WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MAY 13, 2021 7
Queens Day event serves as pep rally for borough businesses
BY BILL PARRY
BPARRY@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
As the city and state prepares
for its COVID-19 comeback,
the Queens Chamber of Commerce
hosted its annual Queens Day in
Albany to recognize local businesses
that have weathered the pandemic,
and discuss future economic recovery
eff orts in the borough.
Chamber staff, Lieutenant Governor
Kathy Hochul, Queens Borough
President Donovan Richards, District
Attorney Melinda Katz and members
of the Queens Delegation to the Senate
and Assembly were on hand for
the virtual event which drew more
than a hundred participants.
“The Queens Chamber is now the
most diverse that it has ever been,
with our staff, our membership and
our board,” Queens Chamber of Commerce
President and CEO Thomas J.
Grech said in his opening remarks.
“We have over 1,300 members, representing
over 125,000 Queens-based
employees, now in our 110th year.
Today, your chamber of commerce
speaks 12 different languages. Every
day, we’re pounding the pavement
to help businesses in need, from the
Rockaways up to Little Neck, and
from Long Island City to the Nassau
border.”
Speakers emphasized the challenges
that the pandemic has presented
to businesses in Queens, while looking
forward to the ongoing recovery
with optimism.
“I want to acknowledge how
especially difficult the last fourteen
months have been for small
businesses and nonprofits here in
Queens. Many of our small businesses
are owned by first- and
second-generation New Yorkers
who put their life savings into their
businesses,” Richards said. “This
pandemic took an enormous toll on
their livelihoods and sadly, some
owners could not bear the brunt of
this storm, and closed shop. More
recent developments have given
me hope, though. The Biden administration
and Congress extended
funding that has given us a lifeline
through the American Rescue Plan
back in March. This was not by any
means easy, but it was a shot in the
arm our small businesses needed to
survive.”
The district attorney congratulated
the chamber for getting many
involved in the pandemic recovery
efforts.
“This chamber has done an amazing
job during COVID in keeping
people connected and making sure
that they have resources for their
businesses,” Katz said.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s
second in command, no stranger
to Queens small business owners
after her many visits to the borough,
offered up a pep talk to the virtual
participants.
“I know this has been a tough year,
but I really feel that we have turned
the corner,” Hochul said. “We’re
getting the MTA going again, people
are getting back to work, and they’re
walking again in the streets, and
feeling that sense of confidence and
that swagger that we all love as New
Yorkers.”
State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky
conveyed her sense that the borough
is ready to rebound.
“When I look where we are today
in Queens, I am absolutely amazed,”
she said. “I am convinced that it is
because of the business community,
the jobs, and the services.”
Assemblywoman Alicia Hyndman,
who ran for borough president last
year, concurred as she concluded the
Queens Day virtual event.
“We are resilient as a borough, and
it is a pleasure to work on behalf of
our constituents,” Hyndman said. “I
don’t know if there’s a more cohesive
borough of elected officials than
what we have right here in Queens,
and I’m honored to work with each
and every one of you to make our
borough better.”
Queens Day brings together business leaders and elected offi cials to
discuss the borough’s COVID recovery. Screenshot via Zoom
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