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Mom and Pop and Economic Security
The Governor’s Economic Security Cabinet will be in Harlem on July 28 as part of a statewide series of town hall meetings. The Cabinet will look at, among other things, job growth and workforce development.
I think there’s a lot to be learned from the 28th Senate District – which is both a hotbed of new and innovative economic activity, but also a place with a lot of economic insecurity.
Here’s a preview of my testimony. Feel free to share your thoughts.
First, we are losing the businesses that matter most. As part of the Supermarket Task Force that I started earlier this year, I mapped out the closures of several East Harlem supermarkets in recent years. This represents a loss of jobs, and reduced access to nutritious and affordable food.
At the core of the crisis is rent, which is doubling and even tripling in some areas of Upper Manhattan. In the Bronx, artists are getting creative and using their own walk-up apartments as gallery space. For the most part, though, there’s no substitute for a storefront.
Meanwhile, big box stores are sprouting everywhere you look, including East River Plaza in East Harlem and the Gateway Center at (the former) Bronx Terminal Market. But for all the time and money this City has expended on a corporate future, it has barely lifted a finger to protect mom and pop.
Here's a good example: One of the finest woodworking manufacturers, William Somerville, Inc., is located right here in East Harlem. For more than 120 years, it has employed generations of local workers out of a factory on East 124th Street.
The business wants to expand into three adjoining lots on East 123rd Street, which would generate some 25 new jobs, as well as opportunities for apprenticeship. Unfortunately, the Department of Sanitation controls all eight lots and won’t sell off a single one, even though its vehicles do not fill the area to capacity.
The City has ignored support letters from community stakeholders dating back to 2001.
Elsewhere, the Brooklyn Brewery wants to expand and double its workforce, if only there were room in the condominium-laden borough. According to the article in the Times: "Manufacturing now accounts for about one of every 40 jobs in the city, down from almost a quarter of all jobs in the mid-1960s."
The cases of William Somerville, Inc. and Brooklyn Brewery demonstrate an important point: we must redouble efforts to protect small business and light manufacturing in a City that seems to think it can succeed in the 21st Century with everyone sitting behind a computer screen or cash register.
I applaud the Governor for his focus on Economic Security, and I look forward to working with him on the issue.
Senator José M. Serrano represents the 28th District, which includes parts of the South Bronx, Highbridge, University Heights, East Harlem, Yorkville, and Roosevelt Island.
A balance must be met
while I agree with senator serano I must also point out that many small businesses are not owned by the people in that vacinity. Further these small business owners that operate from these lower income neighborhoods do not live there nore employ anyone from that neighborhood because their families tend to the business. These major corporations such as the ones opening at the gateway center employ the people from that neighborhood and contribute to the development of that neigborhood. A fine example is the elmhurst area of queens where queens center mall stands, that community has benefited well from that mall. While too many corporations may not be the best method for economic growth it is an effective one and much more beneficial for the people of that area. Lets find a balance between the two.
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The Dept of Sanitation likes to hold onto property because: 1. They like to park their private cars on it. 2. They might need it someday for another facility that nobody wants in their neighborhood. They are rather slow to learn about changes, such as the fact that a gentrifying East Harlem will not allow them to keep opening facilities nobody wants. 3. Their Real Estate Management unit is incompetent. I strongly agree with Sen. Serrano. I applaud both his and Governor Patterson's efforts to tackle the myriad of threats to the economic security of the middle and working class in his district. We are in trouble here! Very hard-working people in this District are seeing their "affordable" housing disappear! I live on Roosevelt Island-a planned community that was build for EVERYONE: lower, working, middle, upper income, elderly and disabled. I've been here 25 years because it is such a wonderful place! I'm in "Mitchell-Lama" housing, which was built for the working and middle-class. Since that law expired in Albany, a few years ago, many thousands units of affordable housing have disappeared. To my shock and horror, Gov. Pataki's admin. has already gotten rid of a huge number of affordable apartments here. My building has been "for sale" since 2002 and the Landlord has tried many ways to get "us" out. He has just proposed a 75-88% rent increase which will put most us on the street! (360) This loss of housing here is coupled with the loss of most of our "mom and pop" stores, not enough transportation and a huge over-building of the island for housing for the very rich. This enrages me as the Master Lease between NYC (the island is their land) and NYS (who runs it), it supposed to MAINTAIN "MIXED HOUSING" FOR EVERYONE UNTIL 2068. When I've tried to enter "affordable housing" lotteries, I either make too much or not enough. So, I guess I need to live in the middle of the road for my rent and taxes? I URGE SEN. SERRANO AND GOV. PATTERSON TO DO EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER TO PRESERVE AND INCREASE BY A HUGE AMOUNT-"AFFORDABLE" HOUSING FOR US-ESPECIALLY DURING THIS TIME OF SEVERE ECONOMIC DOWNTURNS. Thanks very much. 565,000 businesses failed last year and millions struggle with no real assistance other than talk. Non Profit is thriving while for profit is getting hurt. There are proven ways to turn it around and improve the surrounding community wothout using such catch words as "immigrant services" that in reality only put money in the pockets of the non profit. We see 2or 3 award winners and are told there is free money out their, maybe the right program for times like this can work if given a chance, but why would non profit organizations with a history of failure actually want to make a change when it might cost them? 565,000 businesses failed last year and millions struggle with no real assistance other than talk. Non Profit is thriving while for profit is getting hurt. There are proven ways to turn it around and improve the surrounding community wothout using such catch words as "immigrant services" that in reality only put money in the pockets of the non profit. We see 2or 3 award winners and are told there is free money out there, maybe the right program for times like this can work if given a chance, but why would non profit organizations with a history of failure actually want to make a change when it might cost them? I am a tenant in one of the last few Section 8 housing buildings in Spanish Harlem and I can tell you I feel as if there's someone breathing down my neck. One of my neighborhood's largest parks was destroyed for what appears to be storage for the Second Ave subway; a neighborhood daycare center now sits in the shadow of a 40+story, multidwelling building; and my own apartment building rests on the precipice between uncertain recertification and so-called lucrative real estate interests. This city cannot afford to lose the single, most important asset: its people. If there is no place for the working/middle class to live and raise their children then how can New York survive and thrive in the coming years. The point I wish to bring out here is that while organizations have a sense of the IT services being requested, provisioned and associated demand and supply mechanisms the migration from multiple legacy systems towards a single Service Catalog interface should be driven through Only Business Site. The temptation to treat the migration of the services into the IT Service Catalog as typical application or technology oriented migration could seriously dent the ability to understand the service landscape and potentially delay the consolidation of services into the catalog. It hardly seems to matter whether a company has solid prospects and piles of cash or is deeply in debt <a href="http://www.gilbertfinance.co.uk">Accountants Leeds</a> , because all types of corporate bonds have risen, with investment-grade debt up 17% and risky speculative-grade debt up 37% in the last six months, according to figures from Bank of America ( BAC - news - people ) <a href="http://www.interchangefx.co.uk">Foreign Currency</a> Merrill Lynch. The trend carried over into August, usually a slow month as bankers and traders take vacation before Labor Day. Both investment-grade and junk bonds gained 1.7% in the month through August 27.
It's not just rent, but the value you're getting for your money that's important here. Many of us are most concerned about making sure there's enough <a href="http://simplisafe.com/apartment-security">security</a> and safety being provided in our <a href="http://simplisafe.com/apartment-security">apartments</a>. It's not just rent, but the value you're getting for your money that's important here. Many of us are most concerned about making sure there's enough security and safety being provided in our apartments. Well, that all depends on how important security is to you. I find it to be very valuable in terms on living on the edge. Maybe i will reconcider one day, and i do feel that you are right deep down.
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