Hmm: $30 million to build a single grocery store?

Mayor Zohran Mamdani made a big deal of siting his first city-owned grocery by La Marqueta, the marketplace his distant predecessor Fiorello La Guardia opened in East Harlem to help locals save on fruits and vegetables, but the tribute’s barely worth TikTok-level scrutiny.  

No way would Mayor La Guardia smile on the “sewer socialism” that Mamdani is pitching: Such gold-plated boondoggles would only earn contempt from New York City’s Depression-era chief executive.

Not least because La Guardia never would’ve indulged a vanity project that’s likely to undercut other hard-working grocers in the area.

Then again, La Guardia never considered himself a socialist: He was, in fact . . . a Republican.