Governor Kathy Hochul, New York’s female version of California’s Gavin Newsome, was demanding wealthy residents who fled the state return and pay for her mistakes, while New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, was unintentionally doing everything he could to ensure they ignored her and stay put in sunny Florida.
Fifty years ago, President Gerald Ford gave a speech that blamed New York’s city’s fiscal crisis on city officials and vowed to veto an aid bill, resulting in a NY Daily News headline that blared: “Ford To New York: Drop Dead.”
Fifty years later residents who fled are ignoring pleas by the mayor and that state’s governor to come back and cough up cash to pay for their extreme leftwing fantasies.
New York City’s newly elected top commie, Mamdani, announced that the first city-owned grocery store is coming and will cost that city’s taxpayers a hefty $30 million. He’s planning four more of these Soviet style stores for taxpayers who haven’t fled South.
Why not buy one of the empty grocery store sites available in the same neighborhoods that Mandani has targeted for his subsidized stores? Many are on the market for less than $2 million each.
Mamdani says his first store will be built in East Harlem, and operate under a rent- and tax-free agreement enabling it to offer groceries at a lower price than privately-owned competitors in the area, who fear the establishment may affect their businesses. And they’re right. And what about the small mom and pop neighborhood bodegas? Wouldn’t subsidized stores put them out of business? Will the government stores offer slices and subs at 2 am?
Why would a former fed up wealthy businessman who specializes in building and operating grocery stores come back to compete with a government subsidized store? What’s the incentive? These two misguided politicos have zero understanding of how private enterprise or capitalism work. They believe that taxpayers owe them and businesses that flee to seek greener pastures must be punished. Other than government, neither of these two elected taxpayer parasites have ever held an actual job.
According to The New York Post Abdul Shaher, a NYC resident is concerned about the proposed store’s efficiency, given its massive price tag. “How can they manage something like that? he laughed.
Manhattan Institute’s Adam Lehodey noted that a store of the proposed size, 25,000 square feet, should cost about half of the amount announced.
“Thirty million dollars for one store is exceptionally high, considering land prices are a significant part of the capital costs of new construction, and the city has announced that rents will be waived,” he pointed out.
I’ve visited stated-owned stores and they offer nothing of value. Shoppers in them purchased items there only because they had no other choices.
I personally visited East Berlin’s government-run food stores in the 1960s and 1980s before the Soviet Union collapsed. We were required to exchange about $20 of currency at the border for East German Marks. The East Germans wouldn’t exchange it back upon departure and it was worthless in the West.
So, we went looking for a place to spend it and wandered into a food store. Shelves were mostly empty and those that weren’t contained items that even the East Germans didn’t want.
I scanned the scarcely stocked shelves and selected a bottle of liqueur, one of the handful of items available. It was one of the worst tasting liquids I ever consumed.
At the time I was working and living in Paris and a few months later, when a few friends gathered in my apartment, I had occasion to offer one guest, who was singing the praises of socialism, a glass of this wretched stuff without mentioning where I purchased it.
He sipped it, scowled, then chokingly asked: “What is THIS?”
I told him: “It’s what you’ve been talking about.”
Mamdani and Hochul are learning a lesson in economics – capital and capitalism go and stay where they are well-treated. And New York State and NYC are no longer those places, much to the detriment of residents who are not wealthy enough to flee.
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Meet The Mayor’s Wife: While Mayor Mamdani was busy at city hall fleecing the city’s more affluent residents his wife, Rama Duwaji, was ingratiating herself with radical terrorist supporters recently hosting Mahmoud Khalil, the keffiyeh-wearing leader of anti-Israel, pro-Hamas Columbia University agitators, as a houseguest at Gracie Mansion.
Mrs. Mamdani “liked” the pro-October 7 social media posts that called the rapes of Israeli women a “mass hoax” and celebrated the terrorist group’s mass murder as an act of “collective liberation.”
If the Trump administration is successful in its efforts to deport the leftist loon, Khali, I assume the Mamdani family will host his going-away party attended by people who George Orwell described as feeling more ashamed of standing for the national anthem that they would for stealing from a poor box.
The Mamdani family are like the neighbors down the street that you warn your kids to avoid.
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Meanwhile Back At The Ranch: The bi-weekly News Leader newspaper ran a glowing front page article, Wednesday, April 15, announcing the appointment of Alexandra Wilmer as the newly appointed head of the Nassau County Chamber of Commerce.
The article quoted the Chamber’s press release with Chamber Board Chair Dunia Taylor gushing about Ms. Wilmer’s qualifications.
Ms. Wilmer listed a variety of Chamber goals without specifically naming what they are. She concluded a lengthy list of generic “business community” pledges saying: “We all want the right decisions to be made at the local government level, and we all want businesses to thrive. That’s true across the board from Fernandina beach to Bryceville.”
She didn’t mention the elephant in the room – Paid Parking in Fernandina Beach, the community with the bulk of the Chamber’s members. Why not?
I have yet to talk to one Fernandina Beach business owner or operator who favors paid parking.
What about the controversial Impact Fees used by the city to shakedown local businesses? What’s the chamber’s position on those? Has it polled its members? The Chamber has never said.
Why didn’t News Leader reporter Nick Blank ask?
The names and faces at the Chamber change but the mental furniture needs rearranging.
I assume the new leadership is busily stocking up on cheap wine and rubbery cheese cubes for its next membership open house, the only benefit I’ve witnessed that this worthless organization offers its members for their monthly dues.
Tell me where I’m going wrong.
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School Daze? A concerned reader suggests that if the Nassau County School Board wants voters to cough up more cash that it dips into valuable assets it’s currently sitting on.
“What they DON’T tell voters is that over the past 11 years, their assets have increased in value by $26 million, a 73.2% increase due to a surge in property values,” he says, adding, “The numbers are from, and can be confirmed by, the Nassau County Property Appraiser’s office.”
Why not sell some of those nonperforming assets instead of raising taxes?
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Things I Wish I Had Said: “While it is true that you learn with age, the down side is that what you learn is often what a damn fool you were before.” – Thomas Sowell
Dave, I think that you are jumping the gun on the new chamber leadership. Alexandra has not been given enough time to even inventory the size and depth of the previously mismanaged organization. Regina, the previous boss was found to be on the take and lining the pockets of family members for years which was discovered through the courage of whistleblowers. An article exposing what has happened within the Chamber of Commerce over that course of Regina’s leadership would be a better approach here and may help in rebuilding the team. There may even be a reason that Alexandra was chosen beyond her credentials.
Went downtown Wednesday mid morning this week first time since the Paid Parking began. Amazing the number of open spaces on Third Street, think 2 cars were parked. Turned on to Center, you could have borrowed a cannon from Ft Clinch and shot it off maybe hitting one other car besides mine. With the Paid Parking going so well guess we should expect a decrease in our taxes soon! 🤣🤣
Dave, great blog this week. I’d like to point out this is the first blog in ages, you haven’t referenced a Mel Brooks film. Nicely done! The notion of government run supermarkets is a huge farce and once they are robbed, yes robbed and fights break out, it’ll die like the ones in other cities. New York is a state run by idiots with no commonality with the population they supposedly serve..the mafia could do a better job in NYC, than commie Mamdani.
As far as new leadership at the Chamber goes, let’s give Ms Wilmer a chance. There’s much to learn in this county and even more to fix.
As far as the enormous mud pit on Ash St, lets let the river fill it in (which would take a few hours if the pumps were shut off) and dump a boatful of live shrimp in it. With Shrimp Fest right around the corner (literally!), imagine how much fun the kiddies could have catching their own “peel and eats”. Fun for the Whole family!
I now rarely visit downtown Fernandina Beach, with the rare exception to attend a once-a-month club meeting on Thursday evening. Driving down Centre Street looked quite different from my previous experiences. The downtown area looked like a community enduring tough times. Gone were the people crowding the sidewalks and the difficulty finding a parking spot. What I did see were folks standing in front of the parking kiosks tapping feverishly on their phones, trying to figure out how to pay for parking. Kudos to the City Commission; they have succeeded in cleaning up the downtown streets of the crowd of people who used to gather there on a pleasant and warm spring or summer evening.
WoW ! ! ! As always Dave!
I spent two winters in Poland almost 40 years ago—yes for a woman of course—and even smuggled Amber stones 20lbs at a time across three countries for an old Yugoslavian man trying to recreate Leonardo DiVinci’s oil painting varnish. Back then a loaf of bread cost between 3,000,000 to 5,000,000 Zlotys if I can recall. I can testify to the bad liquor and communist country grocery stores.
Chamber of Commerce is a complete waste. People listening to themselves talking and posturing. Anti-gun, and as useless to a serious business as the Association of Realtor’s partnership program.
David’s downtown has its own parking lot, and that’s where I go. I would also argue that the parking signs do not mention the paid parking hours, and it takes a smartphone to read the QR code, which intrinsically creates a technology discrimination obvious enough to dismiss any and all tickets. Just like National Parks will soon not be able to refuse cash as it is a legal tender and one should be able to visit a park with bad credit and no credit card.
What a mess all of this, but I ramble again . . .
Apparently a recipient of my mail must have given you some of the contents. It’s not an icrease of sets but an increase in RLE revenue. RLE stands for Required Local Effort. It is a mandatory property tax levy that all 67 Florida school districts must impose to receive state funding through the Florida Education Finance Program (FEFP).
The District, in their Millage Resolution, highlights the 2.0 mills reduction over the last 11 years in the RLE, the required local effort. They use this as leverage for the need for the 1 Mill to pass. What they DON’T say is that over the last 11 years, their revenue has actually increased by $26 million, a 73.2% increase! This is from the Nassau County Property Appraiser.
2014-2015 RLE Millage rate 5.068 Revenue $35.5 Million
2025-2026 RLE Millage rate 3.043 Revenue $61.5 Million, a 73.2% increase in revenue