coalition represents about 50 chambers of commerce from different communities.
In May, shortly after the organization was created, Garcia told the New York Post that he expected to receive a $1 million donation. However, by the end of August, that contribution apparently had not yet materialized.
Garcia said the organization had accrued $50,000 in debt to cover the legal costs of filing its most recent lawsuit and was still defining who would assume legal representation of the group during the process. He expected to announce details at a news conference scheduled for later this week.
“We are focusing on all DSA candidates,” Garcia said. “That’s going to be part of this and we’re asking big American businesses to support us.”
