Small business owners across Queens unite
to demand help from local lawmakers
BY JACOB KAYE
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.
Despite 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
Small business owners from across Queens asked lawmakers for support at Queens Borough Hall last week. Photos by Dean Moses
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
TIMESLEDGER | 2 QNS.COM | AUG. 7-13, 2020
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
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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