Citing the devastating effects of the pandemic and ongoing civil unrest, the New York City Business Improvement District Association called on Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson on Tuesday, July 21 to implement a nine-point plan aimed at ensuring the vitality of New York businesses and the areas they serve.

 

“The City and State must find ways to stimulate commercial activity or we will continue to lose businesses and jobs at an alarming rate,” said Robert J. Benfatto, co-chair of the Association. “Our action plan offers a set of steps our government can take to stem the current financial freefall.”

 

Benfatto, who also serves as the executive director of the Hudson Yards/Hell’s Kitchen Alliance, said the plan is designed to enable businesses, especially retail stores and restaurants, to restore their vitality and thereby speed up the city’s recovery. The plan asks for the following measures to be taken:

 

1. The mayor to appoint one senior City Hall official to oversee a multi-agency business recovery effort
2. Rent and mortgage relief to small business
3. Expansion of the Open Restaurants program to other storefront businesses
4. Maintaining existing siting criteria for mobile street vendors and to quickly develop new enforcement protocols since the NYPD has been relieved of jurisdiction
5. The streamlining of the State Liquor Authority’s procedures to allow for quicker approval of temporary and permanent permits
6. Activation of sales tax exemptions to spur retail activity
7. Easing requirements to allow non-profit organizations which want to establish open-air markets and pop-ups in city parks and open spaces
8. Holding customers and patrons—not businesses–responsible for their actions
9. Continuous review and revision of outdated and burdensome rules and laws

 

According to the BID Association, their assessment of the current situation is universally embraced, and it reflects a rare consensus in public life.  Storefront entrepreneurs – retailers, personal service providers, restaurants – that make New York City thrive are facing unprecedented challenges and the genuine threat of extinction. This was true before the pandemic, when businesses were operating on thin margins due to online competition, unfunded government mandates, and bureaucratic red tape, but the COVID-19 crisis has left small businesses grappling with health concerns, operational challenges, and social unrest in their neighborhoods.

 

The NYC BID Association represents over 93,000 businesses in 76 neighborhoods across all five boroughs. Each member BID provides enhanced services such as security, sanitation, marketing, and streetscapes elements. Members have been “on the ground” throughout the pandemic, observing how relief measures, despite good intentions, are insufficient and have found that without further action, thousands of establishments will go out of business, causing their employees to rely on unemployment for survival.

 

Genuine economic hardships have gutted established businesses and have been particularly devastating to the minority, women and immigrant entrepreneurs whose neighborhoods have been especially hard hit. The BID Association said that unless a new approach is taken immediately, many more small businesses will succumb to these historic challenges, and New York’s recovery will be in real jeopardy.

 

Several major organizations are lending their support to the BID Association’s plan, including the NYC Chambers of Commerce in all five boroughs, the New York Building Congress, the New York State Restaurant Association, the New York City Hospitality Alliance, the New York State Supermarket Association, and the New York State Latino, Bar and Lounge Association.

 

Walking around the Norwood neighborhood, as an example, there are certainly few bars and restaurants which have the capacity to operate outdoor dining, and with indoor dining still precluded from the City’s Reopening Plan because of the concern of COVID-19 spread, it means businesses are mostly having to rely on takeaway sales. In addition, the governor recently implemented a requirement for bars to offer food to customers purchasing alcohol in an effort to curtail binge-drinking and gatherings outside bars of crowds who are not adhering to social distancing rules.

 

Jennifer Tausig is Executive Director of Jerome Gun Hill BID, and currently serves as Co-Chair of the NYC BID Association. “The City should adopt these recommendations to save our small businesses, particularly in the Bronx, where the majority of businesses are owned by minorities and women and are struggling to pay their rent,” Tausig said in a written statement to Norwood News.

 

“Some reports show up to 70% of MWBEs may not be able to reopen as a result of the pandemic. The City has got to step up and do more to save these businesses which are the fabric and economic engine of our Bronx neighborhoods,” she added.