A plea from NYC’s restaurants
COURIER LIFE, NOV. 27-DEC. 3, 2020 17
OP-ED
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 workingclass
and immigrant communities
that are essential to this
industry’s workforce.
In 2018, more than 60 percent
of 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 nightlife establishments
unable 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 non-compliance.
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.
Sunset Park is not for sale
BY SAADIA KHALID
The purpose of public community
board meetings is accountability
to the community
they are representing. At
last week’s Community Board
7 meeting, the members of the
board failed to hold themselves
accountable to the community,
falling short of the obligations
of their positions.
On the agenda for the Community
Board 7 meeting on November
18, 2020 was a vote on
a proposal to rezone Fourth
Avenue between 24th and 25th
Streets in Sunset Park in order
to allow a private developer to
build a 14-story luxury high
rise where there is currently
a single-level Dunkin Donuts.
The proposed rezoning has
been deeply contested over the
last few weeks, with community
members organizing, protesting,
and submitting testimony
in advance of the board’s
vote.
As a lifelong resident of this
neighborhood, the proposed
rezoning is set to impact my
life in far-reaching ways. This
will be the fi rst ripple in the
next tidal wave of changes for
our community. It will signal
to other developers that Sunset
Park is for sale, and will result
in the continued displacement
of many of our community
members.
I intended to say just that
at the Nov. 18 hearing, but the
board voted on the proposal before
I was given the chance.
Unfortunately, the meeting
lacked transparency from the
very start.
While adopting the agenda
for what would become a fi vehour
long meeting, the committee
chair motioned to split
the public comment portion of
the evening into two separate
sections. The motion was approved
without discussion or
explanation of its impact.
During the fi rst public comment
period, board members
asked that the community allow
those who had never provided
oral testimony on the 737
Fourth Ave. rezoning proposal
to speak fi rst. In response, numerous
community members
voluntarily yielded their time
as a show of good faith. What
the board failed to mention to
the public was that the second
public comment period would
not occur before, but after the
vote on the proposed rezoning
had already taken place, rendering
any testimonies given
during that time irrelevant.
And so we waited. We stood
by, patiently, for the moment
when we would be able to speak
our minds to those in positions
of power in our community.
But the moment didn’t come.
The board moved on from public
comment (which notably included
participation from the
developer, Totem) and directly
into member-only discussion,
immediately followed by a vote
on the proposal.
Those of us who were still
waiting to testify were shocked
and confused. Why were we
not being afforded a chance to
voice our positions before this
heated proposal was voted on
by the board members? What
purpose would it serve to share
our testimony after the vote
took place? Where was the accountability?
While the chat feature for
the Zoom meeting was disabled,
several questions were
asked in the Q+A as to why the
public was being silenced. The
questions were dismissed.
Several community board
members voiced their frustration
and embarrassment that
the board was unwilling to
hear the testimony of its constituents.
And nevertheless,
the vote was taken, and the
proposal passed 25-to-16.
Many were left aghast. How
can a community board speak
on behalf of the community,
when they are not willing to
listen to their neighbors?
Instead, we the people listened.
We listened as board
members shut down residents
of the community they serve,
claiming that hearing residents’
testimonies wouldn’t
change their vote anyway.
We heard the community
lose, and luxury real estate developers,
once again, win.
And we residents of Brooklyn
understand how these real
estate deals function. We understand
that residents generally
get the short end of the
stick, and that developers generally
get their way.
But this letter is not about
developers and the way they
pillage our neighborhoods.
This letter is about the
Community Board that is supposed
to protect our interests,
to speak on behalf of us, that is
supposed to hear us, and listen,
and that last week failed to do
even one of those things.
CB7 leadership misled
their constituents into believing
their testimony would be
heard before the vote, implied
that their word would be taken
to heart and that they would be
considered and counted, when
they were in fact being disenfranchised,
and their voice in
the democratic process being
nullifi ed. Last week, CB7 failed
its constituents and community.
But, this fi ght doesn’t end
here, just because this board
let us down. We will continue
to fi ght on behalf of all the families
of this community. And I
meant it.
Saadia Khalid is a lifelong
resident of Sunset Park.