Yes To Commercial Rent Control!

At yesterday's MAS Summit for New York City, the vast majority of people in the audience said "yes" to commercial rent control during a panel discussion. The callous reaction of Alicia Glen (Deputy Mayor for housing and economic development): "I’m not sure that necessarily adopting commercial rent control would lead to solve the problem that people think the problem is. There are some small businesses that are probably going to just fail because they’re not very good businesses."

More on the corporate takeover of New York City: Darwinian City?

Photography by J. Brash

March Against Displacement

On September 25th, close to one-thousand residents, workers, small businesses, students, and others from Chinatown, the Lower East Side, and across the city marched to City Hall to demand that Mayor de Blasio protect our community from displacement. We must show the Mayor that we will not stop until our Chinatown and the Lower East Side receives the equal protection they deserve. We call on everyone to join the march on Wednesday, October 28th! Click here for more details and to RSVP.

Preserving the Fabric of New York City's Vanishing Streetscape

As part of the sixth annual MAS Summit for New York City, Jeremiah Moss (Vanishing New York blogger and founder of #SaveNYC) will narrate a pre-recorded piece about the recent history of New York City, suggesting a death by hyper-gentrification via the loss of key small businesses and cultural touchstones. Alongside startling before-and-after streetscape photographs by James and Karla Murray, Moss will make a case for halting what is happening to the city and then outline how it can be saved.

Thursday, October 22nd at 11:05AM

The Times Center, 242 West 41st Street

Stop The Setting Sun

Save The View Now!

Dear Mayor de Blasio

The largest employer of New York City residents are its 185,000 small businesses. A majority of New Yorkers rely on steady jobs from local employers to survive the increasing cost of living. Yet the most secure jobs for low and middle income New Yorkers are being lost every day as long established core businesses are forced to close when their leases expire.

New York City faces a jobs crisis that must be addressed immediately as our job creators fight for their livelihood. Exorbitant rent increases and no rights to negotiate fair lease terms with their landlords are driving our local economies into the ground.

We believe a real solution has been presented that will give our local entrepreneurs — in storefronts, manufacturing, not-for-profit organizations, performing arts and theater groups, art spaces and studios, recording and rehearsal studios, retail and service businesses, professional medical offices, commercial tenants — the single most powerful tool to stay in business: equal rights in commercial lease renewal negotiation. If our small businesses face a crisis, their employees face a crisis, and that means we all face it. Give small business owners rights, so that their employees can have stability and our economy can continue to flourish.

We are calling on you, New York City Council Speaker Mark-Viverito, and all New York City Council Members, to unequivocally support the Small Business Jobs Survival Act (File #: Int 0402-2014), the only real solution to ensure we are saving and protecting all of our small business jobs and in turn, the local economy.

This SBJSA will allow small business owners the right to:

- A 10 year minimum lease with the right to renewal, so they can plan for the future of their business, continue to employ staff, and provide their service to the community.

- Equal negotiation terms during the lease renewal process with recourse to binding arbitration by a 3rd party if fair terms can't be agreed upon.

- Restrictions to prevent landlords from passing their property taxes on to small business owners.

- An end to rent-gouging, illegal extortion of unscrupulous landlords, and unconscionably high rent increases that affect ALL businesses.

On behalf of NYC's single largest employer and revenue generator for our neighborhoods, we ask that you do the right thing for your city and local communities.

Please support the Small Business Jobs Survival Act.

•••

[Click here to send this letter to Mayor de Blasio and Council Speaker Mellisa Mark-Viverito]

Rally Against The Corporate University

"NYU is now an institution driven not by a concern for education, but by an elite financial calculus that ends up hurting all of us in many ways: the students, faculty and staff within the school itself, as well as its long-suffering neighbors. What’s happening at NYU is indicative of a nationwide trend that has turned institutions of higher learning into profit-driven corporations." -Mark Crispin Miller, NYU professor of media

Did you know...

-NYU “creates more student debt than any other nonprofit college or university in the country” (Village Voice)?

-NYU Law is the nation’s 2nd most expensive law school?

-Princeton Review has rated NYU's financial aid "the worst in the United States."

-NYU charges international students $9,392 more than American students, bringing in an extra $100,000?

-Your insurance costs anywhere from $2424 to $3236 with $5000 in-network deductibles and without dental or vision benefits?

-NYU bought two buildings in NoHo for $157 million in October 2014 (which had cost the owner $96.6 million one year earlier)?

-NYU provides Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates a luxury two bedroom at 120 West 15th Street though he has no affiliation at NYU and many students have no housing?

-President Sexton currently makes a base salary of $1,404,484 and will retire with a $2.6 million length of service bonus and $800,000 lifetime annuity? And a $1 million low cost loan for President Sexton’s beach house on Fire Island?

-Did you know that NYU’s Board does not have a single academic member—only Wall Street bankers, lawyers, and elite figures from Abu Dhabi and Shanghai?

-The top 21 administrators make a combined total of $23.5 million dollars (an average raise of 23.3% from 2011 to 2013, while faculty raises average 2.5%)?

-And that the increase alone would have covered tuition for 67 students and saved them between $4.3 and $8.9 million in interest over 15 years?

-That NYU admitted at least 1/3 of the workers (around 10,000 people) who built the Abu Dhabi campus were never paid for their work? And that over 200 workers were summarily imprisoned and then deported for daring to strike to recover their stolen wages?

Join students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members on September 1st to call on NYU to do the right thing, and be a good neighbor and anchor for the sustainable life of our community.

Challah! Por Favor

Beloved East Village landmark B&H Dairy Restaurant, at 127 Second Avenue, was closed since the massive March 26th explosion and fire, which destroyed half of Second Avenue between 7th Street and St. Marks Place. Neighboring restaurants reopened within weeks, but B&H was forced to remain closed due to previously unforeseen upgrades needed on the 70+ year old restaurant (among them was a new exhaust venting to the roof and fire suppression system at a cost of nearly $30,000). Finally after more red tape than thought possible, B&H reopened to much fanfare and happy hungry faces!

Pictured top to bottom: Fawzy Abdelwahed (B&H co-owner), Ms. Florence Bergson Goldberg (daughter of the original

B&H Diary owners), her husband, and current co-owner Aleksandra Abdelwahed. All photographs by Beatriz Elena Rodriguez © 2015

Established 1921

"This one is really the face of Vanishing New York. This is a business that's been here for 94 years, made it through the Great Depression, made it through everything. This store is part of the fabric of New York."

After 94 years in business, Louis Shoe Rebuilders is getting the boot from Empire State Realty Trust without reason. On June 18th, #SaveNYC paid our respects and commemorated the life of this cultural gem with a funeral; old shoes and flowers were brought as offerings, the mourners dressed in black, and the legendary Penny Arcade gave a fiery eulogy for the beloved shop. Ms Beatrice Barbieri and her staff (Julio, Fabio, and Luisa) are some of the best New Yorkers we've ever met, with wonderful stories to tell about their loyal customer base and the changing neighborhood. In a short period of time we already consider them part of our #‎SaveNYC family. They will be missed by many.

Funeral Held For Louis Shoe Repair (NY Observer)

Empire State Building Cobbler to Close After 94 Years (Curbed)

Empire State Building Shoe-Repair Shop to Close After Decades (Wall Street Journal)

After 94 years, Empire State Building shoe repair store gets booted (NY Business Journal)

94-Year Old Shoe Shine Shop Getting The Boot (WABC Eyewitness News 7)

Longtime Empire State Building Shoe Repair Shop Loses Lease (CBS NY)

Le Cireur de Chaussures de l’Empire State Building Ferme Boutique (Le Monde)

Dopo 94 Anni Sfrattato Lo Storico Calzolaio Dell'Empire State Building (L'Unione Sarda)
Tras 94 Años Cierra Local de Reparación Calzado en Empire (Ansa Latina)

All photography by Beatriz Elena Rodriguez © 2015

Step By Step

Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce members march behind a banner 

which includes #SaveNYC signs at the June 14th Flag Day parade

"Iconic mom and pops stores throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn have been disappearing at a rapid pace and the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce is backing a city council bill that it believes will stop the hemorrhaging before development and rent hikes set in here. The bill called the Small Business Jobs Survival Act aims to provide commercial tenants with more clout at the bargaining table when their lease comes up for renewal. Furthermore, it also requires landlords to provide greater notification if they don’t intend to renew a lease due to development. The Sunnyside board unanimously decided last month to advocate for the passage of the bill."

Text from The Sunnyside Post, June 16th

Funeral For A Shoe Repair Shop

After 94 years in business, Louis Shoe Rebuilders is getting the boot from their landlord, Empire State Realty Trust (aka the Empire State Building). Take this opportunity to show your love for the dying city. On Thursday, June 18th starting at noon, come to a funeral for this venerable small business hosted by #SaveNYC. Bring old shoes and flowers as an offering. Bring your #SaveNYC signs. Dress in funeral black. Eulogies welcome.

•••

Louis Shoe Rebuilders has been in business since 1921, originally located on the site of the Empire State Building before there ever was an Empire State Building. When the new skyscraper opened in 1931, the landlord took Louis in. But they won't be there for much longer. The 94-year-old shop will be closing at the end of June. Owner Beatrice Barbieri: "We're not having our lease renewed. They want $25,000 and nobody can pay that on shoe repair." The Empire State Building is owned by Empire State Realty Trust, run by the Malkin family, who bought the building from Donald Trump in 2002. The building is going through changes. Tony Malkin has said he considers it the center of Silicon Alley and a "premier urban campus" for tech companies. Ground-floor windows are papered with "Retail Space Available" signs. Banners wrapped around the scaffolding cheer: "$550 Million in Building Upgrades" and "Creating New Jobs in New York.” But jobs are also being destroyed here, like the one done by cobbler and store manager Julio Galvis for the past 27 years. [Story continues here]

•••

Louis Shoe Rebuilders is located at 25 W 33rd Street, in the Empire State Building. The shop's
entrance is on the street. The funeral is rain or shine (bring a black umbrella if it's raining).

Hunger Strike Against Eviction

Sunrise Co-op Press Conference & Hunger Strike

The Project
The New York City Economic Development Corp's Willets Point redevelopment plan calls for the displacement of over 200 small businesses. It was approved in the final days of the Bloomberg administration and currently being carried out under Mayor Bill de Blasio. In 2014 a cooperative of businesses that reached an agreement with NYCEDC leased a new site in the Bronx. Promised funding and permits needed to create a viable relocation site have been held up by the city. The deadline to vacate the area was June 1st.

Plea to Council Member Julissa Ferreras
"Necesitamos de que nos de su apollo porque nosotros somos su vecindario. [...] su barrio y ella no puede abandonar estas familias y dejarlos que nos tire a la calle." (Translation: We need her support because we are her community, her neighborhood, and she can't abandon these families and leave us thrown out on the streets).

Plea to the ‪de Blasio Administration‬ 
Businesses aren't allowed a few more months to relocate in the Bronx nor given the time to raise money for the transition as was promised and signed for. The land was sold off to billionaire developers for $1 during the Bloomberg administration. They're given the right to buy land for $1, but small businesses operated/run by mostly low-income to middle class immigrants in ‪Queens‬ don't have the right to a decent relocation plan.  

Hunger Strike *
The NYCEDC reached a deal with some of the Willets Point small businesses promising them more time and assistance in relocating. The hunger strike began on June 1, 2015.

* Times Ledger, June 6, 2015