FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM MAY 21, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 17
community banking
Queens lawmakers call for city’s small business relief
eff orts to refocus on boroughs outside Manhattan
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
aacevedo@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
State Senator Jessica Ramos and
Councilman Costa Constantinides
are calling for the city’s small business
COVID-19 relief programs to refocus
their eff orts on helping small businesses
outside of Manhattan, which has received
the majority of the fi nancial assistance
to date.
“Our small businesses all over New York
City are suff ering through the COVID-19
crisis, yet only ones in Manhattan benefi
ted most from SBS relief,” said Ramos,
who represents Senate District 13, home
to some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods
in Queens, including Jackson Heights
and East Elmhurst. “Th e city must create
a robust plan to reach out to our small
businesses, many of which here in western
Queens are owned by immigrant families,
to create constructive ways to give
them help.”
Th e lawmakers’ call comes aft er new
statistics showed Manhattan small businesses
accounted for the majority
of the 2,600 businesses that have
received payouts from two of
the Small Businesses Services
(SBS) relief programs.
As reported by the
Gothamist, of the $20
million for NYC Business
Continuity Loan Fund,
66 percent went to
businesses based in
Manhattan.
M e a n w h i l e ,
Brooklyn received
18 percent, Queens received 9 percent,
Staten Island received 5 percent
and the Bronx received less than 1 percent.
For the city’s $40 million grant program,
NYC Employee Retention Grant,
the trend continued with 53 percent going
to Manhattan businesses, 25 percent for
Brooklyn, 16 percent for Queens and
three percent for both the Bronx and
Staten Island.
“Western Queens’ small businesses represent
the American dream, with owners
and workers who come from every corner
of the globe,” said Constantinides,
who represents Council District 22,
which includes Astoria and parts of East
Elmhurst and Jackson Heights. “Yet so
many barriers keep them from accessing
vital city services or support — especially
now. Without a full-scale plan to reach
out to our small businesses, access their
needs, and adapt, this will be a tale of two
recoveries.”
On May 11, Ramos and Constantinides
sent a joint letter asking the city to formally
take the issue to Mayor Bill de
Blasio, new Commissioner
of SBS Jonnel Doris and
Gregg Bishop, newly
appointed Senior
Advisor for Small
Business COVID-
19 Recovery
and former
Commissioner
of Small
Business Services
(SBS).
They wrote
SBS and the city
should prioritize
immigrant- or minority-owned small
businesses — such as the bodegas, dry
cleaners, bakeries and shoe repair shops
— in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and
Staten Island, as the city begins to plan
how to restart the economy once COVID-
19 is curbed.
Th ey also pointed out that the city
doesn’t have a “data-driven approach to
identifying small businesses and a system
to establish communicative relationships
with them,” in their letter. “Th e fact that
a vast majority of the city’s fi nancial relief
went to Manhattan businesses demonstrates
that smaller, neighborhood-based,
immigrant or minority owned businesses
in the ‘outer-boroughs,’ a term we loathe
to use, likely did not know that these programs
existed or didn’t understand how
to apply,” the lawmakers wrote in the
letter.
“Th is is a problem we see
time and again. It’s usually the
folks who are not foreign
born, have better education
access, and are
wealthier from the start
who best understand
how to access government
resources.”
In response to
the lawmakers’
call, an SBS spokesperson
told QNS
they created
the two relief programs with the
understanding that the needs of entrepreneurs
outweighed available resources, as a
rapid response to the ongoing crisis small
business owners face.
Th e SBS spokesperson said they continue
supporting businesses by helping them
apply to their relief programs and the federal
government’s PPP as well as through
their series of technical assistance webinars
that provide an overview of more
available assistance for small businesses
impacted by COVID-19 from federal,
private, philanthropic, nonprofi t levels,
among others.
“To date, SBS has connected small businesses
to over $60 million in local and
federal grant and loan funding since the
beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. Small
businesses need us now more than ever
and we must all work to support
them in a consistent and direct
way,” the spokesperson said.
“New York City business
owners can visit us at nyc.
gov/covid19biz or call 311
to request technical assistance
regarding preparing
your financials
for future fi nancial
resources and to learn
about other resources
for small business
owners.”
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