12 Queens councilmembers urge mayor to boost small business COVID relief

AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura

By David Brand

A total of 38 city councilmembers, including 12 from Queens, have urged Mayor Bill de Blasio to drastically increase aid to small businesses devastated by the COVID-19 economic shutdown.

The members sent an email to de Blasio Monday recommending that the city boost funding from $49 million to $500 million to support local companies that were already threatened by rising commercial rents even before the coronavirus slowed or halted their operations. The members represent about three-quarters of the council.

“Small businesses simply do not have enough money on hand to meet fixed payments — like commercial rent and utilities and they are struggling to meet payroll expenses,” the members wrote. “If they do not receive the appropriate level of aid, we will lose them, the jobs that come with them and a critical tax base for the city, forever.”

The members also said they were concerned about the distribution of the money to minority- and women- owned businesses and companies outside Manhattan. The city directed 66 percent of the initial funding to Manhattan mom-and-pops, while Bronx businesses received just 1 percent of the money, the members wrote. 

“Helping small businesses recover and weather this crisis should not be seen as an expenditure but rather as an investment,” they added. “Local businesses provide jobs and pay into the city’s tax base which in turns funds the programs and services that New Yorkers depend on.”

Queens Councilmembers Paul Vallone, Peter Koo, Francisco Moya, Costa Constantinides, Barry Grodenchik, Rory Lancman, Jimmy Van Bramer, Adrienne Adams, Karen Koslowitz, Robert Holden, Donovan Richards and Eric Ulrich each signed the letter, which comes as business boosters sound the alarm on the dire impact of COVID-19 on small businesses.

Queens Chamber of Commerce President Tom Grech has estimated that half of Queens’ 6,000 businesses may not reopen without significant intervention.

Bill Massa, the owner of Massa's Coal Fired Pizzeria & Bar in Long Island City, said his once bustling business is barely treading water during the crisis.

The restaurant made $10,000 in April, down from its usual $80,000 monthly haul, he told the Eagle.

The modest revenue isn’t even enough to cover the restaurant’s $11,000 monthly rent. “My phone, cable and internet alone is $500 a month,” Massa said. 

“I’ve lost tens of thousands of dollars, easily. I lost tens of thousands of dollars in a week.”

Small business advocates have pushed the city to enact a commercial rent control bill to offset the dual impact of rising rents and dwindling incomes — further complicated by the coronavirus.

The city’s new Small Business Services commissioner, Jonnel Doris, said the de Blasio administration did not have an official position on the commercial rent control bill during an appearance on WBAI’s City Watch last month.