BY KIRSTEN THEODOS | For almost five years, TakeBackNYC has been advocating for a vote on the best legislation that would stop the closing of small businesses, the Small Business Jobs Survival Act (S.B.J.S.A.).
Last October, we applauded Speaker Corey Johnson for keeping his campaign pledge and giving the S.B.J.S.A. a hearing in the City Council. We had confidence that a fair hearing would show that giving rights to small business owners when their leases expire was the best solution to save them. During the hearing, Speaker Johnson emphasized the bill needed to be changed in order to move forward. TakeBackNYC testified that the S.B.J.S.A. has already been changed seven times over the course of 11 Council hearings.
Unlike his predecessors, the speaker rightfully acknowledged there’s a small business crisis and pledged to work with the Council to move the S.B.J.S.A. Small business advocates walked out of City Hall with optimism that the S.B.J.S.A. was finally going to be passed.
After patiently waiting 10 months and watching businesses continue to close, that optimism is fading. Five bills touted as helping small businesses were recently passed by the City Council. TakeBackNYC has sponsored small business forums in four boroughs but has never heard a small business owner express a need for what those bills provide. That’s because the bills don’t address the larger picture — the crisis of small business closings due to skyrocketing rents and the unfair lease-renewal process. It was disappointing to learn that five weak bills that do very little were fast-tracked and passed in four short months, while the strong bill — the S.B.J.S.A. — is being neglected.
The City Council should make the S.B.J.S.A. a priority to stop the closings. Given the long history of city government blocking this bill, TakeBackNYC is apprehensive about the current long delay in making changes to it. The S.B.J.S.A.’s prime sponsor, Councilmember Ydanis Rodriquez, stated at the hearing last October, “I am open to listening to any changes to the bill, as long as it makes the bill better and does not take away any rights of the business owners.”
After speaking to Councilmember Rodriguez, he confirmed to us that he hasn’t been included in any of the talks with the Speaker’s Office on fine-tuning the S.B.J.S.A. TakeBackNYC asked Speaker Johnson why he is delaying in making changes to the S.B.J.S.A., when it only took four months to pass five weaker bills, and why Rodriguez apparently was not part of any meetings regarding such changes. The speaker did not respond to these questions, even when deadlines were extended twice.
TakeBackNYC is also disappointed to learn that Councilmember Carlina Rivera — who campaigned for office advocating for the S.B.J.S.A. — was unwillingly removed from the City Council’s Small Business Committee. Her absence leaves businesses in her district, which includes the East Village, unrepresented and their fate in the hands of the committee’s chairperson, Mark Gjonaj. Gjonaj owns a real estate company and explicitly stated at last year’s hearing that he opposes the S.B.J.S.A.
Small business owners deserve to know why City Hall decided to remove Rivera from this key committee at the height of a crisis where small businesses in the West Village and East Village — and throughout Manhattan — are rapidly disappearing.
When asked who was responsible for removing Rivera from the Small Business Committee and if she fought to remain on it, her office replied: “Councilwoman Rivera did not remove herself from the Committee… . [She] did voice her concerns regarding not being able to serve on the Committee.”
Her office added that the change in her committee assignment came from the Rules Committee. Multiple inquiries to Karen Koslowitz, the Rules Committee chairperson, and Speaker Johnson, who sits on the Rules Committee, on why Rivera was removed from it also went unanswered.
It’s concerning that the City Council speaker and Rivera did not respond to our specific questions regarding the delay on the revision of the S.B.J.S.A. and the reason why she was removed from the Small Business Committee.
To all lawmakers: Stop stalling with small business initiatives and studies that don’t address the heart of the small business crisis. If our lawmakers are sincere in passing progressive legislation to save our economic backbone, they will quickly make the needed changes to the S.B.J.S.A. and pass it.
Theodos is the founder of TakeBackNYC.
