Mom And Pop Store Owners Flood East Village Meeting Seeking Allies In Fight Against Chains

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Local business owners in the East Village came out in droves on Wednesday night to ask community leaders to implement protections for mom and pop stores amid the proliferation of big-box chains like Trader Joe's and Target throughout the neighborhood.

Dozens of local residents and business owners spoke in support of a proposed "special business district" in the East Village, which would restrict the number of new chain stores that could open in the area. Community Board 3, which covers the East Village and the Lower East Side, is considering a proposal that would create such a business district. (For more news from the East Village, subscribe here for free, breaking news alerts from Patch.)

On Wednesday night, the community board hosted a public forum to hear input from the community. Dozens of speakers voiced their support for zoning regulations in the area, and many asked for local leaders to take additional steps to address spiking rents for small businesses.

As it's currently written, the proposed zoning regulations would prohibit more than one chain store per block and restrict sizes for restaurants, banks and shops. The rule would be designed to help smaller stores compete, and limit the amount of rent that landlords can expect to get for their properties.

Wednesday's public forum was hosted at a senior center at 12th Street, doors down from Angelica Kitchen, the longtime East Village staple that closed its doors earlier this year after 40 years in the neighborhood. Like so many local restaurants and businesses, Angelica cited a a steep rent as the reason for shutting down after decades of business. Community Board 3 officials say that the persistent disappearance of local businesses, like Angelica, moved them to weigh the special zoning district.

Nearly all of the speakers on Wednesday night implored the community board to adopt the proposal, and some asked for additional steps from neighborhood and city leaders.

Pam Nelson, the owner of the East Village's Butter Lane Bakery, spoke in support of zoning regulations that would protect businesses like her bakery, which has sold cupcakes on Seventh Street for nine years.

"We're talking about rents that are going from $5,000 a month to $45,000 a month," Nelson said about rent hikes that small shops like hers had experience. "That's a reality right now, happening in the East Village. And happening in the West Village ... They've ended up with a blighted landscape, and the East Village is next."

Last month, state senator Brad Hoylman released a report looking at what's called "high-rent blight" in the West Village. The report concluded that nearly 20 percent of storefronts along Bleecker Street, one of the West Village's main thoroughfares, were empty while landlords waited for higher-paying tenants to move in.

Although the majority of speakers voiced support for the measure, some quibbled over the particulars of the proposal that had been drafted.

Abby Ehmann, owner of the Lucky bar on Avenue B, voiced concern about bars and chain stores being put in the same category. Under the current proposal, restrictions on maximum total size apply to restaurants and bars, banks and chain stores.

"I'm a little worried about the restaurant/bar people being lumped in with Target," she said.

Other residents took issue with the proposed district, which currently spanned by 14th Street, Houston Street, Second Avenue and Avenue D, and asked that it expand further south, into the Lower East Side.

A small handful of speakers opposed the measure, occasionally eliciting a chorus of boos from the auditorium packed mostly with pro-regulation business owners. Multiple speakers who opposed the special business district asked the community board to consider other steps to support local business.

The community board's economic development committee will discuss the public feedback at its next meeting, said committee chair David Ford. Should the proposal be approved by the committee and the community board, it would still need approval by the NYC City Council before being implemented.

Lead image via Ciara McCarthy / Patch.