New York City\u2019s\u00a0Economic Development Corporation has been a prime mover in promoting citywide prosperity and growth for 35 years.<\/p>\n
But under the thumb of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, we might need to call it the Economic Stagnation Corporation instead.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the takeaway from a speech by Anthony Shorris, Mamdani\u2019s recently appointed EDC president<\/a> and CEO.<\/p>\n Shorris\u2019 under-the-radar keynote, delivered at City & State\u2019s Sept. 17 \u201cEconomic and Workforce Development Summit,\u201d means we should be\u00a0afraid, very afraid, of the role he envisions for the agency.<\/p>\n The former deputy mayor under Bill de Blasio joined an administration whose hostility toward business enterprise is palpable.<\/p>\n As The Post reported this week, Mamdani\u2019s \u201cinfluencer\u201d minions are plotting a smear campaign<\/a> against the city\u2019s top business leaders \u2014 apparently expanding on the mayor\u2019s infamous tirade against Citadel founder Ken Griffin for owning a $238 million condo.<\/p>\n Never mind that Griffin\u2019s companies employ thousands of New Yorkers, who paid over $2.3 billion in city and state taxes over the last five years.<\/p>\n In his speech, Shorris didn\u2019t acknowledge the capitalists who make the city\u2019s big spending possible.<\/p>\n But he charmingly referred to EDC\u00a0board chairman Lina Khan \u2014 the anti-business crusader<\/a> who headed Joe Biden\u2019s overreaching Federal Trade Commission \u2014 as \u201cmy partner in crime.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe it was a joke.<\/p>\n Yet in the rest of his remarks, the man entrusted with the indispensable, herculean task of\u00a0promoting citywide business growth sure sounded like he\u2019s swallowed Mandani\u2019s socialistic\u00a0Kool-Aid.<\/p>\n A crucial EDC mission entails creating the job-generating conditions that enable poorer citizens to enter the middle class.<\/p>\n Its role is not to shower citizens with government handouts that encourage them to remain poor.<\/p>\n Yet Shorris, parroting the rhetoric of Mamdani and his true believers, repeatedly referenced \u201cinclusion\u201d and \u201ceconomic justice\u201d as EDC goals.<\/p>\n Government, he said, should be \u201cproviding public goods that level the playing field . . . to restore a little bit the balance between working people and the wealthiest and the most powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n He even cited the Marxist dream of a \u201cmass engagement effort\u201d to \u201cmake people in partnership with government concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n Enthusing over Mamdani\u2019s \u201cculture of innovation and design,\u201d Shorris cited\u00a0the five government grocery stores<\/a> that EDC is overseeing \u2014 and promised, \u201cThere is more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n The discount food shops, which will cost\u00a0millions of dollars in public funds and take years to launch, are folly enough<\/a>.<\/p>\n But what else does Shorris have in mind \u2014\u00a0price controls on privately owned grocers?<\/p>\n \u201cFor too long, economic growth has fueled inequality,\u201d Shorris declared. \u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be that way, and our focus at EDC will be to make sure it does not.\u201d<\/p>\n Oh, really?<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to see how job-creation, real-estate development and corporate profitability have somehow hurt the\u00a0Big Apple\u2019s 8.5 million citizens.<\/p>\n If he truly believes it, Shorris needs to share his wisdom.<\/p>\n Exactly how, for example, did EDC\u2019s push to restore the South Street Seaport\u2019s landmarked Tin Building fuel inequality?<\/p>\n Or the $750 million investment EDC spearheaded to create 3,400 new homes in Coney Island, or the $112 million it contributed to design and build the High Line park?<\/p>\n Those are just a few of the EDC successes that have expanded New Yorkers\u2019 opportunities and horizons.<\/p>\n EDC helped create modern industrial spaces at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, revitalize the Hunts Point Produce Market and food-distribution facilities in the South Bronx, and improve the business climate in neighborhoods<\/a> like downtown Jamaica, Queens, and 125th Street in Harlem.<\/p>\n But Shorris\u2019 remarks suggested his heart is in\u00a0chump-change steps like \u201c$7 million of investment in CUNY\u2019s green workforce training infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n Worst of all, he recoiled at the notion of \u201cunbridled growth . . . at the expense of communities or opportunities or equity.\u201d<\/p>\n But what\u00a0\u201cunbridled growth?\u201d<\/p>\n Real-estate projects that create new homes or spread commercial opportunities have been anything but unbridled in recent years, despite the familiar anti-\u201cgentrification\u201d rhetoric community demagogues continue to recycle.<\/p>\n Most every privately backed development must navigate a thicket of guardrails, from zoning regulations to state oversight.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not in the Robert Moses era anymore.<\/p>\n