Between the pandemic lockdowns and the lawlessness in New York City, businesses have had enough. The city is going down in flames and Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo don’t seem to care much.
Last week, 150 new York businesses sent a letter [1] to democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio, telling him that “people will be slow to return unless their concerns about security and livability of our communities are addressed quickly and with respect and fairness to our city’s diverse populations.”
The letter speaks about widespread anxiety about cleanliness, public safety and other quality of life issues and they ask him to restore essential services.
Some pretty big companies signed onto the letter including Goldman Sachs, MasterCard, Lyft, Bank of America, the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, Pfizer, Squarespace, Citigroup, Nasdaq, Morgan Stanley, JetBlue Airways, MetLife, New York Life Insurance Company, Shutterstock, Revlon and many others.
The city’s spokesman, Bill Neidhardt, put the problem on the shoulders of the President by saying they need long-term borrowing and federal stimulus. In other words, it’s not their problem. It’s Trump’s fault.
Restaurant owners in NYC are also not happy even though democratic Governor Cuomo has “generously” allowed them to open at 25% capacity [2] starting September 30th. This will do little to nothing for most restaurants who have been shutdown to indoor customers since mid-March.
Regulations and limits on indoor seating won’t cut the mustard for most restaurants especially with winter coming. Because margins in restaurants are small, most need to have a full or very close to full dining room to survive.
About 300 restauranteurs have filed a class-action lawsuit [3] again Cuomo and de Blasio seeking $2 billion in damages for destroying their businesses.
Andrew Riegie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance told the Business Insider, “Getting 25% indoor occupancy with a blueprint to get to 50% is important, but it’s not going to save restaurants. Even with 100% occupancy before the pandemic, it was already very difficult to survive as a restaurant in New York City.”