Cafe Edison, CBGB, St. Marks Books, Your Favorite Neighborhood Store or Restaurant Goes Here: The ghosts of vanished New York City institutions hover over the Small Business Jobs Survival Act that the City Council will hear testimony on today, tugging at a collective grief over beloved institutions lost.
Get ready for a memorial service in the Council chambers, punctuated with rage at the wave of empty storefronts blighting once-hopping shopping strips.
As elected officials including lead sponsor Ydanis Rodriguez tear their garments, be skeptical of the easy narrative that greedy landlords are the sole force causing closings. A little thing you may have heard of called the Internet has upended brick-and-mortar commerce too.
But even those who think the problem rests solely with callous owners having their way with powerless moms and pops must admit the Council’s supposed fix is sketchy indeed.
Barred by state law from re-instating commercial rent control that decades back helped businesses weather desperate space shortages, the Council jerry-rigs a workaround that requires landlords to negotiate perpetual 10-year renewals of existing leases for all businesses — with equal protections for corner bodegas and white-shoe law firms. If landlord and tenant can’t agree on the rent, an arbitrator would decide on the proper sum.
How would the arbitrator determine a fair rent when there’s no public record or research on market conditions, a la the Rent Guidelines Board for apartments? Anyone?
The power of the proposed scheme to restore retail, restaurants and nightlife to eclectic glory — or even save that pharmacy down the block — is worse than unproven. In fact, with vacancy hot spots already plaguing Manhattan, pouring bureaucratic quicksand into leasing stands to scare even more property owners away from renting space.
The Council should think twice, three and four times before buying this bill of goods.
