SBC Small Business Congress
Part 1
A lobby controlled City Council is responsible for two crises!
Affordability Act
The oldest legislation in the City Council, the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, Jobs Survival Act, is getting a new name, the Affordability Act!
Why? Because of a lobby corrupted City Council’s failure to protect their own small business owners and workers when their leases expire, and they have no rights. This failure laid the foundation to the city’s “affordability crisis.”
It is time for New Yorkers to hold their Council Members accountable for the two crises they are responsible for.
Changing the name but not the intent!
The name of any legislation should reflect the “intent” of the bill.
We changed the name of our bill because the intent of our bill has been expanded to address two crises at once. Due to the failure of Council Members, CMS, to seriously address the city’s decade long small business crisis caused by sky high inflated rents being demanded by landlords who totally control the unfair commercial lease renewal process, a new crisis has arisen for all New Yorkers. Two crises that in any other major city government in America that practiced good government would have easily been prevented.
The intent of our bill must now fully address two crises in NYC instead of the one it was created to end. These two crises are: the small business crisis caused by sky high rents, oppressive lease demands from landlord greed, and the affordability crisis caused by the same sky-high rents which produce sky high price increases for goods and services and a host of negative outcomes that every business owner and New Yorker has had to endure.
Both crises are linked by a destructive commercial lease renewal process that acted as the catalyst for the dramatic “cost of living” rise in NYC. Both crises have the same cause: a grossly unfair, one-sided commercial lease renewal process where only the landlord’s profits matter, a “take it or leave” demand to most business owners. The two crises are coupled and affect each other. Both crises have the same response from their CMS: remain silent, complicit to the lobby orchestrated charade of pro real estate agencies and Committees pretending to care about the welfare of small businesses, while “doing absolutely nothing, to give one right to save even one business owner or one job.”
The message from City Hall, “we will support, help, assist, and aid our small business owners with a bunch of distractions like worthless programs for only 1 or 2% owners, but NEVER protect or save the majority from landlord greed.”
The solution to both crises is the same, give rights to business owners in the critical commercial lease renewal process. A process that for well over a decade has been the “root cause” of long-established successful businesses being forced to close due only to their landlords refusing to negotiate fair lease terms. Oppressive terms that would not allow a business owner to make a reasonable profit needed to remain open. A process that is the “root cause” of good paying jobs to be lost when successful business owners are forced to close when their leases expire, and they have no rights to protect their employees’ jobs. A process that is the “root cause” of long established owners with a growing loyal customer base who have plans for growth and more job creation, to instead be forced to close. A process that is the “root cause” of empty storefronts appearing on busy main streets in every neighborhood.
Empty storefronts where once thriving business were and many left empty by the landlords for YEARS! A process that is the “root cause” of the dramatic rise in the price of goods and services for every business owner and customer. A failed process that is the “root cause” of the catalyst for a steep “cost of living” for every New Yorker. A lobby controlled process that has destroyed record numbers of businesses and put in grave jeopardy the futures of every business owner and their workers when their leases expired. An anti small business process that is supported and promoted by our City Council.
The main solution to end these two crises starts with having enough true progressive CMS, with the political will and courage to stand up to the real estate lobby, The Real Estate Board of New York, REBNY, and pass the new Affordability Act. This is the only lifeline to level the playing field for business owners in the lease renewal negotiation process. It is the only real option to end the small business crisis, the empty store blight and the affordability crisis.
The original version of the Affordability Act was created by a coalition of diverse businesses, arts, and professional groups with the sole intent to give needed rights to all business owners in the critical commercial lease renewal process. For over 3 decades the bill has been amended seven times with 5 name changes. But the intent of the bill has never changed. That intent is simply to make legislation guidelines for the commercial lease renewal process. Guidelines must be: fair to both parties, simple for all parties, legally sound, less expensive for both parties, with no government or taxpayer involvement, and an arbitration process based upon a “case by case” local economy using proven guidelines to encourage bargaining in good faith, compromises, and put an end to rent gouging and landlord abuses like extortion and forced paying of the landlord’s property taxes.
When it comes to debating most legislation the standard response from lawmakers is usually, “nothing is perfect, and compromises are necessary for passage.” After 12 Council hearings, a record, and many compromised amendments for over 30 years, another record, the Affordability Act, for its true intent, is as perfect a legislation as possible in the special interests influenced NY City Council. As an absolute certainty, 100% of all types of NYC business owners would want this bill passed to protect their American Dream! As well as, 100% of the loyal customers of their beloved mom and pop merchants who want them to remain open.
Why is it so difficult in our City Council to ever get a vote on this “perfect bill with the sole intent” to make a fairer commercial lease renewal process for all parties? What is wrong with passing “fair” legislation for a change in the Council?
What true progressive Council Member, CM, being the voice on behalf of their own merchants and workers, would not support the passage of legislation that would guarantee that every business owner would have the rights needed when their leases expire to have a fighting chance to: protect their life’s investment, the jobs of their workers, and their American Dream?
A City Council vote, and easy passage of the bill, would have ended an over decade long citywide “small business crisis”. Ending this crisis would have prevented the dramatic “cost of living” rise in NYC and prevented both the “empty store blight“ and the “affordability crisis.” Clearly the City Council is not in the prevention mode.
The foundation of both crises was blatant landlord greed that the City Council permitted to grow out of control destroying record numbers of long established good businesses and good paying jobs in every neighborhood.
Years ago, a bidding war between big banks and national chains for prime locations in every neighborhood wrecked the commercial rental market and produced insane rent increases, with a crisis soon followed. Why local Council Members, CMS, did not rush to pass the Jobs Survival Act to protect their own smaller mom and pop owners in their districts who could never pay these sky-high rents and still make a reasonable profit and remain open, shows clearly a glaring failure of having powerful special interests in total control of our city’s economic policy. Special interests whose power and political influence grew at every election with their campaign donations, political endorsements, and influence with political clubs and party bosses. It also grew with the political ambitions of career politicians.
The undue influence of lobbies, especially REBNY, has allowed the hijacking of democracy at City Hall to take control of our city’s local economies. REBNY’s many pro real estate shills: BIDS, Chambers, SBS, EDC, and fake coalitions (United for Small Business NYC and ANHD), all claiming to speak on behalf of small business owners to help them, are in truth only serving big real estate’s special interests. Where is the sincere voice in the City Council for the rights of small business owners? NONE!
In the face of a growing citywide small business crisis caused by insane rent demands, why would CMS remain silent and do absolutely nothing to save even one of their own business owners, or one job? No City Council in America has treated its small business owners with less respect, irrelevance to their critical role in guiding and protecting our city’s economic health. A Council disrespectful for our city’s major job creators, disregarding their vital role as major revenue generators for our city’s budget, with total indifference to their futures, year after year. No City is worse in this regard than NYC’s City Council. CMS lack of any sincere empathy or moral obligation to business owners for the dire plight faced when their leases expire, and they have no rights, is shocking, appalling, and indefensible for any true progressive lawmaker. But they are always there for the press events when a popular business closes, claiming to care when their actions show otherwise.
Through giving rights to owners in the Jobs Survival Act every CMS held in their hands a real lifeline, in fact, the only lifeline, the greatest opportunity to stop the closing of their own best-established businesses and save the jobs of their workers. But year after year every CMS refused to throw this lifeline to end the small business crisis. The outcome of this CMS’s silent betrayal to their merchants, workers, constituents and democracy was an unchecked growing crisis destroying good businesses and jobs, destroying the potentials for business growth and job creation, forcing the owners to work harder for less profits, and cutbacks in employees which resulted in NYC being the only major city in America during an economic booming recovery with an “empty store blight.”
Yes, the empty stores on every main street were caused by a lobby corrupted Council leadership, as well as Council Members thinking of only their own political ambitions and abandoned their progressive values and lacking the political will and courage to stand up to the lobby REBNY. Shamefully true, CMS threw their own merchants and workers under the bus for self-serving reasons. The only jobs CMS made a priority to save were their own jobs, as they disingenuously proclaimed the support for the "backbone of the community" as a campaign cry.
If good government was allowed to work in the Council, and not be corrupted by special interests like REBNY, then the Jobs Survival Act would have been voted on in the Council, many years ago, and easily passed into law. The first vote by the full Council should have been in August 2009 (32 CMS sponsors), then November 2018 (28 CMS sponsors), in March 2022, and finally in March 2024.
REBNY has vowed that it was not going to allow its landlord members to be regulated in the highly profitable commercial lease renewal process that they totally controlled and were making “windfall profits” from. Especially after investing so much money in the careers of many ambitious lawmakers. They ordered their loyal CMS to never regulate the commercial landlords, regardless, that these same landlords were responsible for the city’s small business crisis in the first place. Regardless of the reality that NYC would never be affordable again without bringing down the commercial rents, prices, residential rents and restoring reasonable profits and the American Dream to the 210K plus business owners in NYC.
Therefore, every Council Member who has remained silent and complicit to the collusion of the real estate lobby with the Speaker’s Office to rig the system to deny economic justice and rights to business owners needed to protect their investment and end their crisis should be held fully responsible for their district’s businesses’ closings!
No more angry cries from loyal customer to “blame the landlord” when a beloved business is forced to close. The rightful cry should be to “blame the CM” for giving the landlord the total power and control over the commercial lease renewal process of their businesses.
Accountable for the closings of every good business in their district who is forced to close due only to being denied any rights in the commercial lease renewal process. Why is it acceptable to a CM that every business owner could be in dire jeopardy of losing their life’s investment or worker’s jobs every time their lease expires? Is this their reward for investing their life’s savings and hard work to build a successful business that created good paying jobs? Did the voters elect a CM expecting him/her to abdicate their responsibility for the stability, vitality, prosperity and futures of their local economy to the real estate lobby, REBNY and their landlords?
CMS have all played a dishonorable role in an over decade long lobby orchestrated charade empowering pro real estate BIDS, Chambers, and SBS, all with the hidden agenda of promoting only the lobby’s disinformation talking points and playbook to keep the status quo for the landlords.
If a CM is okay with allowing their district’s landlords to continue to have full control over the future of the district’s business owners and their worker’s jobs then the voters must hold that CM fully responsible when the landlords abuse this power by destroying good businesses and good paying jobs.
The low point of morality of the City Council was allowing a lobby to substitute their own created “status quo” legislation for the only lifeline to save small business owners. **LAST CHANCE TO SAVE MOM AND POP | savenycjobs
https://www.savenycjobs.com/last-chance-to-save-mom-and-pop
With the majority of our city’s business owners being multi-generational immigrant families, those CMS sponsors of the lobby created status quo bill, Commercial Rent Stabilization Act, CRS, who represent large immigrant communities and are proud of their immigrant roots, should be embarrassed and ashamed for sponsoring this anti-immigrant bill. The hypocrisy is blatant when CMS claiming to be proud fighters to give their resident renters the right to renew their leases but refuse to give their merchants that same right. Instead, they eagerly sponsor a real estate lobby’s legislation, CRS, that gives business owners,” no right to renew their leases.” SHAMEFUL!
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The shameful and reprehensible truth is, given the opportunity, the majority of new CMS willfully choose to not protect their own small business owners or the jobs of their workers in the critical commercial lease renewal process. A reprehensible and indefensible fact!
Any vote on the Jobs Survival Act would have immediately begun the process of stabilizing the backbone of our local economies. It would have ended the closings of long established businesses for those owners willing and able to pay reasonable rents, protected the jobs of workers, and give confidence to owners to again plan growth and create jobs. Something else would have also immediately begun with the passage of the Jobs Survival Act. The insane rents would begin to be lowered and along with it the cost of goods and services leading to lower prices for all New Yorkers. Yes, the “cost of living” would finally begin to decline, to become more affordable. But the majority of Council Members willfully made the choice to protect and promote only REBNY’s landlord’s rights. Along with every business owner, every New Yorker has also become a victim of this lobby’s corruption of our Council’s leadership and of Council Members losing their moral compasses.
In PART II
Why the new name Affordability Act?
New Yorkers can see the outcome of an unfair commercial lease renewal process when many of their popular businesses are forced to close, or see the empty storefronts appear where once thriving businesses were. The other outcome of the destructive commercial lease renewal process, not seen but felt by all New Yorkers, is the foundation for the city’s Affordability Crisis!
A major consequence of a failed commercial lease renewal process will show up in higher residential rent increases!
A notice to all CMS: NYC will never be affordable for working families until you lower both the commercial and residential RENTS and cut the decades of “Pork Barrel ” out of the budget!
CMS have no option to restore affordability to working families except to switch from supporting, promoting and protecting a fat cat- big real estate economy to a healthy and vibrant small business- working family economy.