8 AUGUST 6, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Small business owners across Queens
unite to demand help from local offi cials
BY JACOB KAYE
JKAYE@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Small business owners from
across Queens came together
on the steps of Queens Borough
Hall to call for immediate financial
relief to offset loses brought on by
the economic consequences of the
COVID-19 crisis on Wednesday, July
29.D
espite following COVID-19
protocols, the local business owners
said they are drowning in debt,
their bills are piling up and rent is
nearly impossible to pay. Should
help not come, many said they face
the prospect of closing for good.
Organized by Queens Together
and the Queens Chamber of Commerce,
the rally was supported
by state Senator Michael Gianaris’
Small Business Advisory Committee,
Business Improvement District
directors and a handful of elected
officials including Councilman
Donovan Richards, the front-runner
in November’s Queens borough
president race.
“The leadership in this country
has made this a bailout for Wall
Street rather than Main Street.
The bottom line is that many of
the small businesses, the folks
behind me and in front of me, are
folks who put everything into
investing in the American Dream,”
Richards said. “When they opened
a small business it was because
they had that American Dream of
contributing to the economy, of
doing something different, adding
to the culture and vibrancy of the
borough, but instead at this moment
they now are suffering a nightmare
and partly because of policies that
have done everything, even prior to
COVID-19, to really not assist small
businesses.”
Business owners noted that the
financial health of several local
businesses is not the only economic
metric for the moment. Some local
businesses are owned by and employ
local people, they said.
“Small businesses are also families,”
said Roseann McSorley, the
owner of Katch Astoria. “We aren’t
struggling only with our store
rents; we are also struggling with
our own home rents and costs of
raising our families, and when a
business closes its doors, it means
dozens more families are faced with
personal hardship.”
Queens Together, a nonprofit
aimed at battling food insecurity,
made a list of recommendations to
local, state and federal lawmakers
Small business owners from across Queens asked lawmakers for support at Queens Borough Hall on
Wednesday, July 29, 2020. Photos by Dean Moses
to help aid struggling businesses.
The list includes a call for commercial
rent relief, collaboration
between city agencies, a local business
focused reevaluation of the
city’s procurement process, a permanent
cap on the use of apps like
GrubHub and Seamless in New York
City and a new round of disaster
grants.
The group also demanded elected
officials pressure insurance companies
into expediting access to
business interruption insurance
claims, create tax incentives to
encourage property owners to rent
to tenant collectives and to expand
existing grant programs that have
offered businesses relief during the
pandemic.
“Our representatives need to
understand that if we continue to
ignore the impending disaster of
small business closures, we are
looking at tens of thousands of job
losses in Queens alone, the destruction
of our neighborhood fabric, and
the decimation of livable Queens
communities,” said Jaime Bean, the
co-founder of Queens Together.
Additional reporting by Dean
Moses.
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