Mom and Pop Stores are still fighting the good fight on the Upper West Side. The new 79th Street Pharmacy, owned by business partners and pharmacists Keith Lewis and Larry Haas, opened up in January right off of Broadway and just one block over from a Duane Reade.

The Upper West Side is starting to get the reputation of a “big box community” with streets of chain stores. But the 79th Street Pharmacy does not even remotely resemble the Duane Reade down the block. The narrow store is lined with dark wood paneling and has wooden floors and potted plants placed strategically for feng shui. The shelves are stocked with basic beauty and soap products, but at the counter they carry old-fashioned candy sticks and lollipops. “If there was room,” said owner Keith Lewis, “I would have milkshakes behind the counter too!”

But more important than an unusual appearance, said Keith Lewis, is their service.

“Everybody talks about customer service, but what it means here is you call up and you get a voice. You come in and we say hello,” said Lewis. “I like to see people feel good.”

Lewis said that there are certain products that they carry simply based on request. For instance, they started carrying one moisturizer brand because one customer asked for it. Another customer asked them to carry a specific type of European comb that takes 18 days to ship, and Lewis ordered it.

“We’re going to make nothing off of it, but if customers will come in, that’s okay,” said Lewis. “People say ‘can you carry this type of product so I don’t have to go to Duane Reade? I say sure because I want them to keep coming back.”

The 79th Street Pharmacy began as a longterm goal. Lewis and Haas met each other working as stockboys at a local pharmacy in Rockland County. From there, the two became friends and dreamed of one day owning a pharmacy together. Then one day last June, Haas received a call from a doctor who mentioned a storefront for sale by his office.  A few months later, the doctor had moved his office, but Haas still called up Lewis and together they opened the 79th Street Pharmacy. The pharmacy is a family affair too: Lewis’ wife Melanie helps out at the register, and Haas and his wife Marci designed the warm look of the storefront.

Even though they have only been open for a little over a month, Lewis said they already have repeat customers.

“I’m going to come here all the time now,” said Adam Loparnos, from Bayridge, Brooklyn who had heard about the pharmacy through his doctor. “They carry my medications, and they’re friendly. A lot of pharmacies won’t even give you the time of day.”

But it’s not just about bringing in new customers. Melanie Lewis said that they really want to give back to the community, and cited the store’s collaboration with three local schools. Every time a parent, teacher or student comes in from P.S. 452 on West 77th Street, P.S. 87 on West 78th Street, or P.S. 9 on West 84th Street, the pharmacy will give two dollars to their school for every new prescription, and one dollar for every refill. Plus they have a community bulletin board where they display local business cards and flyers.

In the future, Lewis said he hopes to add free quarterly clinics for blood pressure, nutrition and CPR classes. Both he and Haas hope to expand, and open more stores in other neighborhoods someday. But, they won’t all look the same. Lewis said it is very important to structure and cater the store to the surrounding neighborhood.

“I know we will do well, I don’t know why. I can just feel it,” said Lewis.

Many Americans who wake up with a sore throat face a choice that workers in most other countries do not have to make: go to work sick or stay home and lose a day’s pay. Around 175 countries guarantee paid sick leave for their citizens, according to a 2009 study by the McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy. The United States is not one of them.

Some parts of the country, though, do have laws requiring employers to provide coverage. San Francisco was first to guarantee certain workers sick leave in 2007, followed by Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Connecticut. New York City is now on the verge of joining them, with labor activists and the majority of City Council supporting a proposed law that would ensure paid sick leave for more than 1.2 million city workers, according to the New York Times.

One person stands in their way: City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who drew criticism last week for refusing to bring the bill to a vote. While many citizens think the proposed law’s health and security benefits are obvious, Quinn contends that it will do more harm than good by driving the city’s smaller companies out of business.

Norman Isaacs, a small business owner in the East Village, agrees with her.

“We’re New Yorkers,” he recently said in an interview. “Just the cost of doing business is bad enough.”

Isaacs, 65, has run a music store on Cooper Square called Norman’s Sound and Vision for 20 years. He has been profiled in the New York Times and The Local East Village in stories on record stores’ decline—he is soon moving all business to his Williamsburg branch, in fact, because of the East Village’s climbing rent costs—and was recently quoted in the New York Post claiming that the proposed sick leave bill would force him to lay off employees. He actually took back this comment after he learned that businesses with fewer than five employees would be exempt from the law, but said he was against it nonetheless.

“It’s bad for mom-and-pop-sized businesses,” he explained to Our Town Downtown. “They’re being forced to help out everyone. Many just can’t do that.”

As it stands, the council proposal would require businesses with five to 19 employees to give workers five paid sick days each year to care for themselves or for family members. Businesses with more than 19 employees would be required to provide nine days a year. The law would grant new businesses in the former category a one-year grace period before it applied.

Say a business has 10 employees, then: If each works eight-hour days for $10 an hour and takes five sick days, the business pays $4,000 in sick leave. Is that enough to knock out at a small company?

“Probably not,” Isaacs said, “but obviously it varies from business to business.” Double that cost would cause some companies trouble, he considered.

Proponents of the bill, like the New York Times, argue that paid sick leave would improve job security, worker productivity and public health. Opponents such as Council Member James Gennaro, who defended Quinn’s position in an article in the New York Post last week, argue that the city’s fragile economy could not withstand the bill’s ambition, and that the city could not enforce it.

The City Council approved a zoning proposal last week that limits the size of new banks and other large storefronts on the Upper West Side, a step that may be able to help business at some local independent and mom-and-pop stores.

“It’s a very important move; I think it will help the smaller independent businesses and I think it will improve the landscape of the Upper West Side,” said Michael Rosenberg, the owner of Granny Made, located on Amsterdam Avenue between 82nd and 83rd streets.

“Fortunately for Amsterdam, it doesn’t have as many of the banks as the other avenues on the Upper West Side. This will keep them from proliferating.”

The new rules for the Upper West Side Special Enhanced Community District, as Council Member Gale Brewer calls it, require that street-level storefronts on Amsterdam and Columbus avenues be limited to a maximum width of 40 feet, and bank storefronts on those two avenues and Broadway be restricted to 25 feet. Existing banks, including the 29 inside the zoning area and nearly 40 outside it, will not be affected, according to Brewer.

But existing businesses that wish to expand beyond 40 feet are now able to do so through a streamlined certification procedure, a much quicker process than the pre-existing authorization procedure, according to Mark Diller, chair of the Upper West Side’s Community Board 7. The restrictions reach from 72nd to 110th Street on Broadway and Amsterdam and from 72nd to 87th Street on Columbus.

These rules, developed by the City Planning Commission to address requests from Brewer and Community Board 7, passed the City Council with a 49-to-2 vote. Brewer, whose office worked for 11 years to help city agencies understand her district’s needs, said the zoning regulations gained favor in the Council because they are a good fit for the neighborhood.

“One size does not fit all, and I think that’s why it passed,” Brewer said. “Research shows need for this kind of zoning in our neighborhood that won’t fit elsewhere.”

Bob Botfeld, a district leader on the Upper West Side, first heard about the proposal when the Department of City Planning made a presentation to the City Council’s land use subcommittee about the matter about a year ago. Since then, he has passed around petitions and gained support from many local business owners for the zoning changes, he said. Botfeld was relieved to hear that the proposal was passed.

“It is an experiment, and I think it rewards the community for all the effort and reinforces the sense of community,” Botfeld said.
Mark Diller, chair of Community Board 7, which had long advocated for this change, said that the proposal is an important first step in helping Upper West Side small businesses and attracting pedestrian traffic.

“Using broad expanses of our avenues for single storefronts not only kills the retail experience,” Diller said, “it kills the experience of passerby to walk down the streets—it essentially uses that very expensive real estate as a billboard. That’s one of the reasons why the banks want it.”

But some believe that the regulation focuses too heavily on banks. The New York Bankers Association told the New York Times that the proposal unfairly targets and discriminates against banks, as well as interferes with federal and state banking regulations. A representative from the association did not return calls for comment.

But Brewer doesn’t know why banks are concerned now—she said the same regulations have been in place on 125th Street for two or three years, and she hadn’t heard any outcry from banks.

Diller also thinks that banks’ backlash against this proposal is unnecessary.
“The concern that banks are being unfairly targeted, I don’t think is real,” Diller said. “There is no lack of viability for banks. A better question to ask is why so many banks are trying to open.”

But Ira Goller, the owner of Murray’s Sturgeon Shop on Broadway at 89th Street, doesn’t think that the proposal’s emphasis on regulations for banks will help his business.

“A bank doesn’t affect me as a food merchant,” Goller said. “It does affect the diversity of the neighborhood, but I’m more concerned about food stores coming in, [like] Trader Joe’s and Au Bon Pain. Those are the ones that are hurting small business. I’m not sure how banks are hurting my business.”

Diller said that this plan is one policy-based way to sustain local mom-and-pops, but he believes that community residents can also help the business thrive in a practical way.

“The most important thing is to help mom-and-pops is for residents of the Upper West Side to patronize mom-and-pop stores,” Diller said. “Nothing is more important than that. Make sure you buy your paint from Beacon Hardware, and your games from Game Stop on Broadway. [Go to] small stores to buy your kids’ birthday presents. You’re voting with your feet, going to the stores that populate our area.”

Even though it means a lifelong worry like no other, most parents say being a parent is the best thing that ever happened to them. No regrets, even if one day they become bit players in the lives of their beloved offspring, “But that shouldn’t happen,” I tell new daddy, editor Allen Houston, recalling my own profound regret for “not being there” for my widowed dad.

I loved him dearly, but preoccupation with my children—his grandchildren—didn’t leave real time for this father and grandfather who lived 1,000 miles away.

I shall never forget seeing my dad begin to weep as my cab pulled away from his house on our annual reunion. I cried a lot on my trip back to New York, but vows to make my dad an integral part of our lives came about too late. Five months later, my 77-year-old father‘s funeral was held on my 33rd birthday.

I often write about these primal connections that, after a certain age, our society finds quite forgettable.

While it’s extremely painful for parents to learn from Facebook that an estranged son is married or an out-of-touch daughter has given birth, their poignant loss is sparking overdue social concern, as in the book When Parents Hurt and support groups for healing estranged relationships. But there’s a long way to go and, yes, opposition from family generation segregationists like radio guru Dr. Joy Bernet hadn’t been invented, the New York Times front-page story “In the Facebook Era, Reminders of Loss After Families Fracture” (June 15) shows it can bring family neglect and estrangement out of the closet.

While my behavior wasn’t heartless, it was heedless, and I needed to be told how my dad suffered from this unintended neglect. Neglect is never benign.

What if he’d not had a sudden fatal heart attack and was instead sent to a nursing home, where stories of abject abuse get minimal media coverage? I only learned of two elder men repeatedly beaten in a New Jersey nursing home from a brief WINS radio report. The story can be found by searching “N.J. nursing home abuse of two elder men.” Attention must be paid!

And surely attention must be paid to government’s relative indifference to the Second Avenue Subway construction’s deadly affect on small business, and why City Hall mamas and papas (and civic ones too) haven’t gone all-out to patronize these besieged small shops and restaurants, let alone pushed for significant tax breaks and other credits.

Now, a June 13 Times story says wannabe mayors will push for more women- and minority-run businesses, but where’s the support for, say, Eva Mahschek, the hands-on owner of the Heidelberg Restaurant on Second Avenue between 85th and 86th streets?

Mahschek desperately wants to preserve this last of Yorkville’s German restaurants, but business is down over 30 percent. She laments, “People avoid walking here, with the high construction wall blocking the street view as well as taxi and car access. Delivery service problems are tremendous, with some vendors dropping their service altogether. Our sidewalk café, for which we pay extra, is unusable.”

When these small businesses go, the community loses its neighborly character and overall quality of life. “Where there is no vision, the people perish…” Not to mention where there is no justice.

dewingbetter@aol.com

When I went there, though, my prescriptions were not ready—even after I’d been assured by phone beforehand that they would be filled. I will never get back the hours I spent standing around waiting for the men in white coats to get their work done.
Currently, I get my prescriptions filled by Frank at Duane Reade.

If bigger is not necessarily better, well, neither is smaller. This is something I’ve been thinking about as the Bloomberg administration and West Side Council Member Gale A. Brewer are working with many others to save small businesses. Proposed regulations would limit the scope of some storefronts, to encourage fewer banks and more independent shops. Just last week, Bloomberg went further and unveiled plans for a new office to help businesses, especially smaller ones, “navigate city bureaucracy,” as the Wall Street Journal put it.
I’m backing both proposals. But I stopped believing that every mom-and-pop store deserves to succeed around the time I noticed that mom and pop were treating me like crap.

Sometimes, small places screw up. My spouse and I go through dry cleaners the way the Octomom goes through Pampers. Some of our clothes recently played a dramatic game of lost and found. We go back and forth between the expensive cleaner who keeps calling to say he forgot to charge for one of the shirts or the woman with the ecofascist lecture promoting a special clothing case—one we would have to pay for—so as not to use up plastic dry-cleaning bags. In a city with so many dry cleaners, why are all the annoying ones in my neighborhood?

I’m not alone in my mixed feelings about the occasional small business. “I was overcharged,” a harried-looking woman told a merchant in front of a little city market on Broadway in April. “At this point, I’m not coming back.”

“Why are you not coming back?” the fellow said, evidently having missed the part about her being overcharged.
“Because I don’t like this,” the woman said.

I don’t like it either. Yesterday when the three men at the diner counter in lower Manhattan chatted with each other and ignored me, I didn’t like it. I walked out. Whenever someone takes a phone call instead of dealing with me, when I took the time to show up in person, I don’t like it. The young waiter at the unsurprisingly now-defunct Italian eatery who was texting instead of taking orders? The gentlemen at the pricey restaurant uptown who take away plates before we’re finished eating them? I don’t like any of it.

When I was growing up, my parents owned an independent bookstore. The place had nearly a three-decade run. When it was over, I zipped into Barnes & Noble and bought a membership card. I was exhausted from all the years of fighting the good fight, being on the side of the little guy. Now it turns out that Barnes & Noble, after killing bookstores across the nation, is the little guy in the battle against Amazon. Talk about what goes around, comes around.

Let’s do what we can to create a fair playing field for small businesses. Then, within those establishments, let’s set up rules on how to treat customers better. Surely, fine service must be central to what smaller businesses offer their communities.
What I want in a store or restaurant, big or small, is to be noticed, appreciated and treated well.

Christopher Moore is a writer living in Manhattan. He’s available by email at ccmnj
@aol.com and on Twitter @cmoorenyc.

I was pleased last month to convene an important and exciting conference that brought together uptown business owners with representatives of Washington federal agencies. The purpose of the event was to provide useful information on everything from writing effective business plans to competing for government contracts.
More than 250 small business owners representing many different sectors and sizes packed the April 10 sessions, which provided them with a unique opportunity to not only hear but network with highlevel representatives of federal agencies. More than 150 participants took part in smaller breakout sessions that covered critical topics, including
accessing capital and government contracting.
Karen Mills, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, lauded those in attendance as “the backbone of our economy and America’s greatest strength.” I couldn’t agree more. David Hinson, director of the Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency, and his staff provided detailed information about accessing alternative sources of financing and growing client bases. I thank them all.
I also commend my friends in the leadership of the uptown business community: Walter Edwards, president of the Harlem Business Alliance, Lloyd Williams, president of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, and Ken Knuckles, president of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone. Their contributions made the conference possible.
For those with the entrepreneurial spirit, this is a critical time of challenge and opportunity, particularly for small businesses. President Barack Obama often speaks of the vital role of the private sector in growing the economy and creating jobs. The boutiques, restaurants
and retail establishments of all kinds that are proliferating in our community are a part of that movement. They are making the baby steps that soon will help walk the country out of the economic doldrums.
That is why the president is pushing for initiatives that will help small business owners and entrepreneurs to grow. My recent business conference was a way of bringing home the president’s message, while making available to our entrepreneurs some of the tools and resources needed to expand their businesses or start new ones. Democrats in Congress are fighting intense Republican opposition to our efforts to strengthen the nation’s economy. Briefly, our proposals would provide incentives to invest in business, to ease access to capital, and reward companies that create more jobs in this country. At the same time, we must beat back Republican efforts to cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and education while showering millionaires with more massive tax cuts.
As former chairman and now the most senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, I’ve been involved in similar struggles. At the beginning of his presidency, I helped President Obama to enact the historic health care law and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—the so-called Stimulus Act—which saved the economy from total collapse. The law also reduced payroll taxes for middle- class people and extended unemployment benefits for jobless workers.
These benefits, along with the Earned Income Tax Credit—which I had earlier spearheaded to enactment—are among the most important federal government safety nets deployed during the recession.
Even during these difficult times, it is impossible to miss the positive changes that have transformed the appearance of our congressional district. The 125th Street corridor is bustling like never before; scores of new retail establishments, restaurants and a major new hotel have enlivened the area and made Harlem a residential and tourist destination.
Much of the credit for the renaissance should go to the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, the economic development and jobs project which I authored and spearheaded to enactment in the 1990s.
Upper Manhattan was selected as the site of one of the local projects, armed with $300 million of federal, city, state and private funding. I give all credit to the Zone and the many leaders of the community, academia and private sectors who have contributed to its work, itsleadership and imagination.
The Empowerment Zone is responsible for creation of at least 9,000 jobs in Upper Manhattan. And more than any other single institution, it has encouraged national retailers and small entrepreneurs to take a chance on Upper Manhattan.

As you may know by now, our congressional district has been extended into a portion of the South Bronx and renamed the 13th Congressional
District. I am running for reelection to represent my old and new constituents in the U.S. House of Representatives. I truly believe I can continue to help President Obama while improving the lives of my constituents in the newly drawn congressional district better than anyone else.

Congressman Charles Rangel represents the 13th Congressional District including part of the Upper West Side.

Police shut down the restaurant, which has been the subject of many neighborhood complaints, last Friday for selling alcohol to minors. But the manager of Papasito and other restaurants came to police headquarters to proclaim against the methods and timing of that shutdown, which they call unnecessary, unfair and excessive.

Fernando Mateo, a spokesperson for the Northern Manhattan Restaurant and Lounge Association, was the event’s main speaker.

Manuel Melchor, a manager at Papasito, rallying against NYPD. Photo by Andrew Schwartz.

“We want to save our businesses from the monster here behind me,” he said, shouting into a megaphone that nearby officers warily allowed him to use and indicating the offices of the police commissioner Ray Kelly. “‘Padlock Kelly’ has made sure that our businesses get padlocked, and that all of you are unemployed, simply because there’s very little communication.”

Manuel Melchor, a manager at Papasito who was working when the cops closed down the restaurant on Friday, said that he simply wants the NYPD to inform him when one of his staff members illegally serves alcohol to a minor, issuing a violation on the spot so that he can properly deal with the infraction instead of waiting for a surprise raid.

“More than three months already, my occupation is just as a restaurant,” Melchor said, noting that he has capitulated to local demands in cutting down on music and closing at 2 a.m. instead of 4 a.m. “Last week, the police come in, like 15 people, 15 officers in uniforms and jackets.” The police ordered the kitchen closed in the middle of dinner and escorted everyone out of the restaurant and closed it down. Melchor said that since it happened on a Friday and they could not get to court until Monday, the restaurant lost a weekend’s worth of revenue and staff lost valuable shifts.

Senator Eric Adams, who represents a district in Brooklyn, also spoke at the rally, emphasizing what he says are the differences between how businesses are treated in different parts of the city and claiming that the NYPD would never padlock a downtown hotspot.

“If you don’t do it on Park Avenue, you shouldn’t do it on Park Avenue in the Bronx. If you don’t do it in Midtown, you shouldn’t do it in Washington Heights,” Adams said.

Here is a short clip of Mateo speaking to the crowds.

Watch out for our full story in the March 15 edition of the West Side Spirit.

Residents in support of the retail rezoning plan. Photo by Andrew Schwartz.

Last night dozens of supporters and a fair number of detractors showed up at Community Board 7’s meeting to express their views on the proposed retail rezoning initiative for the Upper West Side. The proposal from the City Planning Commission would limit storefront widths along certain sections of Broadway, Amsterdam and Columbus Avenue, in an effort to encourage small individually-owned “mom and pop” shops and keep big banks and chain stores out.

Several small business owners came to speak in support of the measure. Bruce Stark, one of the owners of Beacon Paint on Amsterdam Avenue between W. 77th and 78th Streets, said that his family’s hardware store has been in the neighborhood for 112 years and hopes that this rezoning would allow them to stay another 112 years.

“This is a very important [thing] for me, because what would stop my landlord from saying, you know, let’s take that store and the one next to it and the one next to it and make one big store and triple the rent,” Stark said.

Monica Blum, president of the Lincoln Square BID, came to beg the board not to approve it for fear that it may come to her district next and to defend the big box stores other were railing against.

“We think drug stores [like Duane Reade] today are the five-and-dimes of the past,” Blum said, a comment that elicited booing from the crowd. She continued, stating that large, established chains are better, more stable bets for landlords to rent to, and said that the BID fears that this zoning would lead to empty retail chains. Barbara Adler, president of the Columbus Avenue BID, asked the board to amend the proposal to exclude their area, a move that the board considered but ultimately rejected.

Anne Shirazi spoke to represent the West 100th Street Block Association, and testified that she and her neighbors support the proposal because they see too many small businesses ousted in favor of larger retail outlets.

“Columbus Avenue is like a New Jersey mall,” Shirazi said. “It’s not a neighborhood. We must pass zoning to protect what is left of small independent businesses.”

Others spoke about how small businesses often contribute to the neighborhood, by sponsoring Little League teams, participating in Safe Haven programs for kids, or just having the flexibility to be available for special circumstances. Others warned that this proposal would do nothing to actually protect the beloved small shops.

“Contextual zoning doesn’t lower rents, it doesn’t prevent someone from being kicked out of their space, it doesn’t protect anyone from the higher costs,” said resident Alexander Medwedew. “There’s too much competition for the same amount of space.” He advocated opening up other areas for small business instead of changing the currently zoned areas.

Ultimately the board approved the proposal, after considering and rejecting an amendment to carve out individual landmarks. They did, however, adopt an amendment asking for City Planning to adhere to a 90-day time limit in approving variances to the zoning for existing small businesses. The proposal will now move to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s office for the next phase of approvals, and the City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on April 11 to hear community concerns.

Cottavoz’s store, the Chinese restaurant Hunan Park, a Subway sandwich franchise and a Banco Popular branch would be in the middle of a construction site and at risk for closure or relocation.

The owner of 95 W. 95th St., a 248-apartment tower called Columbus House, wants to construct a two-story structure that will wrap around the 33-story residential building, creating a total of 4,950 square feet of retail along Columbus Avenue, between West 95th and 96th streets. The second story of the expansion would include facilities for tenants, such as a kitchen and community space.

The new two-story retail and community building would be constructed up to the sidewalk, cutting down the public space in front of the businesses.

Columbus Natural Food owner Anne Cottavoz is organizing support to save four businesses that may be victims of landlord’s plan for expansion. Photo by Dan Rivoli

Columbus House tenants, meanwhile, would get a residential courtyard and a new terrace for those living above the second floor community space.

The original proposal called for three retail spaces along the stretch of Columbus Avenue. That stoked fear among small businesses on the ground floor of Columbus House that they would be replaced by national chain stores, which have populated the Columbus Square development three blocks north. But after Community Board 7’s land use committee voted down that plan April 21, Columbus House’s owners put forward another proposal calling for a minimum of five retail spaces, which would increase opportunities for smaller merchants.

“We’re a very proactive landlord. We took in the constructive criticism from the community board and did circulate to the community board revised plans,” said Scott Alper, a partner at the Witkoff Group, which owns Columbus House. “Our intention is to keep mom-and-pop retailers and create as many stores as necessary. It’s important to the neighborhood.”

Indeed, Columbus Natural Food patrons who live nearby had harsh words for any plan that would bring in chain stores.

Dorothy Wiedis, who lives in Park West Village and is a customer of the health food store, called the original proposal “disgusting.”

“It’s nice to have small convenient stores you can’t get lost in,” she said. “These people should have first dibs on the space at current cost.”

It is unclear if the health food store and its neighbors will even be around by the time construction starts. Details of the proposal, which requires a special permit from the City Planning Commission, are not finalized, and the stores’ leases may have expired when work finally starts.

Nicola Brennan, a repeat customer to the health food store, said she liked the chain stores at Columbus Square, but wants local mom-and-pop stores for balance.

“These little stores are far more important,” Brennan said. “It gives a sense of community.”

Since Board 7’s land use committee voted down the plan, Cottavoz got each of the affected businesses to gather signatures for a petition and put posters in their window asking people to help “maintain some humanity in our neighborhood.”

Ed and Rhoda Green, seniors and long-time customers of Columbus Natural Food, handed out little slips of paper asking people to attend the full board meeting May 4 and oppose the plan.

“The mom-and-pop stores is what we like,” Ed Green said. “There’s a common touch. We’d miss that.”

At press time, the full board had not yet taken a position on the plan, but a resolution had been prepared to disapprove the proposal due to insufficient time to review changes.

Though there is no binding agreement that would force the Witkoff Group to keep the retail spaces for small businesses, Alper said the company stands by its reputation.

Cottavoz, however, is unconvinced.

“They saw the resistance and they now say they want small stores,” said Cottavoz, who saw the revised plan May 3. “Now, all of a sudden, they want us back in there? It just doesn’t add up.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is running for re-election to a third term, arguing that the economic collapse requires continuity and his particular brand of leadership. But his opponents argue that he has been too friendly with Wall Street and the real estate developers that contributed to this problem in the first place. As the city hits record jobless rates, with particularly high numbers of unemployed in the African American community, concrete plans to fix an ailing system are desperately needed.

We asked the candidates how they plan on preserving jobs, as businesses large and small must cut back on employees, and how they intend to create new jobs without relying on traditional sectors of the city’s economy (like real estate and Wall Street). We also asked how they would help large and small businesses thrive through initiatives like tax incentives and training. Finally, we asked how these candidates would spend federal stimulus dollars to inject a much-needed shot of adrenaline into the economy.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, running as a Republican and Independent

Job Preservation/Creation
The mayor’s Five Borough Economic Opportunity Plan, his strategy for getting through the recession, pledges to preserve or create 400,000 jobs through various initiatives. To help people obtain work, the mayor has set up Workforce 1 Career Centers that give job training, career advice and job placement opportunities. According to the administration, the centers have helped place 68,500 people in jobs so far. The mayor is also using $32 million in federal stimulus money to help train and place workers through other career training efforts. He is additionally putting money toward infrastructure to create more construction jobs and diversifying New York’s economy by making existing buildings energy efficient, an initiative that could potentially create thousands of green jobs. For example, the mayor’s capital investment plan is putting money toward infrastructure to create construction jobs, and his “Greener, Greater Buildings Plan,” a six-point strategy to make existing large buildings energy efficient through retrofits, will create approximately 19,000 green construction jobs.

Diversifying the Economy
To reduce the city’s reliance on Wall Street and real estate, the mayor has been working with the City Council to lure the film and television sectors back into the city through a targeted tax incentive program and an easy online permitting process. According to the city, this has contributed to a 92 percent increase in shooting days and $5 billion a year in economic activity, as well as 100,000 jobs.

The mayor has also been working on improving tourism in the city; the industry is currently responsible for 370,000 jobs. In 2006, the mayor announced a plan to attract 50 million tourists to the city by 2015. In 2008, 47 million tourists visited New York City and spent approximately $30 billion.

Initiatives to attract biotechnology companies to New York recently netted a pledge from Eli Lilly’s ImClone to locate its research headquarters in East River Park. The mayor says the move will create 2,000 permanent jobs and 1,800 construction jobs.

In light of the recent challenges facing media companies with a traditional business model, Bloomberg also has a plan for maintaining and enhancing New York’s status as a global media capital. The mayor said the initiatives, which include increasing collaboration among media companies, training top talent and attracting global companies to the city, will ultimately create 8,000 jobs.

Tax Incentives
The mayor is against the unincorporated business tax, which places a double tax on small businesses. He has helped to eliminate or reduce this tax for 17,000 small businesses in the city by increasing credits that offset the tax. This plan was in the mayor’s 2009 State of the City address, and he proceeded to work with local business leaders, the City Council and the state so that it could be included in the FY 2010 budget. The effect of the credits is that unincorporated businesses with taxable incomes under $100,000 pay no tax, and unincorporated business with taxable incomes under $150,000 pay a reduced tax. Albany’s approval of the mayor’s plan has saved small businesses nearly $25 million annually through the reduction or elimination of the tax for some small businesses.

The mayor has lobbied Albany to provide other tax incentives for big and small businesses that set up headquarters in New York City, with a particular emphasis on emerging international markets like China and India. The mayor would not, however, approve a plan that would give property tax incentives to landlords who agree to renegotiate leases with small businesses suffering from construction on the Second Avenue subway line.

Small Business
Bloomberg created six NYC Business Solution Centers around the city that have so far helped 35,000 small businesses with planning, financing, hiring and training. During Bloomberg’s tenure, he supported the creation of 20 new Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), community groups that focus on local business development. That is the largest number of BIDs to be created by one single administration. To help small businesses through the recession, the mayor is expanding the NYC Capital Access Loan Guarantee program, which leverages city funds to give emergency loans to small businesses and non-profits. He is also putting $500,000 in state funds toward the NYC Business Solutions Training Grant program to help small businesses train employees. Other online tools, like NYC Business Express website, help small business owners more efficiently deal with government and the permitting process.

Stimulus Money
The mayor is investing $261 million of the federal stimulus funds in transportation and capital improvement projects, specifically those that will require jobs even after initial construction is complete. Examples include reconstruction of West 125th Street and East Houston Street, and the rehabilitation of three roadway bridges in Manhattan, which the city says will preserve or create approximately 32,000 jobs. He is also using $400 million for infrastructure improvements to the city’s public housing developments, including more than $8 million for elevator construction improvements in King Towers and $2 million in repairs to Washington Heights Rehab IV facility.

Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr., Democrat

Job Preservation/Creation
Thompson has been a vocal critic of the Bloomberg administration’s efforts to preserve and create jobs on Wall Street, arguing that the mayor’s approach has ignored the middle and working class. He released a study as comptroller showing that $1 billion worth of state and federal initiatives, like occupational training and related employment programs, were highly uncoordinated and inefficient. The study recommended a series of ways to improve and fix those programs. Thompson also called on Bloomberg to create an Office for Skills Education to oversee workforce development programs.

A spokesperson for the Thompson campaign, Anne Fenton, said they have not yet released a specific job creation or preservation plan. Thompson, however, has pledged to work with community partners and employers to create a comprehensive job strategy and focus on expanding sectors of the economy that allow for middle-income wages. As comptroller, Thompson joined the mayor and labor leaders in creating the city’s Commission on Construction Opportunity to improve and ease access for those interested in joining New York City’s development sector. He has long called for an increased focus on technical education, which he says has far better results than traditional high school education in teaching kids marketable skills that will help them get jobs.

Diversifying the Economy
Thompson said he is committed to harnessing the city’s diverse economic potential. As comptroller, he committed $450 million of pension fund money to the City Investment Fund, which invests money in real estate that is outside the parameters of traditional business districts. These investments specifically foster economic growth in low-, moderate- and middle-income neighborhoods. He also committed $200 million of pension fund money to a joint fund with real estate giant Tishman Speyer to acquire and redevelop properties throughout the five boroughs. Projects assisted by this fund include two office buildings in Central Harlem with 389,450 rentable square feet of space to attract jobs and business to the neighborhood; 25,000 square feet of medical office space and 32,000 square feet of retail space in Fort Greene, Brooklyn; and the construction of the Citibank building in Long Island City, Queens. The Citibank project will provide 1.4 million square feet of office space, which will bring jobs and economic activity to a neighborhood that has been particularly hard hit by the decline in industrial manufacturing.

Tax Incentives
Thompson opposes taxes, fees and fines that he says unfairly burden businesses. For instance, Thompson supported changing tax regulations to eliminate the unincorporated business tax, which he said unduly burdens small companies. He has also called for the federal government to revise the alternative minimum tax, which was originally created to target the super rich but has since become a burden for middle class families.

Small Business
As city comptroller, Thompson led an initiative that created Banking Development Districts, where $200 million in city funds were deposited in new bank branches in the city’s underserved communities so that loans could be made to small businesses to encourage job growth. He also proposed creating a database for new and existing businesses to connect through the city’s Department of Small Business Services.

Stimulus Money
A spokesperson for Thompson did not provide details on his plans for federal stimulus funds.

Council Member Tony Avella, Democrat

Job Preservation/Creation
The way to stem job loss and create more jobs in New York City is to bolster small businesses, according to Avella. He supports creating a commercial rent control system so that landlords cannot charge small businesses astronomically high rents, a situation that makes it almost impossible to run a profitable small business in the city. Avella also said that the city has to crack down on landlords who ask tenants for money—sometimes as much as 30 percent of a lease—in exchange for the rights to continue that lease, an illegal practice. Loan programs, job training and tax incentives do not help address the real problem, Avella says. “Let’s fix the main problem first,” he said, referring to rising cost of rent. “If there’s no business, all these other things don’t matter.”

Diversifying the Economy
Avella believes that jobs are being lost because New York has declined as a manufacturing hub over the last 20 years. Bloomberg’s program of rezoning industrial areas for mixed-use has forced out factories to make room for luxury housing, exacerbating the problem, Avella says. To bring jobs back to New York City, he believes that New York must become a manufacturing center again. This will happen by turning the clock back on Bloomberg’s efforts to rezone industrial areas to allow for residential buildings. Avella said the city needs to set aside areas for just industry to allow factories to flourish.

Tax Incentives
Like the other candidates, Avella opposed the unincorporated business tax. He does not, however, support tax incentives for large businesses because he said they are doing well without the help of the city. Any aid for large business should come from the federal government as part of plans to address the national recession; New York City should focus its energy and money on small businesses. And the way to help small businesses, according to Avella, is to create commercial rent stabilization so that small business owners can afford real estate in New York City. Once that problem is solved, he said, many other challenges confronting small business owners will evaporate.

Stimulus Money
Avella said that he does not have enough information about the federal stimulus funds to comment. He added, “A lot of this is still speculation. The key is that the money goes to the right spots. Information that comes through from the state and the city is less than perfect.” To date, more than $3.4 million in federal stimulus dollars have already been spent out of a total of $21 billion allocated to New York City.

Sound Bytes

Experts rate the mayoral canididates
We asked a handful of representatives from various financial and economic development groups what they thought of each candidate’s work. Below are brief summaries of their feedback.

Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing economic opportunities in the five boroughs

Michael Bloomberg: “The industry/business collaboration with city government in developing and implementing economic development strategies has never been greater and I have been involved in economic development in the city for 30 years. This is the first time economic development has included a strong focus on creating industry clusters and in supporting business and job-creation efforts, as opposed to simply real estate development, which is most of what we’ve called economic development in the past.”

William C. Thompson: “We have worked with Bill Thompson in his capacity as comptroller in investing in pension funds. He has also been working with the business community to evaluate some of the economic development plans that have been put forward to the city. As comptroller, he has similarly tried to work in partnership with business to support job creation in the city.”

Tony Avella: “I would agree with the importance of supporting small businesses, and both the mayor and the comptroller have positions similar to support small business. However, the experience of the city in trying to look at mandates like commercial rent control, there’s been a general resistance to mandates that ultimately will make it difficult for local neighborhood economies to respond to changes in the marketplace, and so I think that’s there’s been general agreement that incentives are far preferable to one-size fits all mandates.”

Nicole Gelinas, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank focused on New York City issues

Michael Bloomberg: “One problem that we’ve had throughout the Bloomberg administration is that the boom overwhelmed what could have been an opportunity for job creation in other sectors. Despite what the mayor’s office says, we have gotten more dependent on revenues from Wall Street and it’s only been growing under the Bloomberg administration until the crash last year. In terms of job creation and diversifying the economy away from Wall Street, one way to do it is by lowering income taxes. The only people who can afford to pay these income taxes are people who are making huge salaries on Wall Street… We had record tax revenues and we didn’t do much to improve the public transit system. We’re not doing much with stimulus money. We’re letting existing imbalances get worse. We spend way too much on a health care system that’s riddled with fraud. Bloomberg has been good on quality of life and keeping the city safe, but if you talk to a lot of these guys they just hate the taxes that they’re paying.”

William C. Thompson: “In terms of his position on using the pension funds to invest in local businesses, I’m very wary of that because it’s not that I think he’s doing anything he shouldn’t be doing, but when you’re using public money to invest in certain popular enterprises you wonder whether you’re doing it for the best return or to please constituencies. They are always investing in affordable housing and its always politically pleasing, but it’s not the best return for taxpayers. He should talk about taxes and costs, but I haven’t really heard about that.”

Tony Avella: “Don’t just complain about landlords, but look at why the city is charging a commercial rent tax, an extra tax from tenants. [In terms of not giving tax incentives to big businesses], I think he’s definitely right about that. I think it’s better to have lower costs across the board and businesses can decide which ones want to be here.

Election Briefs

D.A. CANDIDATES ON WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS—Leslie Crocker Snyder has proposed the Second Look Bureau, Richard Aborn calls for an Office of Professional Responsibility and Cyrus Vance, Jr. wants a Conviction Integrity Panel.

All of the candidates for Manhattan district attorney have detailed their plans to tackle wrongful convictions, and each has explained how his or her proposal is more effective than those put for by the other two candidates. Despite varying details, all the plans suggest videotaping interrogations to better detect false confessions, and using double-blind line-ups and photo arrays, in which the administrator does not know the identity of the suspect.

Snyder’s Second Look Bureau is a four-year-old plan inspired by the so-called Palladium case, in which a man who was accused of murdering a nightclub bouncer wrongfully convicted. The office, which would be staffed by attorneys who have no prior involvement in the cases handled, would investigate whether a conviction merits a re-examination. Snyder sees the bureau working in conjunction with the videotaping and double-blind line-up reforms.

“We hope to get the first look right. If we do make a mistake, we’re going to have a bureau and a credible basis for us to take a second look,” Snyder said in a previous interview with Our Town.

The bureau has been criticized by her opponents as too reactionary.

“I don’t think we should wait until cases reach the conviction stage to examine or re-examine a case to make sure we have the right person,” Aborn said at a debate hosted by sister publication City Hall.

Aborn touts his plan to prevent wrongful convictions in the first place, a central piece of his proactive campaign message. The plan would increase access to DNA, provide services for those exonerated and create an Office of Professional Responsibility that would create guidelines to stem wrongful convictions. This office would collect and investigate allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.

Aborn, a member of the state Bar Association’s task force on wrongful convictions, was endorsed by advocate Jeffrey Deskovic, who spent time in jail for a murder he did not commit.

Vance similarly criticized Snyder’s Second Look Bureau and noted that his plan, built around a Conviction Integrity Unit, has a broader mandate. The unit will look at cases that are deemed questionable throughout all phases of a case.

“The Conviction Integrity Unit, first of all, mandates that the district attorney office is advocating and implemented best practices in the office,” Vance said. “That unit should be making sure we are, within the office, providing the resources and guidance for young prosecutors on issues that may confront them in handling cases.”

Vance also wants to expand discovery, a pre-trial phase in which parties request evidence and documents from one another.

MESSINGER MAKES KEY ENDORSEMENTS—Ruth Messenger, the 1997 Democratic nominee for mayor, former Manhattan borough president and longtime West Side Council member, made two endorsements in the comptroller and district attorney primaries.

Messinger is supporting Brooklyn Council Member David Yassky in his bid for comptroller, further solidifying his support in Manhattan, home to prime Democratic voters.

Messinger also threw her support to district attorney hopeful Leslie Crocker Snyder, a former judge and prosecutor backed primarily by law enforcement unions. The endorsement—along with support from Geraldine Ferraro, a former vice presidential candidate and Queens congresswoman—also gives Snyder progressive credibility, which has dogged her campaign. Snyder is a former supporter of the death penalty, though in the narrowest of circumstances.

“I can say with certainty that Leslie’s core progressive values, unmatched experience and vision for the office are exactly what the electorate wants in their next district attorney,” Messinger said in a statement.

The endorsement will likely help Snyder more with Manhattan’s progressive constituency than with female voters, given that she is the only woman in the race. The women’s vote makes up most of the Democratic primary electorate in Manhattan.

But Aborn and Vance are not ceding that crucial bloc of voters to Snyder.

Aborn held a rally at City Hall earlier in July with several prominent progressive women who have endorsed his campaign, including Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, Council Member Gale Brewer, former West Side State Sen. Catherine Abate and The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel.

Each cited Aborn’s progressive, “proactive” policies including his proposal for a hates crime bureau, work with gun-control laws and support of Rockefeller Drug Law reforms.

Vance, meanwhile, held a rally with feminist icon and activist Gloria Steinem when he introduced his plan to combat domestic violence, which he declared a public health crisis.
—Dan Rivoli