Monday, August 21, 2017
Bureaucracy keeps small business in the dark
From CBS:
Anil Argawal, wiping away tears, explains the frustration of sitting in his dark Kew Gardens, Queens, grocery store, with no electricity, empty coolers and freezers, and no business for months.
“I came 30 years ago in this country hoping to make a bright future for my kids and my wife,” he told CBS2’s Marcia Kramer. “Now I feel like I got nothing to provide them.”
CBS2 first reported about Argarwal’s plight six weeks ago after the electricity was turned off as the result of a complicated series of events involving the MTA, which owns the property because the store is on a bridge over the Long Island Rail Road; the landlord, who has a deal with the MTA to sublease the 13 stores on the bridge; and Con Ed, which was called in to help upgrade the power lines, a move necessary to serve the freezers and coolers installed in the grocery.
Putting aside the blame game, an Aug. 4 letter from Con Ed to landlord Kunal Kapoor said he had to install something called a “sleeve” in the foundation before Con Ed could get started.
The landlord’s lawyer said he thought the sleeve came after Con Ed did the work. Now he knows differently. He said he expects the sleeve will be installed next week.
The real question is whether Argawal will ever be able to restock all the empty shelves
“I don’t even have the money to fill it up,” he said.
5 comments:
The greatest lie in the history of the world, "we're from the government and we're here to help" attributed to President Ronald Wilson Reagan.
Ironically, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, also known as the MTA is a quasi unelected, unaccountable government agency that answers to NO ONE, citizens and taxpayers be dammed.
The owner looks to be a new member of our homelessness problem.
I imagine all of our local elected officials have some culpability for this disaster!
Please remember and ponder upon this at election time!!!
Call Councilwoman Koslowitz. She did a photo op there a few years ago before her last election.
This guy and his great store is doomed. This is being done purposely to rid him and the neighboring stores.
Don't business owners usually have insurance that would cover some kind of interruption like this, or wouldn't the MTA have some kind of fund to cover businesses inconvenienced by these kind of disruptive repairs? I find it hard to believe no one's built a risk pool around this kind of event.
At a loss here: " The landlord's lawyer said he thought the sleeve came after con ed..." So how is the bureaucracy at fault here. Ignorance is not a defense.
Post a Comment