Monday, August 18, 2014

Unchain the City

From my most recent Op-Ed in the Daily News this weekend:

Soon there will be no New York left in New York. The city is becoming, for the first time in its long and illustrious history of exceptionalism, just another Anywhere, U.S.A. What has de Blasio done to protect New York’s small businesses and control the virulent spread of national chains? Nothing much.



Before he was elected, I asked him in an online Q&A what he planned to do. In his answer, he called small businesses “incredibly important to the character and strength of our neighborhoods” and said he wanted to follow the example of the Upper West Side’s “mom-and-pop” rezoning, designed to protect small shops from being forced out for chains. That’s actually a fairly weak rezoning, but it’s a start — one that de Blasio has yet to follow through on. It’s time for the mayor to step up and take action against the destruction of the city’s character.

Read the rest here.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

#deBlasio'sNewYork

Mayor Dud Blah See-Oh ill only act on this if this would help him get a better image as in it'd be good as publicity and to get his votes. Only reason why he gave reprieve to Jerry Delaks; it helped the dud Mayor with good publcity, as if saying, "yes I'm all for the little guys". And his priority is to get rid of the horse carriage drivers and that pre-K agenda, which would only benefit a few, the ones with kids. But Blah-See-Oh have not done a thing since he ogt elected to the office except going on luxury trips at the expense of the little guys he has sworn to be a representative of. Yeah, it's a tale of two cities alright: his city and the highway. He is just a puppet to the unions and the corrupt long-term politicians. Much like BS full of rack Oh-ba-ma.

Anonymous said...

EV grieve already has 35+ comments on this. Maybe you can transfer them here or something.

Julie M. Finch said...

I really liked the column in the NY Daily News, "Unchain New York'" Another thing that might disappear is the New Fulton Fish Market Building. The developer Howard Hughes who has a lease with the City, and with the EDC Economic Deveilopent Corporation , plans to build a 50 story, 700 foot tower on the site of the possibly demolished New Market building. Please go to the website newamsterdammarket.org and sign their "Vision for the Seaport." We do not want public land handed to developers. The small restaurants and the South St. Sepaort Museum are all endangered. PLease go to the SAVE OUR SEAPORT on Facebook, and like us. Come to our Public Meeting Aug. 20th at St. Margaret's , Fulton between Gold and Water Sts. thank you so much for the article.

Anonymous said...

The mayor was the campaign manager for Hillary Clinton (queen of full of shit), did you really believe that he was going to be straight up with us? I guess you did.

Anonymous said...

Considering how the us now has lots of empty stores-espec on columbus- the weak rezoning.has been a big success.The.seaport is a tourist trap now and total garbage. Who cares about that?

Diane Harris Brown said...

Julie Finch is right on target. This situation is urgent, and needs attention from City Hall NOW. We who live in the neighborhood and love the New Amsterdam Market do care--passionately--about what is happening at the Seaport. Get with it, Mr. Mayor!