Photo: QueensPost
June 5, 2011 By Christian Murray
A Queens Blvd business owner has established a new business association with the objective of improving and promoting Queens Blvd.
Ciaran Staunton, a resident of Sunnyside Gardens and owner of Molly Blooms, has just established the Queens Blvd Merchants Initiative, a group comprised mainly of business owners on the boulevard. However, Staunton said he would like other business owners and residents to sign on, since the Sunnyside community as a whole has a stake in the improvement of Queens Blvd.
“Many people’s view of Sunnyside is based on what they see on Queens Blvd,” Staunton said. “Does Sunnyside look like a place someone would want to invest in, or buy in, or shop in?” He said tattered awnings, roll down metal gates and vacant stores on Queens Blvd. are not good for this neighborhood’s image.
He said the group plans to improve Queens Blvd block by block, focusing on awnings and gates. Furthermore, the group aims to help find tenants for shuttered stores. A closed store, he said, reduces the amount of business that other store owners on a block generate.
The official launch of the group will be this Tuesday, June 7 at 9:00 am, at Staunton’s pub Molly Blooms (43-13 Queens Blvd), and Congressman Joseph Crowley is scheduled to be there as part of the launch.
However, the concept of the Queens Blvd Merchants Initiative has created waves among Sunnyside’s existing business groups that promote the “entire” neighborhood. The leaders of Sunnyside Shines (BID) and the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce were not aware of the Queens Blvd Merchants Initiative until Staunton emailed the invitations on Thursday.
Artie Weiner, the treasurer of Sunnyside Shines, sent out a mass e-mail that read: “What about Greenpoint Avenue?? What about 46th Street?? What about Skillman Avenue…? This is the most self-serving scheme to come to Sunnyside in a long time. This is a lesson on how to divide a neighborhood.” A day later, Weiner sent out a follow-up e-mail, saying he was speaking on behalf of himself not Sunnyside Shines.
But Staunton said that if the Merchants Initiative helps improve Queens Blvd the whole neighborhood is the better for it. “We [the Merchants] are right on the forefront of what is going on so we have to lead.”
State Sen. Michael Gianaris supports the new initiative. “Any group that wants to improve Sunnyside we’ll support,” a spokesman said. A representative of Gianaris, who is in Albany, plans to attend the event.
However, Joseph Conley, the chairman of Community Board 2, who was at the forefront of bringing 2-hour parking to Queens Blvd and has worked with the sanitation department to clean up under the No. 7 train in recent weeks, said “We already have two fine merchant associations, the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce and the BID [Sunnyside Shines].”
Meanwhile, some members of the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce are displeased by the new group.
Luke Adams, the marketing director of the Chamber, said in a statement: “I have been involved in the chamber for more than 36 years, a volunteer association which promotes Sunnyside – which is Skillman Ave., Greenpoint Ave., 43rd Ave., 48th Ave., parts of Woodside, every corner of the area, really—not just Queens Blvd. The Chamber elected Ciaran [Staunton] to the board. He attended one board meeting. Now he has scheduled [the launch] on the same morning as our board meeting. Feels like a slap. And bringing in a US Congressman and bypassing local business organizations and the community board. How is that working local? We need to stick together to survive, not start over. We could all use some help. Let’s stay together.”
But Rebecca Barker, the new president of the Chamber of Commerce, said that the chamber has similar goals as the Queens Merchants Initiative. “We all seek a better neighborhood, where every street is vibrant. If this group can find the absentee landlords, get funding and bring in new businesses then we are all the better for it.”
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer said he was unaware of the Queens Merchants Initiative until Thursday. “I support every initiative by local business owners to better themselves and the neighborhood, and I hope we all stay united and work together.”
Van Bramer and Conley won’t be attending the event on Tuesday since they have a meeting regarding the formation of a business improvement district in Woodside.
But Staunton said that he is not trying to undermine any group. “I’m part of the Chamber. I just think Queens Blvd is the corridor to Sunnyside and I want to help improve it.”
