California metropolis eyes Mamdani-style state-backed grocery shops

San Francisco voters might quickly be requested to bankroll government-backed grocery shops and crack down on so-called “zombie” retailers underneath a pair of proposals that echo New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s controversial meals affordability plan.

Supervisor Bilal Mahmood is predicted to unveil two poll measures for November that may create a fund to help grocery shops and impose taxes on chain firms that go away grocery shops and pharmacies vacant, The San Francisco Normal reported.

The measures come as San Francisco continues to wrestle with grocery retailer and pharmacy closures, leaving some neighborhoods with out easy accessibility to contemporary meals and important items.

Grocery costs have additionally risen amid town’s broader affordability challenges.

One proposal would set up a fund that might obtain each metropolis {dollars} and personal philanthropic contributions to assist hold grocery costs reasonably priced. Mahmood’s plan goes past merely subsidizing shops.

The fund might additionally assist nook shops convert into full-service grocery markets with contemporary meals and permit town to buy vacant buildings and lease them at below-market charges to grocers keen to maintain costs low.

The second poll measure would goal “zombie shops” by taxing chain firms that deliberately go away grocery shops and pharmacies vacant.

“Everybody deserves entry to contemporary meals, prescription drugs, and on a regular basis necessities near house,” Mahmood mentioned, in line with the outlet.

The proposal mirrors parts of a grocery-store plan Mamdani has been selling in New York. The trouble has drawn criticism from skeptics who query whether or not a comparatively small variety of publicly supported shops could make a significant dent in meals prices throughout a significant metropolis.

The proposal is already drawing questions from enterprise teams.

“Everybody agrees San Francisco wants extra grocery shops and pharmacies,” Chris Wright, senior vp of Advance SF, advised SF Normal.

“The query is about whether or not a brand new tax will convey them again, or whether or not we should always focus extra on addressing the underlying causes these companies left within the first place.”

Others have questioned whether or not the plan would attain the folks it’s supposed to assist.

Enrico Moretti, an economics professor at UC Berkeley, famous that many low-income residents already obtain help by way of CalFresh, California’s model of the Supplemental Diet Help Program (SNAP).

“The inhabitants this proposal seeks to assist is already largely coated by meals help packages,” Moretti mentioned.

He additionally argued {that a} city-backed grocery retailer program would doubtless be open to all residents, together with those that don’t face meals insecurity.

In the meantime, San Francisco’s first-ever government-funded free grocery retailer — District 10 Market — opened in 2024 to assist low-income residents residing in San Francisco’s District 10 neighborhoods.

The market additionally operates as a group connector of companies for low-income households, in line with their web site.

Supporters imagine that the measures might enhance meals entry whereas creating jobs.

“San Francisco has a possibility to convey reasonably priced groceries again to neighborhoods and create good-paying, union jobs for communities,” mentioned Ademola Oyefeso, a world vp with the United Meals and Business Employees, a labor group that suggested on New York Metropolis’s coverage.

The value tag for the proposal stays unclear. Mahmood mentioned a report from town controller is predicted quickly and estimated the tax might generate a number of million {dollars} in income every year.

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