New York · Diaspora Watch
Mamdani Hands New York’s Economic Engine to Khan and Shorris
The mayor’s picks to run the city’s Economic Development Corporation will shape housing, small business and jobs in the Brooklyn and Bronx neighbourhoods that tens of thousands of Vincentians and other Caribbean New Yorkers call home.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday named a former federal antitrust chief and a veteran city administrator to run the agency that steers billions of dollars in development across the five boroughs, a decision watched closely by the large Caribbean community that has made the city a second home.
Mamdani appointed Anthony “Tony” Shorris as president and chief executive officer of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), and named Lina Khan, the former chair of the Federal Trade Commission, as chair of the corporation’s board of directors. The pairing ends a seven-month search for the city’s top economic development job and marks the clearest signal yet of how a democratic socialist mayor intends to run one of the most powerful, and most business-facing, agencies in city government.
“Today’s appointees not only share a vision for the future of this office, but a commitment to executing it,” Mamdani said at a City Hall press conference. He described the duo, only half in jest, as the economic policy version of a championship team.
“Ensure justice is the driving principle behind all of our work.”
Zohran Mamdani, Mayor of New York CityA wonk and a watchdog
Shorris is a familiar figure in city government. He began his career in the administration of Mayor Ed Koch in 1979, a decade before Mamdani was born, and went on to serve as first deputy mayor under Bill de Blasio, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and deputy chancellor of the city’s public school system. He is currently a partner at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he has had a hand in building close to 200,000 units of affordable housing and has overseen roughly 350,000 city employees.
“It is an honour, and a bit of a surprise, to be standing up here with all of you after eight years away from City Hall,” Shorris said.
Khan’s appointment, which is unpaid, is the more striking of the two. As FTC chair under President Joe Biden, she brought antitrust cases against Amazon and other technology giants, arguing they had been allowed to amass too much power. She first drew national attention with a 2017 law journal article contending that Amazon operated as a monopoly, and was appointed to lead the FTC at the age of 34. She co-chaired Mamdani’s mayoral transition team before taking the EDC post.
As board chair, Khan will be positioned to scrutinise an agency that critics have long accused of being too close to real estate and business interests. Business leaders have watched the two appointments carefully, reading Shorris’s corporate pedigree as reassurance and Khan’s antitrust record as a warning that the agency’s priorities are shifting.
What the EDC actually does
The nonprofit corporation is one of the city’s most consequential agencies. It manages more than 60 million square feet of property, runs over 100 active projects worth some six billion dollars in construction investment, issues business incentives, and develops city-owned land. Under Mamdani it has also taken on a signature experiment: a pilot of five city-run grocery stores, one in each borough, aimed at pushing down food prices.
The mayor has reshaped the agency’s mission from the top down. Rather than appointing a deputy mayor for economic development, as previous administrations did, Mamdani created the first-ever post of deputy mayor for economic justice, signalling that affordability and equity, not growth alone, would drive the office’s agenda. In a statement, James Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, welcomed the Shorris appointment, calling him a thoughtful and experienced leader with a deep understanding of the city’s economy.
What it means for the Caribbean diaspora
New York is home to one of the largest Caribbean populations outside the region, concentrated in Brooklyn neighbourhoods such as Flatbush, East Flatbush and Crown Heights, and in parts of the Bronx. Vincentians are woven through those communities as small-business owners, homeowners, renters and workers. The EDC’s decisions on affordable housing, small-business incentives and the cost of food land directly on those households, and on the remittances many of them send back to St Vincent and the Grenadines. A mayor promising cheaper groceries and cheaper rent, backed by an antitrust hawk and a housing veteran, is making a bet whose outcome the diaspora will feel first.
For now, the appointments are a statement of intent rather than a record of results. The agency Khan and Shorris inherit has the money, the land and the mandate to move quickly. Whether it delivers the affordable city Mamdani has promised, for New Yorkers and for the Caribbean families among them, is the test the two will be measured against.