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I think the argument for East Harlem as a “food desert” is the weakest of all the neighborhoods given your map and also it’s basically the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Hunts Point?

It's only a few blocks to the supermarkets on the other side of Bruckner Blvd...a CTown and a Food Fair

if by "a few" you mean "in many cases 10 or more". Also, attached is a photo of Bruckner Blvd street view

They literally did studies and there is a technocratic solution that is even vaguely socialist. The problem is that distribution is very expensive as there is a lack of warehouse space within the city. Build warehouses and lease them to mid size distribution.

This is not TikTok or Threads, do not come into my feed saying "they literally did studies" without linking to the studies or saying anything about their findings

You can look at the original seminal study here. The warehouse space was actually in Mamdani’s proposal before the election butnit has been dropped. There are further studies about how cities like NYC have this problem because of land costs. www.nyc.gov/site/foodpol...

They're local chains/grocers' co-ops. They have high prices and low quality, and that's what Mamdani is trying to fix. National chains offer better deals, and will enter low-income NYC neighborhoods (East Harlem has Aldi and Costco; Whole Foods is nearby in Central Harlem!) – but we don't let them.

The exact barriers vary, but in the case of this immediate area, it's general NIMBYism. National chains want 20,000 to 60,000 sq. ft. of retail space in one building (no, they don't demand parking in Manhattan), and we don't allow enough development to get many of those spaces. In East Harlem, ...

...allowed densities are generally too low to spur redevelopment, and even when they're high enough, we impose so many inclusionary requirements and demolition controls on the older rent-stabilized housing stock that you can't assemble enough small lots to build something national chain-sized.