Hipster tinderbox

the only regulations that are being enforced for this hazardous shithole is no shoes or socks allowed inside. This cheapskate hipster won't even buy a dresser for his raggy clothes. He also seems to be renting it out too for lodging and entertainment, which technically makes this a commercial space. This is a smaller version of that hipster commune building that went up in flames and killed dozens in California. This hipster's lucky the Buildings Commissioner is a mess

Queens is still burning: water pressure difficulties led to supply store inferno

 

Queens Chronicle

Two fires hit Jamaica last Wednesday just hours apart. The first was at 101 Plumbing & Electrical Supplies and the second at a two-story vacant commercial building that was once used as a Nissan car dealership.

The blazes at both locations were so severe that the city Department of Buildings held an interagency meeting at the site of 101 Plumbing on Tuesday with representatives of other city agencies, the owner, Lakhinder Multani, and his private engineer, and it also issued a full vacate order for the former car dealership directly after the March 30 fire, which remained in effect after a follow-up inspection on Monday.

The DOB on Tuesday approved plans by Multani to demolish the electrical supply store, located at 138-14 101 Ave., and work was expected to begin that day, according to a spokesman from the agency. An update on the status of the demolition will be issued later this week.

The fire at the plumbing store, went to five alarms, according to the FDNY’s acting chief of department, John Hodgens.

“We had heavy smoke coming from a one-story commercial building ... and a collapse of parts of the interior of the building,” Hodgens said at press conference on March 30.

The blaze at the store, which housed a shop and an industrial warehouse, required the deployment of more than 200 firefighters and EMS workers dispatched from 44 units, according to the FDNY.

“We have no injuries reported,” Hodgens said of civilians. “Our chief concern is containing this fire and preventing it from spreading to the building on either sides of it. We are going to be here for a while.”

The city Department of Environmental Protection had to step in to help contain the fire because of water pressure issues, according to Hodgens.

“We didn’t have enough water coming out from the hydrant main system,” said the fire chief. “We needed DEP to step in and help us isolate [the problem] to get better water pressure.”

Cars had to also be moved for firefighters to put out the blaze, added Hodgens.

“Sometimes we have to use tow trucks to move them,” he said. “We need to get the apparatus into the building to be effective.”

Houses also surrounded the electrical supply store, which was also a cause of concern for Hodgens.

“We addressed that immediately,” said Hodgens. “The fire is contained to 101 Electrical Supplies.”

The fire at the supply store was under control at 1:11 a.m., according to the FDNY.

The city Department of Buildings arrived March 30 and conducted structural stability inspections, according to a DOB spokesman. Inspectors documented extensive fire damage to the property, including the collapse of the building’s roof. The adjoining premises, 138-18 101 Ave, suffered damage to its garage and due to the severity of the damage and the interest of public safety, a full vacate order was issued last Friday.

Astoria's economic dystopia

Adapt or die small businesses

  

Crains New York

 

Restaurants, bars and indoor venues may face up to $5,000 fines if they don't require patrons to show proof of vaccination, under an executive order by Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday.

All indoor venues will have to check that everyone age 12 and up who enters their premises shows proof of vaccination, under de Blasio’s edict. That proof must match the information on their official identification document, which they must also show.
 
Enforcement will begin Sept. 13. After that, violations will incur penalties of at least $1,000, which will rise to at least $2,000 for a second violation and at least $5,000 for a third. The city will send out inspectors from various agencies to check compliance. 

Between now and the enforcement date, the city has said it will send out 570 canvassers to all businesses in the city to help them understand the plan. Venues must all put up a sign communicating the vaccination requirement.
 
The executive order defines a wide range of indoor venues that must check for vaccine passes, including movie theaters, casinos, indoor portions of botanical gardens, adult entertainment spaces, commercial event and party venues, museums, aquariums and zoos, sports arenas and indoor stadiums, convention centers and exhibition halls, bowling alleys, arcades, indoor play areas and billiards halls, as well as any indoor part of a restaurant, and all indoor gym and fitness settings, including pools, dance studios and hotel gyms.

Some venues were surprised to see themselves included on this list, which the mayor had not previously detailed beyond mentioning "indoor entertainment venues."

"I am extraordinarily hesitant to instruct my staff to do this," said Eli Klein, owner of the Eli Klein Gallery in the far West Village, noting that he would not have known the mandate applied to his business if he had not tuned into the mayor's announcement this morning.

 

 

Vaccine mandate has restaurants standing up to them and running scared about them

 

 

 CBS NY

 Starting next week, proof of vaccination will be required in New York City for some indoor activities, including going out to eat, but not all restaurants are on board.

“Whether you’re vaccinated or not, you are welcome,” said Mary Josephine Generoso, manager at Pasticceria Rocco’s of Bay Ridge.

There’s a sign of protest in the window of the restaurant, defiant against Mayor Bill de Blasio’s upcoming vaccine mandate.

It reads, “We do not discriminate against ANY customer based on sex, gender, race, creed, age, vaccinate or unvaccinated. All customers who wish to patronize are welcome in our establishment.”

“I just do not feel that we’re gonna be able to sit there and ask customers to show if they’ve been vaccinated or not,” Generoso told CBS2’s Ali Bauman.

 

 Queens Chronicle

 Starting Monday, everyone is getting carded.

Mayor de Blasio’s latest initiative requires proof of vaccination to get into a variety of indoor public spaces, such as restaurants, gyms and performance venues.

Customers and workers need proof of at least once inoculation shot to be inside, the new mandate outlines. The move, which de Blasio dubbed the “Key to NYC Pass,” is an aggressive switch from the mayor’s previous incentives, which included free museum tickets, free meals and even $100 payments.

“If you want to participate in our society fully, you’ve got to get vaccinated,” de Blasio said Aug 3. “It’s time.”

According to city Department of Health data, about 73.2 percent of all New York City adults have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Children under the age of 12, who are not eligible to get the shot, are exempt from the new mandate and will be allowed entry into restaurants, gyms, performance venues and more without proof. De Blasio said he expects kids from 5 to 11 to become eligible in the next few months.

That leaves just 26.8 percent of the New York City population, as well as the fluctuating rate of tourists, who would be barred from indoor businesses beginning Aug. 16.

The number is low enough that the mandate doesn’t worry many business owners. Plenty are actually hopeful that placing restrictions will finally force people into getting the vaccine.

“It’s a draconian measure that has to be taken,” said Carl Clay, the founder of the Black Spectrum Theatre Co. The St. Albans venue had self-imposed the rule on its workers and customers over a month ago because it was the “right thing to do.”

“Did anybody have a problem? Not at all,” Clay continued. “I think to anybody who has any sense of what’s going on around them it makes sense.”

Clay equated proof of vaccination to having a driver’s license. You can drive on the road if you have one, but you can’t sit in the driver’s seat without one.

Other business owners believe the mandate may actually result in an increase in business — according to already established Covid-19 guidelines, social distancing within a venue can be eliminated if all customers and workers are vaccinated.

Theoretically, Annette Runcie said, restaurateurs can boost sales by packing their space with vaccinated customers rather than by catering to those who are not.

“There’s a lot of people who told me they won’t be comfortable coming out because the infection rate is increasing, so this will make them feel more secure,” said Runcie, who owns Pa-Nash Eurosoul in Rosedale.

Update: One more time from Louis Rossmann

Queens is burning: row of small businesses destroyed in Queens Village

 

NY Daily News

A massive fire tore through a row of Queens storefronts early Saturday, trapping two firefighters under a collapsed roof and decimating several shops in a matter of minutes.

One of the two FDNY firefighters was rushed to the hospital with severe burns after the 2:15 a.m. blaze in Queens Village that left shop owners stunned hours later.

“We lost everything in a matter of a ... minute. We were in bed and someone from the community called and told me what’s going on,” Ralph Torres, co-owner of Beatriz Dominican Salon, said as he looked over the gutted remains of his family shop on Springfield Blvd.

“This is something me and my wife built,” Torres, 56, said. “We devastated. We devastated man. You build something and you lose it overnight, it’s gone.”

Two other businesses near 112th Ave. were scorched along with the hair salon, including the Springfield Cutz Barbershop and Spring Pharmacy.

FDNY fire marshals were still trying to determine Saturday where and how the fire started. 911 calls directed firefighters to the barbershop, but officials noted that the fire was heaviest in the salon, whose roof also partially collapsed.

Firefighters were in the back of the barbershop when its burning ceiling gave way, trapping two smoke eaters inside, said FDNY Assistant Chief of Department Joseph Jardin.

“A portion of the roof collapsed trapping two of our members initially,” Jardin said at the scene. “They discovered the member under a 20 foot by 20 foot section of wood joisted roof, a heavy section of roof with fire in proximity where the member was trapped.”

Holden's opponent campaigns in the wrong district

This article was published in QNS and I couldn't help but chuckle at it. For example, here is a passage about the pictured business owner who was visited:

Lagos made some time, and spoke about the hardships of maintaining his business for what is nearly a year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lagos, who noted Tasty’s has been in Ridgewood for 40 years, said not having indoor dining and getting “a bunch” of violations from the Department of Transportation for his outdoor setup are some of his biggest issues.

The response from the candidate during the listening tour?

When asked for his response to [incumbent Robert] Holden’s calls to open indoor dining to 50 percent capacity, Ardila said it’s “irresponsible.” Holden wants the governor to allow for the city’s restaurants to open indoor dining at the same capacity of Long Island, where there is a higher positivity rate of COVID-19 compared to the city, before more go out of business.

Sorry, Mr. Lagos, but Juan thinks you should just suck it up, because COVID spreads more in Queens restaurants than it does in Nassau County ones, or something like that.

Also interesting is the fact that the Tasty Diner is not in Council District 30. In reality, only about 3 blocks of the Ridgewood section of Myrtle Avenue are, and only on one side of the street. This diner is in Antonio Reynoso's district but he's too busy running for Brooklyn Borough President to care.

But do you know whose State Senate district this actually is? Not Jessica Ramos' but Michael Gianaris' who also endorsed this guy. Unfortunately, Mike sadly can't find anyplace outside of Astoria even if he uses Google Maps.

Keep voting for people who don't give a flying fig about you, because that's worked out well so far.

Small businesses losing hope to remain in business

QNS
Small business owners from across Queens came together on the steps of Queens Borough Hall to call for immediate financial relief to offset loses brought on by the economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis on Wednesday, July 29.

Despite following COVID-19 protocols, the local business owners said they are drowning in debt, their bills are piling up and rent is nearly impossible to pay. Should help not come, many said they face the prospect of closing for good.
Organized by Queens Together and the Queens Chamber of Commerce, the rally was supported by state Senator Michael Gianaris’ Small Business Advisory Committee, Business Improvement District directors and a handful of elected officials including Councilman Donovan Richards, the front-runner in November’s Queens borough president race.
“The leadership in this country has made this a bailout for Wall Street rather than Main Street. The bottom line is that many of the small businesses, the folks behind me and in front of me, are folks who put everything into investing in the American Dream,” Richards said. “When they opened a small business it was because they had that American Dream of contributing to the economy, of doing something different, adding to the culture and vibrancy of the borough, but instead at this moment they now are suffering a nightmare and partly because of policies that have done everything, even prior to COVID-19, to really not assist small businesses.”
Business owners noted that the financial health of several local businesses is not the only economic metric for the moment. Some local businesses are owned by and employ local people, they said.
“Small businesses are also families,” said Roseann McSorley, the owner of Katch Astoria. “We aren’t struggling only with our store rents; we are also struggling with our own home rents and costs of raising our families, and when a business closes its doors, it means dozens more families are faced with personal hardship.”

Small businesses in Queens get smaller PPP rescue loans

Queens Eagle

 Nearly 21,500 Queens-based businesses received a loan of less than $150,000 through the federal Paycheck Protection Program, newly released data from the federal government shows. 

The PPP loans totaled $602,995,888 and enabled those Queens businesses to retain 72,765 employees, according to the data. The loan program, designed to help small businesses continue paying employees during the COVID-19 economic slowdown, passed as part of the federal CARES Act in April.

The data is included in two massive spreadsheets released Monday by the federal Small Business Administration in response to Freedom of Information Act requests and pressure from elected officials.

One spreadsheet lists companies that received more than $150,000. Despite the intention that the PPP loans go to small businesses, some of the country’s largest corporations received funding, including McDonalds and Wendy’s franchises. The SBA named all businesses that received more than $150,000.

A second spreadsheet included companies that received less than $150,000, but the federal government did not name them. Instead, the spreadsheets include the loan amount, business zip code and the town — or in the case of most Queens businesses, the neighborhood. The spreadsheet also includes each firm’s North American Industry Classification System number, a code used to classify a company’s type of business.

The data dump shows that 21,480 companies with Queens zip codes received PPP payments of less than $150,000. They range from a South Ozone Park information services firm that received $2 to a Whitestone construction firm that took in $149,990, according to the data.

The average loan amount was about $28,072 and the median loan was $16,710, according to an analysis of the data, but some of the data may be flawed, said Tom Grech, president of the Queens Chamber of Commerce.

Extremely low loan amounts, like the $2 listed for the South Ozone Park company, may have been typos by the SBA, Grech said.

Neir's perseveres

NY Post

Before the pandemic, things were looking dire for the historic watering hole Neir’s Tavern in Woodhaven, Queens. It nearly closed due to a threatened rent increase  — the bar was paying around $2,000 a month, which was going to go to $5,400, according to owner Loycent Gordon — until 

*Mayor Bill de Blasio stepped in and helped strike a deal with the new landlord to keep the doors open. But when the city went into lockdown in March, the bar seemed like a goner.

“When this happened after we got Neir’s a new lease on life, it felt a punch in the gut just as we were catching our breath,” Gordon, who is also a lieutenant in the FDNY, told The Post.

But once again, the Lazarus of saloons is back slinging burgers and beers — now with outdoor seating and a range of creative ideas to engage regulars, who Gordon said really saved the place.

“People came out for the first weekend despite us not having the most sophisticated set-up. We are focusing on our strengths and have whittled down our menu to fries, sweet potato fries, burger and wings,” said Gordon, 40, who bought the bar in 2009 when it was under threat of being turned into a convenience store.

Founded in 1829, Neir’s houses a 150-year-old mahogany bar and has provided a scenic backdrop for movies including “Goodfellas and “Tower Heist,” and was featured in an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown.” It also, Gordon points out, survived the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.

NYPD raids store operating legally under Cuomo order

EXECUTIVE ORDER 202.6

"Any business that only has a single occupant/employee (i.e. gas station) has been deemed exempt and need not submit a request to be designated as an essential business."


From Fox News.

On April 18, Besshtanko said a number of officers approached her door asking to come in. Besshtanko said her door was locked and the officers failed to present a warrant. “They just started aggressively knocking on my door and I wasn't sure what happened, so I opened the door," she said, "They told me that I had to let them in, and I did. The officer did not present a warrant.”

During the encounter, Besshtanko said the officers searched her store and asked to go into her basement all without telling her what they were looking for. "They just went through every bag, they looked at every shelf of my showcase, they checked little bottles just to see what's in them, but they never actually said, we are looking for such and such, they were just looking. The only time they asked for my permission was to go to the basement, they also asked if there [were] any boxes from China. That [sounded] funny to me, but obviously I had none. They went downstairs to check for it, came back with no results. And that was that,” Besshtanko told Fox News.

“The police are not only coming to these shops one or two times, but it's a pattern. Meaning, they're coming in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening. And they're making remarks again about importing products from overseas, particularly Asian countries and that is unnecessary. I’m not sure what they're trying to accomplish by doing that. No one has presented a search warrant or any order from a judge to confiscate anything. There's no customs investigation. There's nothing that would lead to this sort of behavior. So it seems to me like these are frustrated officers who are essentially taking out their frustrations on retail shop owners," Spodek told Fox News.

I don't vape, but I may just have to support this woman's business in some way.

Queens small businesses only got 9% of the city's SBS relief fund

Gothamist

While the outer boroughs have been disproportionately hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses in Manhattan have gotten the majority of assistance from the city.

According to the city's Small Business Services agency on Wednesday, around $8 million of the $20 million loan program for struggling small businesses has been disbursed, with 66 percent going to Manhattan-based shops. Bronx business owners have received less than one percent—around $80,000—while those in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island have received 18 percent, 9 percent, and 5 percent, respectively.

The figures, revealed by the SBS commissioner Gregg Bishop during a New York City Council Small Business Committee hearing on Wednesday, agitated chair and Bronx Councilmember Mark Gjonaj.

“One percent of the loans went to the borough of the Bronx and 66% went to Manhattan?” Gjonaj asked . “And we know that most of these small businesses exist in the outer boroughs, so already we see a huge disparity here on how these loans are being [disbursed].”

The program is part of a $49 million loan and grant program created by the de Blasio administration to serve as a lifeline to businesses struggling to remain open after the pandemic—$10 million in loans and $39 million in grants.

Of the $39 million in grants, $29 million has been disbursed; 3 percent has gone to Bronx and Staten Island businesses respectively, 16 percent to businesses in Queens, 25 percent to shops in Brooklyn, and 53 percent to businesses in Manhattan.

Neir's may yet be destroyed - by the de Blasio administration

Bioswale BS may be the biggest fraud perpetrated on city residents other than ThriveNYC and the homeless shelter industry. What the hell are they doing here? Watering rocks?

 Admin note:

It was only a few weeks ago when de Blasio invited Loy to the state of the city address at the American Museum of Natural History to witness his promise to save the small businesses of this city right to his face. They featured the bar on the city's website

Such a bastard. -JQ LLC

Judgement pay means death for NYC small businesses

THE CITY

It’s been six months since Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law barring the practice of making small businesses sign away legal rights in exchange for high-interest, high-risk cash advances.

But that change doesn’t apply to New Yorkers.

The so-called confessions of judgment are illegal — but only for lenders located out of state. The law, passed after a Bloomberg News expose, was aimed at ending a flood of nonpayment cases clogging county courts.

A review by THE CITY of state court records found that small businesses in New York are continuing to sign papers with in-state lenders that leave them defenseless if they struggle to make payments amid interest rates hitting as high as 200%.

The court records show confessions of judgment being used to collect debts from everything from local restaurants to nail salons to a nightclub to an accounting firm, among other small businesses. Cab drivers who borrowed to buy their own taxi medallions have been hit hard by the judgments, too, as highlighted in a New York Times series.

On Feb. 11, a Midtown food hall outpost of the Chinese street food mini-chain Mr. Bing and its owner, Brian Goldberg, were sued in state Supreme Court by Lower Manhattan-based Capital Advance Services after accepting a $25,000 cash advance less than a month earlier, court records show.

To take the money — at a 25% interest rate — Goldberg signed a confession of judgment, a statement that admitted failure to honor the debt. That meant if he could not make his daily payments of $465.63, the lender had the right to collect the advanced sum in full.

Capital Advance Services is demanding $30,731 plus interest.

“We’re trying our best to deal with it. I can’t say anything more,” Goldberg told THE CITY when reached by phone.

Capital Advance Services did not respond to a request for comment.

Goldberg’s legal battle follows the shuttering of another Manhattan foodie magnet, City Bakery, just days after a cash advance company obtained a judgment against its owner — who also signed away his right to defend himself in court.

“The biggest loser, unfortunately, in this legislation are New Yorkers,” said Shane Heskin, an attorney who works with small-business borrowers ensnared by high-interest cash advances.

Neir's: It ain't over yet

Well folks, it takes a lot for me to come out of semi-retirement to weigh in on current events, but this whole Neir’s Tavern situation became such an unnecessary debacle that I can’t sit idly by and not call attention to some things.

Yesterday, Mayor de Blasio - himself a millionaire landlord and facilitator of citywide hotel-shelter slumlordship - decided to tell the owner of Neir’s that greedy building owners are awful. Where the hell was he when the LPC denied the landmarking bid for it back in 2016? A lot of the worry over the bar's fate could have been avoided if the LPC stopped doing what it always does to Queens history. And he can request that the “new” LPC (minus Meenakshi Srinivasan) take a second look at it.

Now, Loycent Gordon is not only an immigrant but also the black owner of a small business. This is EXACTLY the type of entrepreneur that fauxgressives want to be seen helping. But perhaps because Loy is also a lover of Queens history, and therefore a threat to development, he was totally disregarded for years. Except, that is, after he became so desperate that he felt forced to plead with the mayor on his radio program. How utterly sickening.

How the hell did we as a society get to this point?

And another question for those of you out there in Crapland… did you hear those January crickets yesterday? That sound was coming from every borough president candidate out there as an establishment dating back to 1829 almost went dark.

And why did the owner really have a change of heart? The NY Times explains:

Mr. Holden, a Democrat who represents the area, said the negotiations were tense until it became clear that a major problem for Mr. Shi was that he could not get a mortgage because the building lacked a proper certificate of occupancy and did not meet current zoning rules.

Mr. Holden said an agreement was reached under which his office would work to ensure that the building met all requirements; the city would make a small business grant available to improve the property; and Mr. Shi would raise the rent much less than he had proposed.

So while we can all celebrate that a piece of Queens history has been temporarily spared, keep in mind that the lease is only for 5 years and in 2026 this might happen all over again. And in the meantime, it's very likely that the next piece of Queens history that gets threatened won't have the stars align for it the way this one did. Because we keep electing the same lame tweeders over and over and over again and the rare ones who actually give a damn like Holden will be gone. (Why the hell did Michael Gianaris show up to the victory party when he did absolutely nothing?)

A big thank you and shout out to the media who realized the significance of this story and what it would have meant to lose Neir's and used the power of the press to call attention to it. All of the stories were pretty good (and I read or watched them all), but 2 really stood out to me: Corey Kilgannon's original NY Times piece and PIX11's story. Check out the reaction of the news anchor at the end. He totally gets it.



It's 2020, people. Wake up already, heh?

- QC

I like to add (again) that de Blasio's Landmark Preservation Committee refused to give Loycent and Neir's landmark status because they felt that a bar that has existed 190 years was not historically significant enough.

Congratulations to Mr. Gordon and the staff at Neir's and a great job done by Councilmember Holden and Assemblyman Miller (leave it to de Blasio to try to bigfoot credit for it). Here's to five more years, hopefully there will be better and moral officials running this city in the future.  

JQ LLC

Small Business Congress lays blame for Court Square Library closing and delay of SBSJA on Jimmy Van Bramer

SBC - The Small Business Congress      

E-mail  savenycjobs@gmail.com                Websites:  Savenycjobs.org

 Councilman Van Bramer’s  Favoring Big Real Estate over Commercial Tenants 

Is The Reason for Queens Closings!

Deadline NYC, Jan. 10, 2020:

Yesterday the Queens Public Library announced that their Court Square Library will close on Feb. 15, 2020 due to being unable to find suitable long term space and reasonable lease terms in an area with sky high rents.  Councilman Van Bramer disagrees with their reason for closing and blames the Library for dragging its feet in finding a new location. 

Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer made clear who was responsible, “This could and should have been avoided…...this is about the library failing to plan for this community.”  The truth is CM Van Bramer is fully to blame for this library closing as well as all Queens businesses willing and able to pay a reasonable rent but forced to close because they have no rights when their leases expired to negotiate reasonable lease terms. They have no rights because CM Van Bramer has fought against any legislation giving them rights. 

CM Van Bramer should be ashamed of the critical role he played in using his office to work to prevent a vote on the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, giving all commercial tenants rights when their leases expire.  Rights needed to remain long term in business and rights to equally negotiate fair lease terms that would allow owners to make a reasonable profit. Instead, CM Van Bramer actions has favored the real estate lobby’s interests and he has worked to “keep the status quo”, which is destroying the backbone of Queens local economy.

These are the facts CM Van Bramer does not want the Queens residents to know which shows how hypocritical his statement is, “This (closing) could and should have been avoided.”  All of the Queens business closings for the past decade could and should have been avoided, if not for lawmakers abandoning their progressive values and selling out to big real estate for their own political ambitions.

CM Van Bramer was the Majority leader of the City Council from 2014 thru 2017. A leadership role that offered a platform to be a strong voice for Queens small businesses.  Adding to this political influence was the fact the majority members of the Small Business Committee were Queens council members (5 of 9 members). Other than the Speaker, no council member was in a better position to influence legislation to save Queens small businesses than CM Van Bramer.  What did CM Van Bramer do with all this political power to

prevent the growing small business crisis from coming to main streets in Queens? 

For the entire term of CM Van Bramer he did absolutely “nothing” to save a single business, job, or give rights to businesses to survive.   Only once under the many Speakers in over 30 years has the Jobs Act not been allowed to have an honest hearing in council. That was under Majority leader Van Bramer’s term with the majority members on the Small Business Committee from Queens.  Not only was the Jobs Act denied a hearing but NO hearing was held under Van Bramer’s watch to address the sky high rents and the growing crisis forcing the closing of small businesses citywide, even when the crisis came to Queens. Just one honest public hearing on the Jobs Act would have shown the bill to be only solution to save small businesses.  The Queens desperate small business owners, especially the immigrant owners, would have NO Voice at City Hall under Van Bramer’s entire leadership. His recent sponsorship of the worthless Levin Commercial Rent Stabilization bill shows they still have NO voice.

CM Van Bramer is Chairman of the Arts and Cultural committee and not once as Chairman did he hold a hearing specifically on finding legislation to stop the closing of our city’s art and cultural tenants. 

Under CM Van Bramer’s watch no effort was ever made to have the Council’s legal department resolve any legal issues with the Jobs Act. For every legislation introduced in the council, the legal department will review and give recommendation to its legality and recommend amendments to resolve any real or potential legal issues. The one exception to this policy is the Jobs Act, whose unsubstantiated legal claims remain for over a decade.  CM Van Bramer claims he is a proud sponsor of the Jobs Act and yet never once did he use the power and influence of his office to insist that the legal department due their duty and treat the Jobs Act like other legislation by resolving any legal claims. During his entire tenure as Majority of Council, Van Bramer remained silent and complicit to the rigging by the Speakers’ Office and REBNY to stop the Jobs Act.

In May 2016,  87 Queens Associations signed a petition calling upon Queens lawmakers to stand up for small businesses as they face a crisis to survive caused by exorbitant rent increases. Community leadership signed this petition calling on Queens lawmakers to “ address the crisis quickly by passing the Small Business Jobs Survival Act,  which gives rights to owners to protect and preserve Queens’s businesses and jobs”. 

What was the Majority leader of the Council’s response to the largest Queens community groups’ plea to do something?  CM Van Bramer did not respond and continued his policy in the face of this crisis, to “do nothing.” 

CM Van Bramer should be embarrassed by allowing the Small Business Committee to have NO members on it representing Queens small businesses. It is bad enough to allow, without protest, CM Mark Gjonaj, a real estate owner and an anti small business chairman, but to also allow a vital committee that in a time of crisis will determine the future of every Queens small business owner and the future of their employees to have NO representative is a disgrace.  Clearly, CM Van Bramer is going along with the rigging by REBNY to stop the Jobs Act.

CM Van Bramer’s statement on the Court Square Library closing, “I believe they dragged their feet and now we’re in a crisis where this community is faced with the loss of a public library.”  No lawmaker has dragged his feet more than CM Van Bramer in pressuring the Speaker to make the changes in the Jobs Act and bring it to a vote.

On Oct 22, 2018 at the hearing on the Jobs Act, Speaker Johnson repeated many times the Jobs Act would be changed to not include or protect big Fortune Companies like Goldman Sachs, and then moved to a vote. In the face of a growing small business crisis Speaker Johnson, when questioned on the progress of the Jobs Bill repeatedly said, “it’s being tweaked and fine tuned.”  The changes to the Jobs Act that Speaker Johnson pledged to make would take one hour to make. A simple change in the definition of who the bill covers, one paragraph. Yet, 14 months after the hearing and no changes to the Jobs Act have been made!!  With Queens businesses closing monthly, why didn’t CM Van Bramer go to Speaker Johnson to encourage him to “ stop dragging his feet” and make the changes so the Queens commercial tenants, like the Court Square Library would have rights to renewal their leases for 10 years, which would stop the closings?

The reason CM Van Bramer did not “push” Speaker Johnson to make the changes to the Jobs Act and move it to a vote and begin saving Queens businesses was because CM Van Bramer was promoting another bill written by the real estate lobby.  On December 13th, Councilman Van Bramer held a rally in Sunny Side Queens proclaiming his endorsement of Councilman Levin’s new bill, Commercial Rent Stabilization.  A bill touted to save small businesses by having a commercial rent guideline board set rent increases for businesses,

This bill is an insult to every business owner in Queens and an affront to good government. What CM Van Bramer has done was throw Queens businesses under the bus by promoting legislation to kill the Jobs Act.  CM Van Bramer was promoting legislation that would substitute for the only real solution to save small businesses, and promote legislation that would keep the “status quo.” destroying small businesses.  This new bill was written by REBNY to keep all the rights solely in the hands of the landlords and would give NO rights to business owners.  CM Van Bramer along with CM Lander and CM Levin were serving big real estate interests by stopping a Tenants Rights Bill ( Jobs Act) and substituting a Landlords Rights Act (Levin Bill). 

How does CM Van Bramer explain why the simple change to the Jobs Act was never made and instead, 14 months later end up in another bill which was written by the real estate lobby?  How does CM Van Bramer explain how the council ends up with two bills at the same time dealing with Commercial Lease Renewal Process?  In the long 34 year debate on the Jobs Act, never once has two bills been in play, but today CM Van Bramer is promoting one of bills while he is a proud sponsor of the other.  The public may be confused by CM Van Bramer’s actions but the small business advocates who wrote the Jobs Act are not. Sung Soo Kim, Godfather of immigrant businesses, “ CM Van Bramer has joined in the rigging to stop the Jobs Act.”

How shameful that CM Van Bramer remains silent on the small business crisis for his entire term and only now speaks loudly in support of a Landlords Bill that was created for only one purpose, to kill the Jobs Act, and with it the hope for survival for countless Queens businesses.   

* Sung Soo Kim, recognized as the “godfather of immigrant businesses” and major advocate for over 30 years.  He is the founder of the oldest small business service center in NYC, the Korean American Small Business Service Center, and was chairman of the Mayor’s First Small Business Advisory Board, appointed by Mayors Dinkins and Giuliani. He is co-founder of Small Business Congress and sole creator of the Small Business Bill of Rights.  He has spent every working day for 30 years addressing the problems of immigrant small business owners. He never took a salary from government as Chairman of Small Business Advisory Board nor in consulting on numerous regulations. He turned down offers to run a BID in Queens and turned down government funding for his business service center.  In 30 years he has personally negotiated and re-negotiated an estimated 50,000-55,000 commercial leases for his Korean/Chinese members. He has gone to court twice a week for over 30 years to fight for his members in court.

Neir's not closing

Another small business bites the dust as Kew Gardens pharmacy shuts down after 40 years

 

NY Post

A beloved Queens small business fills its last prescriptions Monday.

Many are mourning the demise of Metropolitan Pharmacy, a 40-year-old small business on Metropolitan Avenue in Kew Gardens near the Richmond Hill border, as well as its sister business, Metro Pharmacy II, in Forest Hills.

The closing of Metropolitan Pharmacy will be a great loss, residents say, because owner Ira Lisogorsky has selflessly served the neighborhood.

“I needed some medicine, but my insurance card wasn’t going through because of a technical glitch,” recalled Suzanne Hall, a Kew Gardens resident and a longtime customer.

“Ira knew how much I needed the medicine, gave it to me immediately and told me that he’d settle the insurance issue later on,” she said.

So why is Metropolitan Pharmacy shuttering?

Lisogorsky, who fills thousands of prescriptions, said he has problems with drug companies as well as regulatory and city policies.

“The city doesn’t care about us,” he said. “They look at us as a cash cow, and yet it is small businesses that made this city.” He cleans his sidewalk each day, but said “if the wind blows, suddenly I have a fine.”

The nearest pharmacy is a CVS down the hill on 126th street and you can buy candy and beer there too. Good thing we got big retail options.