Potential Mayoral Candidate Speaks Out on Assisting Small Business

At an Association for a Better New York breakfast meeting this morning, city comptroller and presumed mayoral candidate William C. Thompson, Jr., made several proposals aimed at improving the climate in the city for small businesses. As reported in the New York Times City Room he called for the city to look into taxes that "unfairly hamper the growth" of small businesses, and proposed that the city create a database of the largest companies and nonprofit entities to identify spaces that could house small businesses, in an incubator-like scheme.

Mr. Thompson said that, "A city that works is a city of hope," which is a pithy soundbite, but are governmental schemes and favorable legislation really going to be enough to help small businesses in New York? Many would say that helping small businesses find affordable accommodation would be a major step as chain stores seem to be the only businesses able to afford retail rents these days, and tax incentives, or tax breaks, would almost certainly benefit many small companies, but is that going to be enough? And should the city government even be playing this kind of role?

At the most recent Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York panel discussion, panelist Savitri D of the Church of Stop Shopping said that her organization was campaigning for legislation that would prevent chain stores from operating in certain areas of the city, suggesting this as an important first step in halting the relentless exodus of small businesses from the city. MAS recently testified at a hearing advocating for some kinds of controls on the operation of chain stores in the city also, but is city government and legislation the answer to this issue or should the consumer play a more significant role? After all, we have a choice over where we spend our dollars, and we can choose to spend them in small, local stores or at large, multinational chain stores. Perhaps a combination of consumer awareness and activism, and legislation in favor of small business is the answer? What do you think? Is small business in the city doomed without government intervention?

Punk No Longer Chic on Bowery

The former home of pioneering rock club CBGB is to become a boutique for fashion designer John Varvatos come the spring of 2008. The lease deal, reported in today's NY Daily News, means that the chic boutique is coming to a formerly seedy area that recently has added a hotel, a bank, a Starbucks and a Whole Foods.

While many might turn their noses up at this as the gentrification and homogenization of a neighborhood traditionally known as rough n'ready and therefore, perhaps, exciting, others might say that the advent of this boutique is a move towards striking the right balance between chain stores and small retail in a transitional neighborhood. But what do you think? Should the former home of CBGB become a boutique? If not, what should it be?

MAS participated in the 2004-05 campaign to save CBGB. read more...

Jane Jacobs Events Video Podcasts Now Online

Each of the seven Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York public programs is being filmed for production into video podcasts. The first three of these are now available. Click here to watch them.

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Sidewalk Shed Advertising: Free and Illegal, or Paid for and Legal?

In an article on Wednesday titled Billboards by Any Other Name, about "advertecture" - the use of buildings for product placement, The New York Times commented on a new bill to be put in front of the City Council later this month that would make advertising on sidewalk sheds (construction sheds) legal, with the Department of Buildings charging for permits. The Times estimates that revenue from these spaces may be as much as $50,00 per billboard.

Recently, following a major campaign last year by the Municipal Art Society called Shoot It Down! that highlighted the prevalence of illegal advertising -- the Department of Buildings has been cracking down on illegal advertising on sidewalk sheds, but this legislation would see them become an important new source of revenue for the city.

The Times continues, saying that New Yorkers are already bombarded by advertising in the subway and on yellow cabs, and describes the possibility of advertising on sidewalk sheds as "the privatization of public spaces, and ultimately, of public life."

But what do you think? Is there too much advertising in this city already? Or, is charging for advertising permits a good idea since the enforcement of fines for illegal advertising is costly? How should such permits be controlled and should there be limits placed on the size and placement of advertisements? Your comments are welcome.

A Civic Activist Boot Camp: Are You Ready for More?

The After Party for Activists

Tonight's program brought together activists from a variety of groups from across New York City to discuss different ways of opening up the urban planning processes to the public and how individuals can acquire the tools necessary to make their voices heard.

The Take Action section of FutureofNY.org contains a great deal of information for people who want to participate in the planning processes that affect their neighborhood, so we encourage you to check it out.

Due to time constraints at tonight's program, not everyone who wanted to was able to put their questions to the panel, so we'd like you to continue the discussion right here at FutureofNY.org. Please use this blog to:

• a) tell us what you thought of tonight's panel
• b) ask any questions you weren't able to ask tonight
• c) respond to any questions you heard at the panel that interested you
• d) and offer any additional information, links or advice that you have about getting involved in local planning initiatives in New York

Please also feel free to respond to any of the other items on the blog or reply to comments that have already been made. read more...

Panel Covers Blogging, Bloggers Cover Panel

Last Tuesday's panel discussion New Media, New Politics: Jane Jacobs and an Activist Press brought together contrasting opinions on the future of the news media. Moderated by Sewell Chan of The New York Times, the panel, including Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush of El Diario, Jane Hamsher of firedoglake.com, Norman Oder of atlanticyardsreport.com and author Gay Talese, debated the state of contemporary journalism -- bad, too few journalists; the role and value of the blogosphere -- useful in plugging the gaps in the conventional media's coverage, lazy journalism; the future of online journalism -- likely to increase at the expense of paper-based forms, bridging the economic, social and linguistic "digital-divide"; and how today's activists can make use of new media -- focus of much of dissent that isn't covered by mainstream press.

In true reflexive, post-modern, new media fashion, the panel received a variety of coverage in the press, mostly from the panelists themselves:

• The New York Times, Panel Discussion: New Media, Old Media and Advocacy, Sewell Chan blogs about the program.
• AtlanticYardsReport, The Activist Press and the Atlantic Yards Narrative, Norman Oder discusses the panel and the lack of big paper journalists covering Brooklyn, especially the Atlantic Yards project.
• firedoglake.com, Battle For the Heart of the Democratic Party, Jane Hamsher points out that the panel covered the issue of contemporary dissent in America.

To watch a short video podcast of the event, click here or here. read more...

Can Being Undersuccessful Be Good for A Neighborhood?

Time Out New York recently ran an article evaluating Manhattan neighborhoods on their livability based on factors like rental costs and the absence or presence of chain stores, titled Top 10 'Hoods. This put them out ahead of the field, but this week, following on from last Wednesday's MAS program Is New York Losing Its Soul?, at which issues of neighborhood identity, rental prices and the survival of small business featured prominently, many of the rest of the city media are now asking that question, though in different ways.

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Sell-Out Crowd Considers Whether City Is Losing Its Soul

A panel moderated by Clyde Haberman of the New York Times including Alison Tocci of Time Out New York, Darren Walker of the Rockefeller Foundation, Rocco Landesman of Jujamcyn Theaters and novelist Tama Janowitz tackled the multi-faceted issue of whether, in light of all the current development, the city is losing its soul. Addressing the question from very different perspectives the panelists agreed that the city has changed and is continuing to do so, but were divided over whether this was a good or a bad thing. read more...

Can Legislation Protect Neighborhood Character?

The Municipal Art Society of New York recently testified before the Committee on Small Business and the Committee on Technology urging them to carry out a study into the disappearance of small, locally-owned retail in many Manhattan and Brooklyn neighborhoods. Citing these small businesses, like bodegas, ethnic food stores, boutiques, and hardware stores, as some of what gives a neighborhood its character, the MAS compared their replacement with banks, drugstores and national chain stores as a wake-up call akin to the destruction of the original Penn Station which signaled that a Landmarks Preservation Commission was necessary. read more...

Is Mass Transit a Livability Issue?

Perhaps contrary to the commonly subscribed-to idea that the poor take the bus and the subway, and the rich either take cabs or drive themselves and then stump up for parking, Metro New York suggests today in its article How Fair is the Fare? that there are further striations in the commuting public based on the proposed increase in MTA transit fares. read more...