FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM AUGUST 5, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 21
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Op-Ed: Restaurants need more help
BY AMANDA COHEN
Restaurants and bars around New York
appear to be coming back to life. I look up
from my station and see a dining room
full of people talking, laughing, eating and
celebrating, and my world feels alive for
the fi rst time in over a year. Vaccinations
and loosening government restrictions
appear to have resuscitated the nation’s
local restaurants and bars and yet our
industry is far from making it through
the pandemic.
Neighborhood restaurants and bars are
dying in plain sight.
Independent restaurants and bars have
scratched and clawed for the past 16
months — doing everything possible to
continue serving our communities. I had
to fi re my 30 employees and re-invent Dirt
Candy as a fast casual restaurant, serving
sandwiches and salads, doing takeout and
delivery, serving my guests on the side of
what’s essentially a highway, sometimes
in the middle of weather so cold I had to
wear a snowsuit to bring them their food.
I did it all with a staff of six. But I’m lucky.
Many restaurants I know had to do more
with even less. But our pandemic-long
battle has come at a cost — restaurants
and bars have lost over $280 billion since
the start of the pandemic.
For many of my colleagues, the immediate
letters & comments
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fi nancial hardship imposed by the
pandemic was simply too much to keep
their businesses afl oat. Over 90,000 had
no choice but to close their doors, but
those of us who are still open are barely
hanging on. Th irty-nine percent of restaurants
cannot pay their June rent — these
missed supplier, rent and utility payments
are creating a mountain of debt that will
soon come due.
Many restaurants are still struggling
with headwinds brought on by the pandemic.
Guests are still hesitant to return
to the dining room as 36 percent of diners
will not resume their regular dining
behavior until at least aft er September
2021. Costs necessary for running a restaurant
are rising. Th e prices of many
food items increased between April and
May of 2021, such as beef and veal (10.5
percent), grains (25.7 percent) and cooking
oils (9.3 percent).
Even if our dining rooms are packed
night aft er night, our low margin businesses
will not be able to climb out of the
hole the pandemic has placed us in. Back
rent, purveyors bills and all the debt that
has accrued over the past year is coming
due. We will have no choice but to close
our doors, causing a New York economic
crisis that threatens New York’s $51.6
billion economy, 50,153 small businesses,
and the 966,600 leisure and hospitality
workers we support.
Th ere is hope for New York’s restaurants
and bars. Earlier this year, President Biden
signed the Restaurant Revitalization Fund
(RRF), a $28.6 billion federal grant program
based on the RESTAURANTS Act,
a $120 billion grant program designed
by the neighborhood bar and restaurant
owners from the Independent Restaurant
Coalition to help businesses like mine
survive the pandemic.
Th e RRF was massively successful and
widely popular. In just three and a half
weeks, more than 278,000 restaurants and
bars applied, requesting over $72 billion.
I was one of the many eager applicants
hoping this program would provide my
businesses with the relief I needed to keep
my doors open and continue living my
dream. Unfortunately, my business was
not one of those chosen.
Restaurants and bars always knew
that $28.6 billion was never going to be
enough. We asked for $120 billion last
year and one point of sale application estimates
that restaurants and bars are eligible
for at least $168 billion in RRF grants.
Th ere is some hope on the horizon. In
both chambers of Congress, there is a $60
billion bill that would refi ll the RRF and
it is rapidly gaining bipartisan support.
Our representatives need to fi ght for our
beleaguered industry now so we can survive
and continue to serve our neighbors,
energize our regional economies and
drive our supply chains. Failing to refi ll
the RRF will cause an employment crisis
that will disproportionately aff ect single
mothers, people of color, immigrants,
young people and the formerly incarcerated,
crippling an industry that provides
ladders of opportunity without extreme
barriers to entry. I know Leader Schumer
understands what neighborhood restaurants
and bars mean to our communities.
Th at’s why he called the $28.6 billion
a down-payment in March. Now independent
restaurants and bars need him to
make our survival a priority and lead our
fi ght to refi ll the RRF.
I’m not a politician; I don’t think big.
I’m just a girl who owns a restaurant and
my biggest dream is serving dinner to my
guests, being part of the background of
their lives as they go on dates, fall in love
and celebrate their happiness. Th at’s all.
If Congress fails to refi ll the RRF, there’s
a very good chance that I will close, and
so will thousands of small restaurants like
mine. Th e RRF will make us whole for
2020, keep us from taking on even more
debt, and let us bring back the workers we
need at salaries that let them rebuild their
lives. If we close, our suppliers will lose
even more customers just when they’re
struggling to restart, our current staff
members will lose their incomes, and our
customers lose yet another place that was
a part of their lives before 2020.
Our representatives can save thousands
of small businesses, keep Americans
working and reinvigorate the economy by
refi lling the RRF.
Amanda Cohen is the chef/owner of Dirt
Candy in Manhattan.
CHANGING DECK HANDS ON
THE MTA FINANCIAL SS TITANIC
Th e departure of MTA Chairman Pat Foye is
nothing new (“Op-ed: A farewell from the outgoing
MTA Chair and CEO,” July 29).
Th ey come and go every few years, but the
status quo will remain under the new Acting
Chairman Janno Lieber. It is the equivalent of
changing captains on the Titanic. Both City Hall
and Albany will continue to decrease hard cash
contributions to the MTA by billions under MTA
Five-Year Capital Plans.
Th is included past Governors Mario Cuomo
(Democrat), George Pataki (Republican), Elliot
Spitzer (D), David Patterson (D) and current
Governor Andrew Cuomo. Both Governor
Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have to date
provided little of their respective $3.5 billion dollar
promised contribution toward funding the
MTA’s $51 billion 2020-2024 Five-Year Capital
Plan.
Billions more are still needed from the state
to make up for past cuts over previous decades.
Everyone insisted that the MTA continue fi nancing
more and more of the Capital Program by
borrowing.
As a result, going forward by 2024, 23 percent
of the annual MTA budget will go for covering
the costs of debt service payments.
Th is has grown over six capital programs or 30
years. By 2030, it could continue to grow even
higher.
Th is means less money is available for operations
to provide more frequent, safe, reliable service
to riders. It also means there is never enough
money to reach a state of good repair. All MTA
chairmen have no real independence to make
real change as they are beholden to the governor,
their benefactor.
Larry Penner, transportation
advocate, Great Neck
THE GOVERNOR SHOULD
RESIGN NOW
Attorney General Letitia James gave her fi nal
report on Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which I was
watching on television. Th e attorney general’s
report stated that Gov. Cuomo engaged in widespread
sexual harassment of women in his offi ce.
Th e report detailed allegations included running
his hands down the body of a state trooper.
Th ere were many women that were interviewed
who accused Gov. Cuomo of inappropriate
behavior.
I fi nd this most appalling and sad.
Women deserve respect and especially in the
workplace.
If this report is held as fact, the governor
should resign — and that means now.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr., Bellerose
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