April 17–23, 2020 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 3
Pet project Food pantries in crisis Cat cafe launches service
to help struggling owners
Brooklyn Cat Cafe has launched a new initiative
to help pet owners struggling as a result of
Photo by REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Mom-and-pops look to next steps, await federal funding
Photo by Craig Hubert
NEW YORKERS:
STAY HOME TO STOP THE SPREAD OF CORONAVIRUS
New Yorkers working together and staying home can slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19)
in New York City. When you go out for essential needs, work or to get fresh air, keep distance
between yourself and others and take the following precautions.
Text COVID to 692-692 for real-time updates or visit nyc.gov/coronavirus.
Call 311 to report harassment or discrimination. Call 888-NYC-WELL, text "WELL" to 65173
or chat online at nyc.gov/nycwell to connect with a counselor.
*Messages and data rates may apply. Check your wireless provider plan for details.
Bill de Blasio
Mayor
Oxiris Barbot, MD
Commissioner
PROTECT YOURSELF
AND OTHERS
• Keep at least 6 feet between
yourself and others.
• Wash your hands with soap
and water often.
• Cover your nose and mouth
with a tissue or sleeve when
sneezing or coughing.
• Do not touch your face with
unwashed hands.
• Monitor your health more
closely than usual for cold or
flu symptoms.
IF YOU ARE SICK
• Stay home.
• If you have a cough,
shortness of breath, fever,
sore throat and do not feel
better after 3-4 days,
consult with your doctor.
• If you need help getting
medical care, call 311.
• NYC will provide care
regardless of immigration
status or ability to pay.
REDUCE
OVERCROWDING
• Stay home.
• Telecommute if possible.
If you do go out:
• Stagger work hours away
from peak travel times.
• Walk or bike.
• Do not gather in crowds.
PROTECT THE
MOST VULNERABLE
• Stay home if you have
lung disease, heart disease,
diabetes, cancer or a
weakened immune system.
• Stay home and call, video
chat or text with family or
friends who have one of
these conditions.
By Jessica Parks
Brooklyn Paper
Many of Brooklyn’s small businesses
are in limbo as they await
approval from federal loan programs
amid the coronavirus pandemic,
according to the borough’s
business leaders.
“They are just trying to figure
out what their next steps are, they
are kind of in a holding pattern,”
said Mark Caserta, executive director
of the Park Slope Fifth Avenue
Business Improvement District.
“Depending on how long the
money takes or whether they get
the money or not will kind of determine
a lot of things.”
Small businesses are mainly
focused on the federal Paycheck
Protection Program — signed into
law as part of the Coronavirus Aid,
Relief and Economic Security Act
on March 27 — which provides
small businesses with a federal
loan as an incentive to keep employees
on the payroll throughout
the crisis.
“Right now, a lot of the businesses
are wrapped up in the federal
CARES Act and the resources
that are available to support them,”
said Randy Peers, president and
CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber
of Commerce. “This has become
the focus of a lot of businesses’
attention.”
As part of the program, loans
will be forgiven if employees are
kept on the payroll for a period of
eight weeks, and if the funding is
spent on expenses like mortgage
interest, rent or utilities. Still, Peers
said some business owners are hesitant
to take out a loan they are unsure
will be pardoned.
“If you get the forgiveness, it
is like a grant,” Peers said. “But
if you don’t get the forgiveness
or if you are confused about how
it is going to work and you don’t
follow the guidelines, then it is
a loan and you are straddled by
more debt.”
As small businesses await funding,
Brooklyn’s main streets are
mostly dark. Security gates and
plywood cover storefronts’ oncewelcoming
window displays on
strips such as Park Slope’s Fifth
Avenue where, Caserta said, only
60 of its network’s 520 businesses
remain open as of April 8.
“We went to the avenue yesterday
for our running list of businesses
that are open and 15 more
had closed since the last time we
checked,” Caserta said.
The head of the chamber of commerce
for northern Brooklyn neighborhoods
painted a similarly dismal
situation for its commercial business
districts, where he said there
are massive closures and merchants
struggling to keep afloat.
‘Most of the businesses in our
area are doing TERRIBLY,” wrote
Paul Samulski in an email to Brooklyn
Paper. “Most are shuttered and
those that aren’t are struggling to
survive by promoting take-out and
delivery business and operating
with very limited hours.”
Samulski noted that some of the
businesses in his area are continuing
to survive primarily through
an already-established online presence,
but all three business leaders
worry of the toll a long period
without economic activity will take
on locally-owned businesses after
the pandemic run its course.
“One of our major concerns is
that, when we eventually do come
out of this, many of our smaller,
local businesses might not be able
to open their doors again simply
because of the debt and the loss
they are currently suffering,” Samulski
said, “and the fact that they
won’t have the available capital to
basically ‘start up from scratch’
once again.”
Another small business advocate
from southern Brooklyn suspects
that if the economic damage
is similar to that seen by the
area during Superstorm Sandy —
which ripped through the borough’s
coastal communities in 2012 and
forced many businesses to close
their doors — many business corridors
will see a substantial amount
of their storefronts shuttered for
good.
“Sheepshead Bay Road, which
has about 136 to 138 stores, used
to have a 2 percent vacancy rate.
After Sandy, it went up to 10 to 15
percent. It has never recovered,”
said Steve Barrison, president of
Bay Improvement Group. “We got
a few stores back but a lot of them
just couldn’t make it.”
In the meantime, business leaders
have repurposed their organizations
to help small business
owners navigate through the crisis
and support them through their
troubles.
“I want businesses to know that
the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce
is open for business and
we are working 18-hour days to
support them,” Peers said.
The Brooklyn Chamber has
been conducting weekly data reports
on the pandemic’s impact
on business, Peers said. The organization
has also been offering
webinars on a variety of topics,
such as how to manage a small
business from home among the
many initiatives listed on their resource
page.
But as the business leaders
work tirelessly to aid small businesses
through the pandemic, they
stressed that the current crisis is
intensified by ongoing issues local
business owners had been enduring
prior to the pandemic —
such as high commercial rent and
dwindling savings brought on by
increased internet buying.
“The small businesses in New
York City have been under extreme
crisis, growing for over 10 years,”
Barrison said. “This is an extreme
crisis on top of a crisis.”
A shuttered business in Fort
Greene.
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
The Brooklyn Cat Cafe
in Brooklyn Heights has
launched an emergency foster
network to support pet owners
struggling during the coronavirus
outbreak.
The folks behind the feline
palace on Montague
Street have partnered with
the Brooklyn Flatbush Area
Team for Cats and Cat Castle
in Manhattan to launch
the NYC COVID Pet Plan,
which will help pet owners if
they’re struggling to take care
of their fur balls for financial
or health reasons, according
to the project’s founder.
“This type of environment
can put a tremendous strain
on our neighbors and friends.
We want to ensure that not
only are humans cared for –
but that contingency plans are
enacted to ensure the wellbeing
of our furry friends,”
said Anne Levin, director of
the cat cafe.
The initiative’s website
provides resources for how
Brooklynites can plan for
their pet in case they become
too sick to care for it,
such as finding someone to
emergency foster their animal
for them.
The group also allows owners
to apply for emergency
assistance with pet food and
kitty litter if they are struggling
to afford those things
amid the pandemic.
Do-gooders can also apply
to help foster pets, donate pet
food, pet medicine, cat litter,
or money, as well as volunteer
for the project, according
to the website.
Levin said that she
launched the project to help
ease the burden on the city’s
animal shelters.
“NYC COVID Pet Plan
will provide much needed
support to pet-owning families
affected by COVID-19
By Jessica Parks
Brooklyn Paper
Brooklyn’s food pantries
are seeing a jump in distribution
and dwindling supplies
as hundreds more families
rely on their services amid
the current outbreak of novel
coronavirus.
“It has been a tough time
for us as an organization, it is
like we are going into a new
pathway that we have never
been before,” said Dr. Melony
Samuels, founder and director
of The Campaign against
Hunger, a food pantry in Bedford
Stuyvesant that provides
services to indigent families
across the borough.
The heightened need for
food services in Brooklyn
follows a surge in borough
residents seeking unemployment
benefits — including
when a whopping 87,216
claims were filed in Brooklyn
within the 14-day period
ending on April 4.
Samuels said the number of
and take some of the strain
off overburdened city shelters,”
she said.
The Pet Plan currently
covers geographic areas
in Brooklyn, Upper Manhattan,
and some parts of
the Bronx, but the group is
looking for other organizations
and volunteers to help
them expand to help people
in need across the city during
the pandemic, according
to Levin.
“During this time of immense
stress, we want to support
our neighbors to our
greatest ability,” she said.
COVID-19.
Photo by Statia Grossman
A rising need, but dwindling supplies
families served by her organization
has quadrupled to include
nearly 1,100 individuals
per day, while Thomas Neve,
the director of Reaching-Out
Community Services in Bensonhurst,
said his regular circulation
of 10,500 families has
spiked nearly 30 percent.
Despite the increase in demand,
both organizations have
not had to turn away any families
due to lack of supplies,
something both Neve and Samuels
said has taken extraordinary
effort on the behalf of
their volunteers and staff.
“We are constantly fundraising,
asking friends and individuals
to donate and we take
that money and we buy food,”
Samuels said.
Donations from businesses
and the surrounding community
have also helped fuel the
continuing operation of the
food services.
“We have received donations
from some of the residents
in Brooklyn. Some
corporations have come alongside,”
Samuels said.
Still, both food pantries are
experiencing a rise in operational
costs as food shortages
require more purchases and
the the influx of families necessitates
more staff.
“We have hired for the mass
production, which is something
we did not plan for,” Samuels
said. “We hired staff because
we can’t ask staff to do four
times the amount of work that
we are doing now,”
To compensate for the increased
spending at Reaching
Out, Neve said he has had to
dip into his organization’s reserves
— something he fears
could cause problems for operations
once the crisis comes
to a close.
“Will we crash out when
this over because right now
we are depleting all of our resources?”
Neve said. “Then
what?”
Food banks in Brooklyn are struggling to keep up
with demand as the COVID-19 continues on.
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