00:00On this warm spring day, I want to acknowledge we are joined here by a number of leaders both
00:07across our administration and our city. We have our Deputy Mayor, Julie Su, who is here with us.
00:13We have our Interim President of EDC, Jeanne Pack, who is here with us. We have our Council
00:18Members, Elsie Incarnacion, as well as Yusuf Salaam, who are here with us. We have our
00:23Manhattan Borough President, Brad Boyleman-Siegel, and we also have the Director of Uptown Grand
00:27Central, Kerry King, who is here with us. Now, we are all here at La Maqueta at the same
00:34site where, 92 years ago, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia stood, and he was battling a cold in the pouring
00:41rain to break down on this very institution of La Maqueta. A city-owned public market opened
00:48two years later, in 1936. It cut overhead for push-card vendors and lowered consumer costs.
00:55La Guardia said it was, quote, an answer to those who said the unemployed had been forgotten.
01:02The New York Times described it succinctly. City tries experiment. New York City, it is
01:07time for a grand experiment once again. Just as La Guardia used government to respond to
01:13the challenges of the Great Depression, we will use government to respond to rising prices
01:18and unaffordable groceries. Since the pandemic, grocery prices have gone up, and they haven't
01:24come back down. Between 2013 and 2023, grocery prices increased in New York City by nearly 66%,
01:33significantly higher than the national average. During our campaign, we promised New Yorkers
01:39that we would create a network of city-owned grocery stores, one in each barrel. And we are here today
01:46to celebrate the site of the Manhattan store, La Maqueta, which will be open by 2029.
01:51It was the best thing we've done here.
01:51You have something that we worked with on campus and we decided,
01:51I'll be looking back at this point.
01:52You have a bunch of people who, I like to add a couple of people.
01:52I've got to be there.
01:52I can't go back at this point.
01:52You'll have to encourage us to do anything, we know that we're going to
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