BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
Small businesses on the upper
level of the Clark Street subway
station are bracing for an
eight-month closure starting
next month.
The MTA announced last
week that the station will be
fully closed starting Nov. 3 as
the station’s three centuryold
elevators are replaced after
years of frequent breakdowns.
Commuters are being encouraged
to catch trains at
the nearby Borough Hall and
High Street stations, but for a
handful of shops inside the station
at street-level, the closure
means more than a temporary
change of plan.
“It’s going to be a disastrous
thing for our businesses,” said
Thomas LaMarca, who runs
The Cutting Den, a barber shop
inside the station.
The upper level will remain
COURIER L 14 IFE, OCTOBER 8-14, 2021
open even as trains skip
the station so customers can
access the stores, but LaMarca
said he has regular customers
who live in Park Slope
and Kensington who stop for a
haircut on their way in and out
of the station. He doubts those
customers will make the trip
to Clark Street on foot from the
nearby subway stations, especially
once cold and snow settle
in.
Salahuddin Aziz, who owns
a newsstand nearby, had similar
worries. Most of his customers,
stopping in for a cup of
coffee or a snack, are drawn in
because of the store’s proximity
to the train, and the pandemic
has already brought
business to a crawl, he said.
“I’m losing money,” he said.
“Plus this? I don’t know what
I’m going to do.”
Aziz and LaMarca both said
they would have preferred that
the MTA had chosen to repair
the elevators one by one, which
would have kept the station
open but extended the timeline
for repairs from eight months
to about two years.
Ultimately, despite feedback
from the community that the
longer partial shutdown was
preferred, the MTA chose to
shutter the station completely.
The station needs at least two
functioning elevators to operate
safely, the agency said in
a press release, so if one of the
two left running went offl ine
during construction — as they
have frequently in recent years
— they would have to shut
down the station unannounced
until it could be repaired.
“The transit authority, the
MTA doesn’t really care about
stores that are around here, or
Clark Street station. Photo by Ben Verde
else they would pay our rent
for us,” LaMarca said. “We’re
going to have to pay part of the
rent, not all of the rent. We cannot
pay all of the rent, because
we cannot stay in business
then.”
His grandfather opened the
shop in 1926, he said. Even if
moving to a new location outside
the station was possible,
he wouldn’t.
Aziz feels that the MTA
should step in to help out him
and his neighbors.
“They should do at least
something for us, you know?”
he said. “If they don’t do anything,
everybody’s going to be
out of business.”
A spokesperson for the
MTA, Andrei Berman, told The
City in May that the agency
had given their tenants “major
rent deals.” The retail space on
Clark Street, though, is owned
by a different landlord — not
the MTA itself.
Aziz took out loans to stay
afl oat during the pandemic, he
said, and now worries about
paying them back.
“I used my money, I used
my wife’s money, my son’s
money,” he said, while he rang
up a customer, “It’s not easy,
this time. After next month, I
don’t know.”
LEFT BEHIND
Clark St. businesses brace for 8 month
closure, after MTA leaves them hanging
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