Author Archives | jwa2118

On a West Bronx Street, Small Businesses Brace for Change

img_7707

The intersection of Burnside Avenue and Jerome Avenue is the fulcrum of a shopping strip in the throes of development. On one side stands the dog-eared Nams, a dingy odds and ends shop with scratched suitcases chained up on display outside. On an opposite corner is Bred, a self-proclaimed ‘urban style’ store whose brand-marked shoes and clothes stare down on brightly lit, air-conditioned floor space.

“Burnside Avenue isn’t currently a commercial street; at least, not really,” said Khalid Omar, the owner of Burnside Furniture. The West Bronx thoroughfare is a low key but extraordinarily diverse small business hub: home to a variety of modest eateries and home, clothing and convenience stores. Many are run by immigrants from the area’s thriving West African, Arab and Latino communities.

But existing small businesses are soon likely to be joined by a mix of citywide and national competitors under city plans for commercial revitalization, community efforts to create a Business Improvement District, or both.

Plans to rezone Jerome Avenue to create thousands of affordable new homes contain blueprints to spruce up ‘commercial corridors’ on some of the streets that straddle it, including Burnside. The commercial corridor proposals tie into a wider program, currently being finalized by the city’s Department of Small Business Services, which would work with local stores to help them market themselves and to make their environment safer, cleaner and more attractive.

“We’ll be asking for more security, lighting and cleanliness to offer to the community as a whole, making it a place where people enjoy coming to shop,” said Ubaldo Santos, a tax preparer who is president of the Merchants Association on Burnside Avenue. He talks slowly in lilting, accented English, but with a conviction that reflects his desire to improve the neighborhood that has been his home for over 30 years.

Some store owners and managers clearly want to see these improvements too. “Change is good. Beauty is good. It makes you feel proud of where you are,” said Georgina Tackie, the assistant manager of Accra, a Ghanaian restaurant on the corner of Burnside and Davidson Avenues.

img_7638

Mariama Sillah (left) works in Accra, a Ghanaian restaurant. Here, she poses with a passer-by.

Others, however, are skeptical of city-driven commercial plans. Ayoub Hammouda, a Palestinian immigrant who manages Burnside Linen, said city agencies frustrate his business rather than help it grow.

“The Department of Sanitation bothers us,” said Hammouda, complaining that the agency won’t let him display his merchandise on the street. He stood beside a prominent bright green ‘Going Out of Business’ sign in his shop window. “They just want to give us tickets.”

img_7679

Ayoub Hammouda, a Palestinian immigrant, is the manager of Burnside Linen.

Plans to revitalize Burnside Avenue are not limited to city authorities. “We’ve been fighting for a number of years to convert Burnside Avenue into a Business Improvement District,” said Santos, who has been working on the plans with the Davidson Community Center and Morris Heights Health Center.

Business Improvement Districts, or BIDs, are public-private partnerships run chiefly by property owners and merchants. Santos is hopeful that BID status for Burnside might be finalized next year. “We’ve been working very actively with the Small Business Service and they’ve been working very diligently with us,” he said.

BIDs, however, are controversial. Critics say they give landlords too much power over small business owners. “Businesses often don’t want their neighborhood to become a BID, but it doesn’t matter what the tenants think,” said Moshe Adler, an adjunct associate professor of urban planning at Columbia University. “You’d be hard-pressed to find one example where businesses consider this to be an improvement. It’s just a misleading name.”

And some businesses on Burnside Avenue are afraid property owners will use aesthetic improvements as an excuse to drive up rent, whether they’re attached to BID status or not.

“The rent is the main issue, not shop fronts or advertising,” said Omar at Burnside Furniture. “Whatever they are trying to do is difficult when the rent is too high. It’s the main issue.”

In the area affected by the Jerome Avenue rezoning, at least 90 percent of businesses rent their store space. Forty two percent of respondents to a recent survey said real estate and lease assistance would be valuable to them.

Merchants’ concerns that development could destabilize small businesses have recent local precedent.

Even though plans to turn Kingsbridge Armory into America’s largest ice rink have stalled due to a funding dispute, some businesses on adjacent Kingsbridge Avenue report that landlords’ behavior has changed dramatically since the project was announced in 2012.

“Rent nearly doubled this year,” said Espi Sanchez, a waitress at New Capital diner on the corner of Kingsbridge and Jerome Avenues. “Many businesses near here have closed.”

“The owner is nervous. We are nervous,” said Jose Nunez as he buzzed a trimmer close to a customer’s scalp in Kingsbridge Barber Shop. “You don’t know if you’re working here one day and gone the next.”

Many owners have a bigger problem with property owners refusing to commit to long-team leases. “Landlords are being pre-emptive in not renewing leases. I can feel it,” said Patrick Lim, who owns two grocery stores opposite the Armory.

The Department of Small Business Services said it is offering leasing workshops and pro bono legal advice to affected businesses. It has not, however, stipulated what support will be on offer should rents become so eye-watering that businesses can no longer afford to stay open. Many fear that their store space will go to big chain companies if they are forced to move away.

“Big corporations kill small commercials,” said Miguel Angel, a merchant who sells clothing to shops like Rudy Fashion on Burnside Avenue. “Ten years ago this neighborhood was all small commercials. Now there are lots of big commercials.”

img_7654

Rudy Gomez is the owner of Rudy Fashion. He recently moved to Burnside Avenue from Fordham Road.

Newer chain stores appear to be thriving on Burnside. Jimmy Jazz, an apparel store with outlets across the country, is currently planning to move into a bigger unit across the road from its current location.

“We’re making too much money to stay here,” said Dylan Chevalier, its branch assistant manager.

Santos at the Merchants Association, however, is hopeful that small businesses won’t be forced to leave by higher rents. “It doesn’t pay for the landlord to raise the rent to the roof so that no one can afford it,” he said. “That way everybody loses. Property owners need to understand that and work with us.”

He insisted, however, that local business owners need to come together too to shape the plans. “I’m willing to do it and I think others are too,” said Santos of neighboring businesses. “I have lived in this community for many years. I raised my children here. But we have to give back to our community as well. You have to take part.”

Posted in Bronx Neighborhoods, Featured, Front Page, Politics0 Comments

An Insanity Plea in Severed Head Selfie Murder Case

The lawyer of the Bronx man who cut off his mother’s head and took a selfie with it told Bronx Supreme Court Thursday that her client is mentally ill and incapable of distinguishing right from wrong.

Bahsid McLean, 26, is charged with murdering his mother Tanya Byrd in their apartment in February 2013. McLean’s lawyer is seeking acquittal through mental illness or disease, although prosecutors claim that he killed Byrd “cold-bloodedly”.

The New York Daily News has the latest on the trial.

 

Posted in Newswire0 Comments

Claremont Village Infant’s Death Declared Homicide One Year On

Medical examiners have declared that the death of an eight month old Bronx boy almost a year ago was a homicide, after analyzing latest test results.

Mason Simms was found unresponsive in the apartment of his mother, Shivon Simms, on October 24th 2015. Simms blames her then boyfriend, Edward Flowers, for the death, although police are yet to make any arrests in the case.

The New York Daily News has more.

Posted in Newswire0 Comments

Cops Resuscitate Unconscious Mott Haven Toddler on Sidewalk

Two Bronx police officers rushed to the aid of a one year old girl Friday night after they spotted her mother running down the street clutching her and crying for help.

Officers Felix Baez and Giovanni Laguna gave the infant, who wasn’t breathing, CPR on a Mott Haven sidewalk, and then again in their unmarked patrol car as they drove her to Lincoln Hospital.

The girl is now breathing and in a stable condition.

The New York Daily News has the full story.

Posted in Newswire0 Comments

Bronx Man Survives Bullet to Head and Hails Cab to Hospital

A 48 year old man is alive in hospital despite a bullet passing through his head after he was shot in Melrose late Friday night.

The victim, who has not been named, managed to call a cab to take him to Lincoln Hospital, where he remains conscious. According to the Daily News, the bullet passed through his head from just above his left eyebrow to the back of his skull.

Read the full Daily News story here.

Posted in Newswire0 Comments

Study on Bronx Domestic Violence Released

The Bronx Domestic Violence Roundtable and Bronx Legal Services have released a report into domestic violence in the borough to coincide with Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

‘More People to Listen’ aims to improve service provision for victims in a borough that boasts the highest rates of domestic violence citywide.

The Bronx Times has the full story.

Posted in Newswire0 Comments

Public Advocate Linked with Vacant Brooklyn District Attorney Post

The New York City Public Advocate Letitia James has been rumored to be in contention to replace Ken Thompson as Brooklyn District Attorney after Thompson died Sunday night following a battle against cancer.

James, the first black woman elected to citywide office, has been influential in the Bronx, particularly in her representation of tenants in court fights against unscrupulous landlords.

James, who is from Brooklyn, said that this was not the time to be discussing politics.

Read the full story from DNAInfo here.

Posted in Newswire0 Comments

Brooklyn Man Killed in Bronx Hit and Run

A Brooklyn man died Monday night after being struck by a car in a hit and run in Morrisania in the South Bronx.

38 year old David Pajarito-Mendez was hit at the intersection of Courtlandt Avenue and East 162nd Street. Police are looking for a black jeep Cherokee which was seen driving away from the scene.

The New York Daily News has the full story.

Posted in Newswire0 Comments

Page 1 of 212