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April 8, 2022 • Schneps Media
Contractual gaps
Minority- and women-owned businesses still
falling short in obtaining city contracts, pols say
BY ISABEL SONG BEER
Minority- and womenowned
businesses (M/
WBEs) in the Big Apple
are not only not getting enough
city contracts, but also didn’t get
enough of the pandemic financial
relief made available, City Council
members reported on April 4.
Council members Julie Won,
Chair, Committee on Contracts;
Julie Menin, Chair, Committee
on Small Business; and Francisco
Moya, Chair, Subcommittee
on COVID Recovery and Resiliency
held the April 4 meeting
focused on the state of M/WBEs
in the city as part of the overall
economic recovery.
During the hearing, the impact
of COVID-19 on M/WBEs (Minority
and Women owned Business
Enterprise) and Introduction
14, a bill that would require
the Division of Economic and
Financial Opportunity with the
Department of Small Business
Services and the Mayor’s Office
LOCAL NEWS
of Contract Services to use the
most recent data available when
considering revisions to citywide
M/WBE participation goals, as
well as supporting minority and
women owned businesses.
“From the small business committee
perspective, I am interested in a
productive conversation on how we
can jumpstart the recovery of minority
owned businesses and increase
utilization rates of M/WBEs,” said
council member Julie Menin. “Minority
owned businesses have been
disproportionately impacted by the
economic devastation caused by the
pandemic. According to national
data, Black owned businesses were
more than twice as likely to close
than White owned businesses.”
According to Menin, a controller
survey from June of 2020 found that
25% of M/WBE members surveyed
said they did not apply for federal or
city funding during the pandemic
because of restrictive application
criteria needed to qualify for aid.
The council members agreed this
seemingly discriminatory process for
aid or funding relief was grounds for
revisions to the citywide M/WBE
participation goal. Furthermore,
council member Julie Won insisted
and indicated that many city agencies
were not meeting their pledge to
hire or sponsor at least 30% of women
or minority owned businesses
and services.
“We are still falling short of the
30% M/WBE contracting goal,”
said council member Won. “Only a
handful of city agencies are shouldering
the load for the administration’s
responsibility for M/WBE contracting.
Much more remains to be done
to ensure mayoral agencies are also
working the 30% utilization goal.
Council members also announced
during the hearing that they would
be working to edit and amend certain
aspects of the M/WBE protocol
to partner with more city agencies in
order to strategically identify possible
contracting areas that have a high
number of M/WBE firms, build out
and maintain a list of prequalified
firms and get contracts in the pipeline
that utilize these qualified lists
in order to further support M/WBE.
“Transparency and sharing data
on those disparities and in our efforts
to close them, are pillars of the city’s
M/WBE program philosophy,” said
SBS Deputy Commissioner Dynishal
Gross. “The data we rely on and
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share should be as current as possible.
The city is committed to making
New York a more equitable and inclusive
place for M/WBEs to operate.
We know that working closely with
the council is critical to achieving
this shared goal.”
City to close three Man. streets for ‘Car Free Earth Day’ in April
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The city will bring back Car
Free Earth Day this year,
closing off a batch of New
York City streets to cars for a day
on Saturday, April 23, and replacing
the Big Apple’s honking and
polluting gas guzzlers on a select
set of thoroughfares with performances,
workshops, and kidfriendly
games.
“We encourage all New Yorkers
to embrace the streets and imagine
what could be possible if we
opened our streets for more than
just moving personal vehicles,”
said Department of Transportation
Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez
during a press conference in
Times Square on March 31.
Programming includes dance
and music, fitness classes, family
friendly games, trivia, helmet
giveaways, as well as educational
workshops and story times.
The event comes the weekend
after Earth Day and will ban
cars for most of the day at the
following locations in Manhattan:
• Avenue B, East 6th Street to
East 14th Street
• Broadway, East 17th Street to
West 42nd Street
• St. Nicholas Avenue, 181st
Street to 190th Street
The annual event debuted
in 2016, but was on pause
for two years during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
DOT officials said it will connect
more than 100 Open Streets
and 22 plazas.
The environmentally-themed
celebration will mark the beginning
of this year’s Open Streets
program, and Rodriguez encouraged
New Yorkers interested in
bringing the scheme to their block
to contact the agency for support.
“More than 200 Open Streets
will be happening this year,” the
Transportation commissioner
said. “If any group of residents,
if any local elected official, if any
business improvement district…
want to put a proposal to create
an Open Street, there’s opportunity
for them to be added and
there’s financial support for those
who need it.”
COURTESY DOT
Car Free Earth Day at Herald Square in 2018.