32 The Queens Courier • march 13, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com Push for new business development center THE COURIER/Photo by Melissa Chan Joyce Moy and Bill Imada, advocates for minority small business owners, said Queens needs a new and better staffed development center. BY MELISA CHAN mchan@queenscourier.com @MelissaCourier Queens needs another small business development center, but one with flexible hours staffed with “culturally competent” workers, advocates and lawmakers said Tuesday. The borough currently has two heavilyused centers, one in Long Island City’s LaGuardia Community College and another in Jamaica’s York College. Advisers give free consultations and offer low-cost training at the centers, which are partially funded by federal Small Business Administration (SBA) funds. But minority and immigrant owners struggle too much with language barriers at the existing sites to benefit from the services, small business owners and advocates said. And conflicting work hours are a huge deterrent. “These centers run regular hours. But when you’re a business, you work 80 hours a week,” said Bill Imada, co-founder of the Asian Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce. Imada and a panel of small business advocates urged the SBA to fix its outreach to minority owners during a Congressional Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce hearing held at Queens College. Local shop owners and Congressmember Grace Meng, who held the rare field hearing, said underserved areas like Flushing need help from staff members who speak mostly Chinese, Korean and Spanish. “The other locations are very inconvenient for us in Flushing,” said Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce President Howard Dai. “It would give small business owners easier access, and information would spread word of mouth.” Businesses can shut down when its owners, seeking aid, are turned away due to bad translations, said Joyce Moy, the executive director of the Asian and Asian-American Research Institute at CUNY. “A third center in Queens, particularly with Asian and Hispanic language capacities, is urgently needed,” Moy said. “Without competence in culture, language and technical support, all of this outreach is nothing but false promises.” The SBA’s acting chief of staff, Michele Chang, said the administration would implement more training and urged business owners to get virtual help using the SBA’s online learning center. “We understand that being a small business owner is a hard job,” Chang said. “You work all hours of the day. It’s your lifeblood.” Artists still fighting for 5Pointz BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO aaltamirano@queenscourier.com/ @aaltamirano28 Two artists made sure their voices were heard as the demolition of the buildings that were once home to 5Pointz continues. Brooklyn artists gilf! and BAMN (By Any Means Necessary) collaborated on Sunday, March 9, to put a large yellow caution tape, about 3 feet wide and a few hundred feet long, around the Jackson Avenue side of the Long Island City building with the words “Gentrification in Progress.” Gilf!, who just goes by her artist name, said it was sad to see the 5Pointz group fight for so long to keep the graffiti mecca alive and in the end just watch it be whitewashed. She believes small businesses are what bring character to New York City, and she has been speaking out against gentrification for a while. The artist said she had been speaking with BAMN about wanting to create a piece for 5Pointz and following another one of her shows against gentrification, the duo made it to Long Island City. “I hope people will talk about what gentrification means to them and if it’s something that affects them. And if it is, what are they willing to do about it,” gilf! said. “I use my art to facilitate the dialogue that I think is important or is being swept under the rug.” She also said she hopes the piece, which was taken down about 36 hours later, will open a door for discussion and bring different people together to create a solution. “If anywhere in the world is going to come up with a solution for this, it’s going to be New York,” she said. After a long fight to save 5Pointz, years of art was erased overnight last year. The owners of the property on Jackson Avenue and Davis Street, the Wolkoff family, ordered the action to be taken in November. Rallies were held throughout that same month to save the site, including a gathering only three days before the whitewashing, requesting the building, with its art, be landmarked. Since the whitewashing, the demolition process has slowly begun, with signs of asbestos removal crews at the location. Brooklyn artists gilf! and BAMN collaborated on Sunday, March 9, to put a large yellow caution tape around the Jackson Avenue side of the 5Pointz building with the words “Gentrification in Progress.” Although residents have called the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and 3-1-1 with complaints, a DEP spokesperson said that all work being done is in compliance with regulations. Asbestos abatement is taking place on the side located at 45-50 Davis Street by contractors hired by the buildings’ owners. DEP inspectors issued one stop work order, for less than 24 hours, after an inspection Photo by Andy Kim on March 2, for minor corrections, said the spokesperson. The issues were corrected and the order was lifted the following day. Since then, DEP inspectors have gone and supervised the work being done, as a normal procedure. “We have been there a few times because we keep receiving complaints about it,” the DEP spokesperson said. “But everything has been in compliance there.”
QC03132014
To see the actual publication please follow the link above