It’s not only the big corporations that are being hit hard by the recession.
Congressmember Anthony Weiner, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens and is running for mayor this year, recently released a study that showed that 211 storefronts out of 1,730 stores examined (12 percent) were vacant as a result of the downward spiraling economy.
“When the economy catches a cold, small businesses catch pneumonia,” Weiner said. “Too many community shops – the backbone of the city’s economy – are hit hard by this downturn.”
The survey examined 10 different shopping strips throughout the borough and produced some unnerving results in some areas.
Along Jamaica Avenue between Lefferts and Woodhaven Boulevards 80 of the 335 stores were closed or closing, while in Rockaway on Beach 116th Street between Beach Channel Drive and Ocean Promenade 17 of the 40 stores were closed. The news wasn’t much better in Electchester where 32 percent of the 44 stores surveyed between 72nd Road and 80th Road were closed.
However, some neighborhood shopping areas seemed to defy the recession, at least in terms of store closures. In Bayside, the Bay Terrace Shopping Center had only one store closed out of 52 stores, while the Sutphin Boulevard Business Improvement District (BID) had three stores closed out of 129 total stores, according to the survey.
“In general, one of the reasons that I think that our stores are OK is because the courts need their services,” said Sutphin BID Executive Director Simone Price. Although only three stores in the BID closed, Price said that did not mean the businesses were immune to the recession.
“Overall our merchants have been complaining about a decline in business – about 20 to 30 percent,” Price said.
Meanwhile, Weiner is hopeful that the recently signed stimulus package will jumpstart small businesses in Queens and throughout the city and he estimated that it could save or create up to 30,000 jobs in the borough.
In addition, some of the specific areas that Weiner said businesses could benefit immediately from include improved and new Small Business Association (SBA) loans, increasing the write-off for equipment and property expenses to $250,000 from $125,000 and increase the carry-back of net operating losses from two years to five years.
“I think the stimulus program is good,” said Jack Friedman, Executive Vice President of the Queens Chamber of Commerce. “I think anything where they are paying attention to the fact that small businesses are struggling is good. But, in order to have a [real] impact, we need to be assured that money is going to come down to the community level.”
