POLITICS: City Council lefties tackle ‘affordability’ by driving up grocery prices. Brilliant

“Affordability” is New Yorkers’ No. 1 issue, per Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani. So what did the City Council just do?

It passed a measure (by a veto-proof majority) virtually guaranteeing grocery prices will shoot up — specifically, by requiring app-based delivery companies to shell out a minimum of about $21 an hour to delivery workers.

The companies will just pass on their added costs to the public, driving business down in the process.

The union representing the city’s first responders say under the new rates, rookie FDNY EMTs — whose starting pay is $39,386 — will earn less than illegal-immigrant deliveristas.

And who knows how many of these delivery workers will soon be out of jobs, thanks to this bill: When the council, in December 2023, bumped up the minimum wage to $18 for app-based restaurant delivery workers, menu prices jumped 12% and app fees spikes 58%.

Consumers spent 10% more on deliveries the next quarter than during the same quarter the year before. (Inflation was just 4% in 2023.)

But not only were customers screwed, so were the people the hike was supposed to help: the workers.

For starters, the average tip amount plunged by $2.64.

Worse, many lost their jobs: Active worker accounts on delivery apps fell 9% in Q1 of 2024 over Q1 in 2023; UberEats couriers sank by 12,000.

This time, some in the industry are projecting the hikes will push up grocery-delivery costs by 46% on New Yorkers directly, and 13% on local grocery stores.

Can you think of a more direct assault on “affordability”?

Actually, we can think of one — and it’ll be plain as day if socialist Zohran Mamdani becomes mayor and tries to make the city “affordable.”