Mamdani’s city-owned supermarkets will fight the one force no city has ever beaten: the market

Mitch Korbey, chair of Herrick's Land Use and Zoning Practice, was quoted by Fortune in an article that discusses NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's proposed city-owned grocery stores.

The article notes that food deserts and high grocery prices are real problems in New York, particularly in lower-income neighborhoods where residents have limited access to fresh food but adds that the city's own zoning and land-use regulations may contribute to the challenges facing the city's affordable grocery stores. The article argues that rules restricting large retail stores, especially in manufacturing-zoned areas, have discouraged major supermarket chains from opening stores where they are most needed.

Mitch told Fortune, "Many new, large supermarkets would open if the city would lift the rules that have long outlived their usefulness."

New York has so many drug store chains, such as Walgreens and CVS, where shoppers can get soda, chips, snacks and lots of other package good -- but not fresh food. The reason big supermarkets, operated by national and regional operators, are so often excluded is an old zoning law that remains in effect. In the 1970s, New York City enacted a zoning regulation targeted at protecting the fast-eroding industrial base. The rule's purported goal: Keeping big retail stores out of spaces used for manufacturing. The law got strong support, and continues to be championed, by local merchants.

"It did nothing to prevent the fall of manufacturing," says Korbey. "It's outdated, but it remains on the books." 

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