Speak-Out!

We have a slow-moving emergency for small biz and working artists in NYC: we must cancel commercial rent and pass commercial rent stabilization. Come speak out! This event is focusing on Corey Johnson’s district (west side of Manhattan), but all are welcome. Register for event here.

Queens Together

The heart of our neighborhoods is at stake along with tens of thousands of jobs. Now is the time for decisive action to save our small businesses. Join us this Wednesday, July 29th at 9 am at 120-55 Queens Boulevard.

Fear For Their Future

The fees that delivery apps charge is unconscionable. Their stranglehold on the industry needs to be looked at in depth and addressed if we want to see our beloved restaurants survive: "The gap between the success of the apps and the pain of the restaurants is striking. Spending at restaurants in recent weeks dropped about 35 percent from a year earlier, while revenue for the delivery services rose about 140 percent." [NY Times]

Quarantined Cash Mob

As New York's mom and pops have been forced to close for public safety, #SaveNYC is launching a "Quarantined Cash Mob." Each day (we hope) we will highlight a different small business in the city that you can support easily from home.

Make a donation or buy a gift card. Order take-out or delivery from restaurants, cafes, bars, and shops. Take action and spread the word -- before we all emerge to find New York has vanished completely.

Logo design by Tommy Noonan (DCX)

The People's Playground

"Please help! Today is my final day to save the shop I’ve owned on the Coney Island for the past 19 years.

Luna Park is not even responding to my pleas to save my shop. I am shocked and utterly disgusted by their greed and lack of care not only for my beloved business but also for the community of Coney Island. They also don’t care about you, their customers. The people who have supported their relatively new business in Coney Island. They are only motivated by greed and the bottom line.

The City is just standing by, watching them exploit Coney Island and draining it of it’s soul. The City claims to have no control over how Luna Park develops Coney Island. They claim this foreign company, based in Italy, has free reign to develop Coney Island however they choose.

The City used taxpayer money to purchase this land in 2009 to preserve the Spirit of Coney Island in perpetuity. Luna Park leases the land from the City and has been given an extremely generous deal. In return they are responsible for maintaining the unique essence of Coney Island. It is unacceptable that Luna Park would drive a loyal tenant of 19 years, whose heart and soul is so deeply invested in the community out with this unreasonable greed. Yet the City claims they are unable to intervene to help me.

I’ve fought for this store and the preservation of the Coney Island Amusement district for almost two decades. I started the Save Coney Island organization in 2007. For years I worked tirelessly as the director of this nonprofit to ensure that the amusement district of Coney Island was developed the right way. This activism, in part, resulted in the City purchasing this land on the boardwalk and brining Luna Park in to develop it. I fought hard for that. I welcomed Luna Park into the community as the most tremendous victory and result of all of Save Coney Island’s hard work.

Over the past 10 years I’ve become an even more valuable asset to the development of Coney Island. In addition to the local community service, relief organization after Hurricane Sandy, the expansion of our free Community Sunset Yoga on the Beach Classes, improvements to my creative little shop and the development of new unique merchandise I design and hand print, I’ve opened numerous retail stores and Roller rinks in other neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Last October I opened a new Dreamland Roller Rink at City Point in Downtown Brooklyn. Despite those accomplishments Luna Park does not value my contributions to Coney Island nor do they care if I stay.

I feel stabbed in the back and betrayed. I welcomed Luna Park into the community, I worked side by side with them to rebuild Coney Island after Hurricane Sandy and I helped contribute to the development and progress we’ve made in Coney Island over the past 19 years. I’m deeply proud of these achievements and proud to be a part of the incredible Coney Island community.

But after today, if this is not resolved, I will have to pack up my beloved shop and leave Coney Island. If anyone has any advice or contacts that may help, please send them my way. I have less than 24 hours to save my beloved shop." -Lola Starr, via Facebook

Photo by Dennis A. Clark (from the New York Post)

Established 1829

Jeremiah Moss with Neir's owner Loycent Gordon

Susan Neir, the granddaughter of Joe Neir, the bar's original owner

 

"This is all human capital. It takes time to build up a place like Neir’s, to build a reputation. We cannot allow predatory landlords to decide what happens to these businesses." -Olympia Kazi, NYC Artist Coalition

"[Neir's] was packed three deep again this weekend in crowds [owner] Loycent Gordon said he’d never seen before, both on Friday during the announcement from de Blasio, and on Saturday during a #SaveNYC rally that was previously billed as a farewell. The latter became part-celebration and part-rally for advocates of commercial rent reform; it was organized in part by Jeremiah Moss, who runs the blog Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York. Moss and others were happy for Neir’s, but worried for the future of small businesses in New York."

Text from Neir’s Tavern Avoids Closure (Gothamist)

All photographs by Beatriz Elena Rodriguez © 2020

Neir's Tavern = Saved!

Neir's Tavern just got a new deal for five more years on their lease! Come celebrate this good news and rally for commercial rent regulation. New York City has many more small businesses that need protecting — and in five years we might be fighting again for Neir's.

Saturday, January 11th. 2pm

Neir's Tavern - 87-48 78th St, Woodhaven, NY

Rally for Neir's!

After recently celebrating 190 years in business, Neir’s Tavern has announced that they are closing their doors this Sunday due to absurd rent increases, as well as their rejected attempt at landmarking the building.

"Neir's has been fighting for its life; recently, the Landmarks Preservation Committee rejected its application, though it's been around since before the Civil War. Founded in 1829, Neir's is greatly beloved — but love alone can't save our historic small businesses. Only a policy that ensures commercial rent stabilization can. But we don't have that in NYC. So this will keep on happening. Over and over and over. Until nothing authentic remains."

Come out this Saturday  and show the powers that be that we won't let our treasured NYC landmarks go quietly! Bring signs (make your own or print one from the #SaveNYC website) and prepare to make some noise!

Make no mistake, the Small Business Jobs Survival Act would've saved Neir's, along with countless other small businesses that are vital to the cultural and community fabric of New York City.

Rally sponsored by #SaveNYC, Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, the NYC Artist Coalition,

Disappearing NYC, ASAP Activists, and the Rego-Forest Preservation Council.

Saturday, January 11th. 2pm

Neir's Tavern - 87-48 78th St, Woodhaven, NY

Quote from Jeremiah Moss' Vanishing New York

Gem Spa Cash Mob & Art Event

#SaveNYC is hosting a cash mob at Gem Spa to help support this beloved East Village business--and keep it alive. Come prepared to spend some money — egg creams, pretzels, t-shirts, toothpaste! — and take your photo with a surprise work of guerrilla street art, as an acclaimed group of cultural activists and designers radically transform Gem Spa into a dystopian vision for the new St. Mark’s Place.

Saturday, September 14th. Noon

Gem Spa - 131 Second Avenue, NYC

Rally To Save Scoops

Scoops, one of the oldest Caribbean owned businesses on Flatbush Avenue between Lincoln and Hawthorne, has been given an 30 day notice to vacate by their landlord Jeremy Properties or they will face a legal eviction. For 35 years, Scoops has been a cultural and culinary institution in Flatbush. Tony Fongyit, the owner of Scoops is well-known for serving amazing Ital vegetarian foods and vegan ice cream, as well as provided wellness products and advice to our community. We are asking  Jeremy Properties to do the right thing, and give Scoops a new lease!

Friday, July 19th. 6:30pm

Scoops - 1624 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn

Fight For Our Future

"This is not about commercial rent control. [The Small Business Jobs Survival Act] is the only one that can establish a better process for lease renewal. It’s the only real solution to stop the closing of long-established small businesses and save jobs." -Ydanis Rodríguz, NY Council member

All photograph by Beatriz Elena Rodriguez © 2018,
shot at the Rally for the SBJSA at City Hall on  October 23rd, 2018

People Power Against Profit

Skyrocketing rents and loss of leases replace NYC’s diverse neighborhood cultures — spaces, stores and restaurants — with vacant storefronts. Tell the NY City Council to pass the Small Business Jobs Survival Act. Come testify! Tell your story of a favorite space that closed, a lost lease, or how important it is to you to preserve NYC’s unique culture. If you cannot make it to the hearing you can still show your support for the bill.

There will be a rally and press conference on the steps of City Hall before the hearing at noon featuring David Eisenbach, (Founder of Friends of the SBJSA), Ruth Messinger (Former Manhattan Borough President and City Council Member, Original Sponsor of the SBJSA), Elvis Silverio (President at New York State Latino Restaurant Bar & Lounge Association, Nelson Eusebio (National Supermarket Association), Paul Lau (Executive Director of the Sportswear Apparel Association, Andrew Berman (Executive Director, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation), Quenia Abreu (President & CEO, The New York Women's Chamber of Commerce), Kin Ming Lam (Garment District Factory Owner), Frank Garcia (National Association of State Latino Chambers of Commerce), Giovanni Taveras (Founder of the New York State Veteran's Chamber of Commerce), Rafael Martinez (President, NY Hispanic Chamber of Commerce), and Jeremiah Moss (Author of Vanishing New York).