Second Avenue Subway Killed My Business, UES Store Owner Says

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — When the Second Avenue Subway opened on the Upper East Side, it was met with much fanfare. Politicians toasted the long-delayed project, Upper East Siders flocked to shiny new stations and celebrated their new link to the rest of the city.

But a Third Avenue businessman says the new tracks spelled doom for his store and increased struggles for his neighbors.

Steven Telvi, 53, inherited The Source, on Third Avenue between East 80th and 81st streets, from his father Murray who opened it in 1981. The day after the new subway opened in 2017, he saw the number of customers nosedive, he told Patch.

His theory: Customers that once had to walk by his store to get to the Lexington Avenue subway no longer tread west of Second Avenue.

Sales at The Source dropped 25 percent since January 2017, Telvi told Patch. He had to shutter the store closed in February 2018 after deciding it was no longer financially viable.

"It happened the day it opened. And then it got a little worse," Telvi said. "But it pretty much happened the day it opened. I think a lot of business owners are still scratching their heads trying to figure out where the foot traffic went."

Telvi said he had expected a decrease in foot traffic with the new subway line, but underestimated the damage. The dip came as The Source, a stationery shop which Telvi described as selling "everything," was also trying to cope with competition from online retailers.

Telvi used to hire 15 employees to help him, but the workforce had declined to two full-time and two part-time workers when the store closed in February, Telvi said.

Before the Second Avenue Subway opened, MTA officials estimated that about 200,000 people would eventually ride the line each day. By the end of January 2017, the MTA announced that ridership on the Second Avenue Subway in its first month peaked at 155,000 daily riders.

Meanwhile, during the Second Avenue Subway's first month, ridership on the Lexington Avenue line fell 27 percent — 46 percent during the peak morning rush hours of 8-9 a.m. — compared to January numbers from 2016, according to the MTA.

Patch reached out to the MTA several times for updated average daily ridership numbers on both the Second Avenue Subway and Lexington Avenue lines, but the numbers were not provided.

Businesses on Third Avenue have become stuck in the middle of the two subway lines. It's a new "no man's land," Telvi said.

"I would have to say that everyone’s feeling it. If they tell you they’re not, I think they’re lying," Telvi said. "But I see a new store closing almost every week on Third."

Other Third Avenue merchants agreed that the area was no longer friendly to small businesses, but didn't blame the Second Avenue Subway for the tough times. A corporate manager at Ricky's cosmetics, between East 79th and 78th streets, said real estate development has made extending a lease "impossible."

The Housing Works thrift store near the corner of East 77th Street closed because its building is being demolished by a new owner.

Joe Moore, the director of retail operations at the CancerCare Thrift Store on Third Avenue between East 83rd and 84th streets, said that changes in shopping patterns and rising rents are some of the main factors hurting his small business. On Third Avenue, commercial space is renting at a market rate of $300 per square foot, which is like "monopoly money" for a nonprofit thrift store, Moore said.

Moore said he thinks foot traffic on the avenue is "about the same" since the opening of the Second Avenue Subway, but people's changing styles and shopping patterns are hurting traditional brick and mortar stores. It seems like the only brick and mortar businesses thriving on Third Avenue are juice shops and boutique gyms, Moore said.

Whether or not the Second Avenue Subway is to blame, there's no denying Third Avenue is changing.

"It’s sad. I live in this neighborhood also," Telvi said. "I walk to work, I walk home from work everyday and I’ve lived here my entire adult life and don’t even recognize the neighborhood anymore."

Photos by Patch