Perhaps the greatest sign yet that actual change could be afoot at the Economic Development Corporation—New York City's quasi-public, quasi-private agency whose nominal job is to spur economic growth, but which quite often ends up throwing millions in public money for private gain—came not when Mayor Zohran Mamdani made the surprise announcement that leftist economist Lina Khan would be chair of the EDC board, but rather when Anthony Shorris, veteran of the Koch, Bloomberg, and de Blasio administrations, and most recently in the employ of consultant giant McKinsey, quoted the late great anarchist and social historian David Graeber.
"Many years ago, David Graeber wrote that the ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make, and could just as easily make differently," Shorris, newly appointed EDC president, said from the podium Wednesday morning in the City Hall rotunda, flanked by Mamdani, Khan, and former Biden labor secretary-turned-Deputy Mayor Julie Su. "So let's start right now, doing exactly that."