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Where do candidates stand on small business?

Village activist Sharon Woolums at a historic 2015 forum on the S.B.J.S.A. at Judson Memorial Church that she organized and which was moderated by The Villager. It was the first nongovernment forum on the critical piece of legislation that could help save the city’s mom-and-pop stores. Woolums’s columns in The Villager on the subject over the past four years have brought renewed attention to the long-blocked bill. FACEBOOK

BY SHARON WOOLUMS | Four years ago, I walked out of the Village Independent Democratic candidates’ endorsement meeting in disbelief. Greenwich Village was being destroyed by rampant real estate speculation. Mom-and-pop stores’ faced closures. There were ridiculous rents, lost jobs, skyrocketing prices. The worlds’ most unique community was turning into an anti-art shopping mall.

Yet, no candidate spoke on this dire issue. Thus began my series of Villager columns about my quest to find a candidate who would finally do something. The Small Business Jobs Survival Act, which would give rights to 10-year renewals and equal rights to negotiate lease terms, had 32 councilmember sponsors and would have easily passed. But former Council Speaker Christine Quinn joined with the Real Estate Board of New York to block the vote. No candidate made a public statement exposing this antidemocratic act.

Now comes another election, and I’m asking the same question: “Who will support real solutions to stop the closings and finally stand up to REBNY?” Historically and unfortunately, once elected, lawmakers abandon election-year rhetoric. In June 2015, current Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito promised The Villager’s editor she would hold a hearing at which the S.B.J.S.A. would be discussed — but it still hasn’t happened. It’s the first time in the 30-year debate on this legislation, that a hearing was not even held — and this under Mayor Bill de Blasio. De Blasio pledged to take the city in another direction from former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s pro-real estate climate. But under his self-proclaimed “progressive” leadership, de Blasio has offered no real solutions to save a single business or job.

I sent candidates for office some questions. Here is a sampling of responses:

Q: Do you believe small-business owners face a crisis to survive when their leases expire due to free-market conditions that favor landlords with tenants having no rights? (All responded Yes.)

David Eisenbach (public advocate): “Everyone living in New York City knows small business is in a state of emergency and the main culprit is a lease-renewal system that favors landlords while leaving tenants with no rights.”

Christopher Marte (City Council District 1): “Small businesses are on the brink of extinction. Without legislation that gives business owners rights, soon the shops and services that have defined the city’s character for generations will be forced to close for good.”

Q: If elected, would you ever support legislation that did not stop the illegal practice of landlords extorting cash from small-business owners? 

Jasmin Sanchez (City Council District 2): “Such practices are illegal, egregious and should be prosecuted to the law’s full extent. And any local officials or politicians who agree with such practices should be fired and also thrown into jail.”

Eisenbach: “No. What kind of a city allows extortion as a common business practice? You can’t claim you are pro-immigrant if you allow extortion of small-business owners.”

Carlina Rivera (City Council District 2): “I would expand the services of city agencies, like our Department of Small Business Services and Department of Consumer Affairs, to provide resources our businesses need to identify extortion.”

Erin Hussein (City Council District 2): “No. As this crisis worsens, extortion and other landlord abuses will only increase. I believe legislation like the Small Business Jobs Survival Act must be enacted quickly to stop the abuses.”

Q: Do you agree with Sung Soo Kim, the city’s leading authority on small businesses, that any real solution / legislation to save our small businesses must give commercial tenants the right to renewal?

Marte: “The right to renewal is fundamental for small businesses’ survival. Without it, there is no future for independent business owners.”

Hussein: “Yes. The future of our small businesses and neighborhoods can no longer be solely in the hands of landlords and out-of-town speculators. The future of our well-managed businesses and their employees must be in the hands of the business owners and their satisfied customers.”

Q: Would you support any legislation that did not give reasonable-length leases to owners, giving their future some predictability, encouraging growth and creating new jobs?    

Rivera: “I support the S.B.J.S.A. because it gives small-business owners the bargaining power they need to negotiate a long-term lease.”

Marte: “No. Many landlords keep their independent business tenants on month-to-month or yearly leases in order to preserve the opportunity to hike rents that only chains can afford.”

Hussein: “No. Even a one- or two-year lease hamstrings the ability of a small business to predict future costs, and thus the business cannot grow and create jobs. Short-term leases are job killers.”

When a politician repeats REBNY’s talking points as an excuse for not supporting the S.B.J.S.A. — as in, “The bill has legal problems” or “Only Albany has the authority to act or it’s unconstitutional” — they’ve been coached by REBNY.

When they promote a REBNY-created proposal keeping the status quo, they’ve sold out to big real estate.

When they remain silent on the closing of businesses and refuse to even give the S.B.J.S.A. or any potential solution an honest public hearing, they’re committed to REBNY to never regulate landlords or give business owners rights.

Councilmember Margaret Chin and Public Advocate Letitia James did not comment for this column. You ask them! If not satisfied, vote! Vote to save our Village.