Editorial
It’s not enough
With the election fi nally behind
them and the tweeter-in-chief
heading for the exits, Congressional
Republicans fi nally got around Tuesday
toward helping Democrats pass a new
COVID-19 economic relief package.
The $908 billion plan from a bipartisan
coalition of Senators and Congress members
aims to boost the Payroll Protection Programs
for restaurants, bars and other businesses
hardest hit by the pandemic, as well as
provide much needed relief to cash-strapped
states and the struggling airline industry. It
also includes a four-month, $300-a-week
unemployment insurance supplement.
Massive as a $908 billion bill may sound,
it’s not nearly enough to address the crisis at
hand. Nevertheless, both houses of Congress
must pass it, and the president must sign it into
law, before Christmas — no strings attached.
This package must be considered only as
a down payment on further relief to come
early next year, after President-elect Biden
takes offi ce. And we don’t want to hear a
word from Congressional Republicans about
austerity; everyone knows they had no problem
spending taxpayer money like drunken
sailors during the Trump administration,
piling another $5 trillion onto the national
debt they pretend to care about.
America needs a robust COVID-19 economic
package that does the following:
1. Completely absolves the individual
states for related expenses incurred during
the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation is
no different than a natural disaster befalling
one state or region. We Americans are
obligated to help each other out.
2. Provides another round of cash stimulus
to the American people that can be recirculated
into the economy. Rising costs, stagnant
wages and joblessness have taken their toll on
America’s working families. They need help.
3. Rescues the restaurants, bars and
entertainment venues long-shuttered by the
pandemic. Tens of thousands of workers
have been impacted; they need help to get
through this winter and spring to reach the
post-pandemic era.
4. Rescues the MTA and other public
transit systems that have fallen into abysses of
debt. Don’t let the commuter pay for this at the
turnstiles, or transit workers with their jobs.
5. Rescues tenants from the threat of eviction,
and small landlords and property owners
from the threat of foreclosure. Give fi nancial
institutions greater ability to renegotiate
and refi nance loans. Let’s not add another
person to the homeless or bankruptcy rolls.
Achieving these fi ve goals will go a long way
toward coming out of this pandemic stronger
as a nation. We owe it to ourselves to do it.
Op-ed
A plea from NYC’s struggling
restaurant industry
Philippe Massoud, the owner of Ilili Restaurant at 236 Fifth Avenue worries
that the eatery will not survive if they cannot have indoor dining when the cooler
weather hits. Many restaurants feel the same way. Their large, well ventilated
interior makes no difference to government officials.
BY ANDREW RIGIE
Our city’s hospitality industry has
been fi nancially devastated by the
COVID-19 pandemic. More than
130,000 New Yorkers previously employed
in eateries, cafes, bars, and nightclubs
remain out of work and thousands of beloved
small businesses have been forced to
permanently close.
As restaurants and nightlife establishments
have been uniquely and severely
impacted over the last eight months, so have
New York City’s working-class and immigrant
communities that are essential to this
industry’s workforce.
In 2018,more than 60 percentof New York
City restaurant workers were immigrants.
Right now, New York’s unemployment rate is
13% and 15% for Hispanics, numbers which
will rise if indoor and outdoor dining get shut
down and 100,000 more industry jobs are
directly threatened.
From a statistical standpoint, these fi gures
are grim, and in reality, they represent something
undoubtedly worse. Forcing workers into
abject poverty will have an indelible imprint
on their physical and mental wellness and
will carry disastrous consequences for the
economic and social fabric of New York City.
The failure of the federal government to
enact the RESTAURANTS ACT and Save Our
Stages Act, which would provide fi nancial relief
to our city’s struggling restaurants and nightlife
venues to help them pay rent, payroll, vendors
and other expenses makes it more incumbent
than ever for our local government to step-up.
There’s so much at stake for the future of
our city’s hospitality industry, and to counteract
the fi nancial toll of the pandemic we
are pleading with the Mayor and City Council
to enact the following policies to help ensure
the survival of these businesses and critical
jobs during this challenging time.
For one,with some 88% of restaurants and
PHOTO BY TODD MAISEL
nightlife establishmentsunable to pay October
rent, the New York City hospitality industry
urgently needs fi nancial support in the form of
cash grants and rent relief.The City should convert
the sales tax collected by these businesses
into cash grants, as well as immediately reduce
property tax payments and create incentives
for landlords to give tenants concessions on
rent and fl exibility to renegotiate leases.
Secondly, constantly evolving edicts and
requirements from all levels of government
make it nearly impossible for business owners
to keep pace. They are often provided
limited time to prepare for the changes, some
of which can be costly, and they are then hit
with the threat of violations and fi nes for noncompliance.
The City must provide as much
advanced notice as possible for any changes to
requirements, and fi nes should only be levied
as a last resort. The City has begun to do this,
it’s working, and this policy must continue.
Finally, it is critical that government do
everything possible to protect the health and
safety of all restaurant workers and customers
in a proactive way. The overwhelming
majority of restaurants have gone above and
beyond protecting the health and safety of
everyone who enters their doors, but the
cost can be onerous. Safety should not be
cost-prohibitive. It’s essential that the City
continue to provide PPE to restaurants and
bars at no charge and should coordinate free
COVID-19 testing for industry employees.
The fact of the matter is that New York
City will not recover economically or socially
unless our restaurants and bars are at the
core of our recovery. The policies we’ve
recommended – the same ones we recommended
at this week’s Small Business Committee
Hearing in the City Council — will be
critical to saving small businesses, protecting
jobs, and preparing our communities to
come back stronger in the future.
Andrew Rigie is the Executive Director
of the NYC Hospitality Alliance.
Publisher of The Villager, Villager Express, Chelsea Now,
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