Opinion
Lawmakers, stop stalling: Save our stores
BY KIRSTEN THEODOS
For almost fi ve years, Take-
BackNYC has been advocating
for a vote on the best legislation
that would stop the closing of small
businesses, the Small Business Jobs
Survival Act (S.B.J.S.A.).
Last October, we applauded Speaker
Corey Johnson for keeping his campaign
pledge and giving the S.B.J.S.A.
a hearing in the City Council. We had
confi dence that a fair hearing would
show that giving rights to small business
owners when their leases expire was
the best solution to save them. During
the hearing, Speaker Johnson emphasized
the bill needed to be changed in
order to move forward. TakeBackNYC
testifi ed that the S.B.J.S.A. has already
been changed seven times over the
course of 11 Council hearings.
Unlike his predecessors, the speaker
rightfully acknowledged there’s a small
business crisis and pledged to work
with the Council to move the S.B.J.S.A.
Small business advocates left City Hall
with optimism that the S.B.J.S.A. was
fi nally going to be passed.
After patiently waiting 10 months
and watching businesses continue to
close, that optimism is fading. Five
COURTESY KIRSTEN THEODOS
Kirsten Theodos of Take-
BackNYC.
bills touted as helping small businesses
were recently passed by the City Council.
TakeBackNYC has sponsored small
business forums in four boroughs but
has never heard a small business owner
express a need for what those bills provide.
That’s because the bills don’t address
the larger picture — the crisis of
small business closings due to skyrocketing
rents and the unfair lease-renewal
process. It was disappointing to learn
that fi ve weak bills that do very little
were fast-tracked and passed in four
short months, while the strong bill —
the S.B.J.S.A. — is being neglected.
Given the long history of City Hall
blocking this bill, TakeBackNYC is apprehensive
about the current long delay
in making changes to it. The S.B.J.S.A.’s
prime sponsor, Councilmember Ydanis
Rodriquez, stated at the hearing last
October, “I am open to listening to any
changes to the bill, as long as it makes
the bill better and does not take away
any rights of the business owners.”
After speaking to Councilmember
Rodriguez, he confi rmed to us that he
hasn’t been included in any of the talks
with the Speaker’s Offi ce on fi ne-tuning
the S.B.J.S.A.
TakeBackNYC asked Speaker Johnson
why he is delaying in making
changes to the S.B.J.S.A., when it only
took four months to pass fi ve weaker
bills, and why Rodriguez apparently
was not part of any meetings regarding
such changes. The speaker did not respond
to these questions.
TakeBackNYC is also disappointed
to learn Councilmember Carlina Rivera
— who campaigned for offi ce advocating
for the S.B.J.S.A. — was unwillingly
removed from the City Council’s
Small Business Committee. Her absence
leaves businesses in her district,
which includes the East Village, unrepresented
and their fate in the hands
of the committee’s chairperson, Mark
Gjonaj, who at last year’s hearing stated
he opposes the S.B.J.S.A.
When asked who was responsible for
removing Rivera from the Small Business
Committee and if she fought to remain
on it, her offi ce replied: “Councilwoman
Rivera did not remove herself
from the Committee… . She did voice
her concerns regarding not being able
to serve on the Committee.”
Her offi ce added that the change in
her committee assignment came from
the Rules Committee. Multiple inquiries
about this to Karen Koslowitz,
the Rules Committee chairperson, and
Speaker Johnson, who sits on the Rules
Committee, went unanswered.
If our lawmakers are sincere in passing
progressive legislation to save our
economic backbone, they will quickly
make the needed changes to the
S.B.J.S.A. and pass it.
Theodos is founder, TakeBackNYC.
Council is acting to save small businesses
BY HELEN ROSENTHAL
The debate on how to help our
small businesses conjures strong
emotions, for good reason. They
are the heart and soul of New York
City. They are the reason why many
New Yorkers have chosen to live here.
They are the keystone of our economy.
For decades, there has been endless
debate about this issue. But as the years
passed and empty storefronts proliferated,
nothing truly signifi cant happened
on a policy level. Previous administrations
tinkered around the edges.
This City Council is different. We are
taking action to help small businesses
— and we’re just getting started.
Over the past several months, the
Council has been working closely with
groups like the Association for Neighborhood
Housing & Development
(ANHD) on this issue. A coalition of
grassroots progressive community
groups, ANHD includes the Cooper
Square Committee, Goddard Riverside
Community Center and Good Old
Lower East Side (GOLES), and has
been a progressive force since 1974.
Working with advocates and Manhattan
Borough President Gale Brewer,
the Council crafted a package of important
small business legislation that
was passed last month, including my
“Storefront Tracker” bill. For the fi rst
time, landlords will be required to register
their vacant storefronts with the
city, or face penalties. They’ll have to
report the previous and asking rents,
the length of time a property has and
has not been leased, and other information.
The city will be required to maintain
a public searchable database.
Real data and information are key to
passing informed legislation, especially
legislation that has never been passed
anywhere else and has the potential to
alter the dynamics of our commercial
economy in unknown ways.
The Storefront Tracker legislation
will fi nally allow community members,
advocates and policymakers to follow
vacancy trends citywide and in specifi c
neighborhoods. The city’s Department
of Small Business Services will know
where leases will come due within two
years, so it can reach out to offer its services,
like help with lease renewals and
access to credit.
Various other options are under discussion,
like commercial rent control
or a vacancy tax on empty storefronts.
PHOTO BY EMIL COHEN/NYC COUNCIL
City Councilmember Helen Rosenthal.
A vacancy tax would have to be passed
in Albany. State Senator Brad Hoylman
and Assemblymember Deborah Glick
introduced a bill on this in the spring.
I am a co-sponsor of the Small Business
Jobs Survival Act and have been
for years. It would make all commercial
leases subject to binding arbitration if
the landlord and tenant cannot agree
on a renewal rent. Yet there are complex
issues with this bill.
For example, the S.B.J.S.A. would
apply to all commercial leases in the
city, even offi ce space on the top fl oor
of a commercial tower, or chain stores
like Chase bank. It’s questionable if
that would withstand legal challenge.
But if you limit the bill to benefi t only
independent merchants in storefronts,
how to do you it without creating a
strong disincentive for landlords to
rent to them? Could this further benefi
t corporate chain stores? These are
among the questions that we are currently
working through.
We must redouble our commitment
to saving brick-and-mortar, independent
businesses. They are our neighborhoods’
lifeblood, immigrants gateway
to opportunity. They enliven our
streetscapes, add color to our lives.
We can do this. We will set an example
for municipalities everywhere.
Our city’s future depends on it.
Rosenthal represents City Council
District 6 (Upper West Side and Central
Park) and chairs the Committee on
Women and Gender Equity.
16 September 12, 2019 TVG Schneps Media