Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani held a press conference Monday morning in the Bronx to make what his office billed as an affordability announcement, according to the public schedule released by the NYC Mayor’s Press Office.
The press conference began at 10 a.m. at 1215 Spofford Ave., the Mayor’s Press Office said, and the event was open to press. The mayor took questions there, and the office said the event would be streamed live on the city’s website and carried on Encompass Port CTY-3653.
The press office did not detail the substance of the affordability announcement in either version of the schedule, describing it only as an effort “to make an affordability announcement.” The Mayor’s Office later announced at the event that the Spofford site, known as The Peninsula, had been selected as the second location for the city’s public grocery stores, and Gothamist reported it would be the city’s first city-owned grocery store.
An updated schedule the press office issued the morning of the event added two meetings that did not appear in the advisory circulated the day before. At noon, the office said, Mamdani was to meet with JPMorgan Chase CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon, and at 3:45 p.m. he was to meet with Goldman Sachs CEO and Chairman David Solomon. The press office said both meetings were closed to press. Bloomberg reported that the meetings went forward, and Crain’s New York Business characterized them as part of the mayor’s continued courting of Wall Street.
Later in the day, at 6:30 p.m., the mayor was scheduled to host a pre-Shavuot celebration in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month, according to the press office. The office said media interested in attending had to RSVP and warned that, due to what it called extreme space constraints, an RSVP did not guarantee entry.