Anthony Shorris, the new president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, believes his agency can help realize Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s goal of making the city more affordable. One week into his tenure, Shorris said that if Mamdani is to solve food affordability, he must go beyond the plan for five city-owned grocery stores.

"I think groceries was a symbol for the larger issue, food affordability, which is broad and important," Shorris said. He added, "I don’t think the only intervention in food is grocery stores." Shorris, whose career began under the Koch administration, is charged with delivering Mamdani’s economic agenda, focusing on job quality, not just quantity. A recent report found that more than 40 percent of families with children in the city need more money for food. But there is little consensus on city-owned grocery stores; some argue they are not socialist enough, others question their cost-effectiveness, and still others say they intrude into the private market. The program’s scope is limited: just five shops among an estimated 1,000 grocery stores and 10,000 bodegas in a city of over 8 million people, as international discounters like Lidl and Aldi expand here.

Shorris insisted, "We should think of it systemically and ask: Where should the public intervene in the marketplace? There are no marketplaces except marketplaces that governments create." He could not provide details on reshaping the grocery industry beyond the five stores, but argued the city has many levers. "We’re an enormous local government," he said. "So I want to leverage our scale. The Department of Education feeds more people than anyone in the United States, other than the Department of Defense." In his new role, Shorris leads a mayoral nonprofit that predecessors used like a Swiss army knife. Bill de Blasio used it for a citywide ferry system and an Amazon HQ bid; Michael R. Bloomberg brought a research university to Roosevelt Island; Eric Adams brought a soccer stadium to Queens. It is also the sole major city entity expressly for job creation in a city where employment growth remains lackluster and AI eats into entry-level jobs. Mamdani is also relying on the agency for modular toilets at 17 sites.