Council Approves Business Owners' Bill of Rights

The City Council has approved the Business Owners’ Bill of Rights, which aims to fully inform business owners of all their rights during agency inspections. It was sponsored by Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz (D-Forest Hills), who chairs the Consumer Affairs Committee.

The Business Owners’ Bill of Rights came as a result of the findings of the city’s Regulatory Review Panel, which surveyed and listened to the business community in every borough to see how the city could help businesses succeed in a difficult economy.

The bill requires that the Mayor’s Office of Operations distributes to business owners, during or following each inspection, a document listing their rights to: consistent enforcement of agency rules, complain about or compliment an inspector’s work, contest a violation before the appropriate tribunal, an inspector who behaves in a professional manner, an inspector who can answer questions or promptly make a referral and an inspector who is knowledgeable of rules, regulations and laws.

The bill marks the first sponsored by Koslowitz to be signed into law since she returned to the City Council this year. She called small businesses “the lifeline of the economy” and noted that the city has the most small businesses of any municipality in the nation, with more than one million. That means nearly half of all the small businesses in the entire state are within the five boroughs.

“Keeping small businesses informed of government policies and regulations will empower owners with their rights,” said Koslowitz. “The bill of rights will guarantee consistent enforcement of agency rules, fair inspectors, and the ability to contest a violation… This is just the beginning of a movement, by Speaker [Christine] Quinn and my council colleagues, aimed at improving the business environment for our small merchants.”

Quinn (D-Manhattan) said the new bill is a signal that the city intends to work with its merchants, and not against them. “We are moving away from an enforcement-driven inspection process to one that is much more customer-service orientated,” she said. “I am confident that we will make the city a more welcoming place for entrepreneurs to thrive and prosper. Making life easier for our business owners is the key to building a diverse and thriving economy.”

Councilwoman Diana Reyna (D-Bushwick), who is chair of the Small Business Committee, said the bill “sends a clear message to the small business community that the City Council is working to ease the regulatory burdens that have too often delayed the transformation of great ideas into successful businesses.”

Seller Beware: Wide Range in Prices Offered for Gold

Sellers Must Shop Around Before Parting with Jewelry

By Conor Greene

With the economy down and the price of gold up, many residents are turning to their old and broken jewelry for a source of some quick cash. However, if you’re not careful and don’t take certain steps, there is a good chance of being ripped off in the process.

In light of this trend, a local elected official is warning would-be gold sellers about one particular scam, in which a company called Cash4Gold often pays between just 11 percent and 29 percent of the current market price for gold. Local pawn shops are only marginally better, generally offering between 35 percent and 70 percent of the value.

On a recent afternoon, The Forum took a first hand look at the market residents face in order to get a better idea of how close local pawnshops and jewelry stores come to offering full market value for an assortment of old gold bracelets and pendants. To do this, a reporter took the items to Marlowe Jewelers in Howard Beach, where owner Dennis Croce determined that the jewelry was worth about $1,995.

While the reporter knew exactly how much the items were worth, he set out to six local buyers, playing dumb in order to see what kind of offers would be made. First up was Gold Rush, located at 105-14 Crossbay Boulevard in Ozone Park, just south of Liberty Avenue. After checking each piece of gold, the clerk offered just $1,125 for the jewelry. Likely based upon the expression on the reporter’s face, he quickly said he could make a much better price and punched some numbers into the calculator before offering $1,350.

Next up was Village Cash for Gold at 80-10 Jamaica Avenue in Woodhaven. The clerk immediately boasted that he doesn’t “play around” and makes fair offers. He came pretty close to the gold’s actual value, offering $1,700. However, the clerk looked like he expected a deal to be made, and it took a minor amount of insisting that the offer needed to be mulled over before the clerk handed the gold back to the reporter.

A few blocks down at Metropolitan Pawnbrokers, 92-16A Jamaica Avenue, the reporter encountered what would ultimately turn out to be the fairest offer of the day. The clerk, who was one of just two who asked where the male reporter had gotten the women’s jewelry, urged him to shop around and then come back with the highest offer, and said the gold was worth at least $1,900. He also advised not to tell other buyers what offers had been made prior in order to get the best price possible.

The fourth store visited was The Gold Standard on Austin Street in Forest Hills, where the clerk first offered $1,500 before upping the price to $1,650 – at least in the ballpark of the gold’s value. However, the reporter noticed that the scale there only read 85.5 pennyweight, while the jewelry actually weighted 86.7 pennyweight.

From there, The Forum headed to Ridgewood, stopping first at Gemelli Jeweler’s Fresh Pond Road store. Despite being a jewelry store that carries many expensive items, the girl behind the counter there offered just $1,385 before saying she could pay $1,400 at most. The last stop was Liberty Pawn Brokers on Weirfield Street, which offered $1,400.

The Forum’s look at the local gold buying industry comes after Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Forest Hills) released a study showing that Cash4Gold, which advertises on late-night television, is preying on cash-strapped New Yorkers through deceptive marketing, low payment policies and misleading return policies. Residents mail the gold in an envelope, and the company assesses it and sends a check in return.

According to Weiner’s study, Cash4Gold intentionally low-balls offers to customers and then, if a customer complains, increases the offer. Customer service agents are reported to receive a commission for keeping the payout low, the congressman added. As a result, Weiner has asked the Federal Trade commission to investigate the misleading practices and plans to introduce the GOLD Act, which would seek protect consumers.

“It’s time for the government to take a stand against predatory companies like Cash4Gold,” said Weiner. “There’s no reason to allow Cash4Gold to continue their policy of kicking struggling consumers while they are already down… Cash4Gold is using these tough times as a golden opportunity to fleece customers. These deceptive practices must end.”

On the local level, there are simple steps sellers should take to ensure they receive a fair deal, according to Marlowe Jeweler’s Croce, who says his store has seen more people getting rid of old jewelry in recent years. “It seems to me like every time there is a spike in gold on the up side, you get a rush of people,” he said. “I guess people are definitely following that trend, we get a lot more people paying attention to the price than a few years ago.”

He says the typical sellers are either older folks who need the money to squeeze by in these tough times, or younger people who don’t necessarily need the money but just want to get rid of old jewelry while the price of gold is still high. “Some older people tell me they can use the money to pay bills,” said Croce. “The older people are more sentimental, but have to pay the bills, while the younger generation, once they’re tired of it they don’t care [about holding onto old jewelry].”

Croce’s advice is to simply shop around and only go to reputable stores that are licensed. While there is no law regulating how much a store has to offer, there are other regulations that licensed brokers must follow. “If you don’t feel comfortable with the place, don’t use them,” he added.

Other tips include getting an offer without revealing the amount other stores suggested, and to try to sell plain gold that doesn’t include stones in order to get a clearer idea of what the jewelry is worth. “Shopping is the most important thing. If they shop around, they are usually going to come back to me, since I give them a fair number,” said Croce.

City Council Stirs Up Sick Leave Controversy

Bill Would Require Small Business to Provide Paid Days Off

By Patricia Adams

A bill introduced by the City Council has fueled a strong two sided argument over proposed paid sick leave for employees. Intro No. 1059 would require NYC small and medium businesses, (SMB’s), to give workers, both full and part time, nine paid sick days.

Small business is defined in New York State as those enterprises who employee fewer than 100 people, while medium business can employ 500.

Supporters of the measure report that nearly one million New Yorkers of the city’s workforce do not receive any paid sick days. Finger pointing by advocates of the bill supports the idea that a lack of paid sick days contributes to poor health outcomes, the spread of contagious disease and lower productivity from workers.

The Community Service Society of New York (CSS), a 160 year-old institution whose focus is on fighting poverty and advancing public policy innovations for low-income New Yorkers says that workers without paid sick days are more likely to go to work when they are ill and also send their kids to school sick.

Proponents say that when workers without sick leave are faced with decisions about taking off from work, it is not their health that is the biggest contributing factor in their decision. Co-sponsor Councilmember Eric Ulrich says that people are going to work sick because they cannot afford to lose the day’s pay, perhaps even their job. “In times like these, people deserve the peace of mind and know that their hard work merits time off when they are sick,” Ulrich said, “Despite objections, this is not an entitlement. It’s time off that workers must earn.”

While small business owners say they understand the dilemma of employees, they are facing another set of challenges. Carl Hum, the president and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce expressed his views in a statement written on behalf of the 5 Boro Alliance, a coalition of Chambers throughout the five boroughs that is strongly opposed to the legislation.

“In response to the biggest economic crisis since the 1930s, many businesses, big and small, have already cut overhead, payroll and services. Add to that increased taxes (including the new mobility tax on payrolls to support the cash-poor Metropolitan Transportation Authority), increased water and electricity rates, and additional fines and fees, and it becomes clear why New York City is renowned for being a difficult and costly place to do business.”

Hum concluded by saying that the coalition’s real objection to the bill is not that employees do not deserve paid sick time. It is the “broad-stroke” approach that would mandate the business community under such legislation and remove all flexibility from business owners.

Now the city council seeks to enact a measure that has proven successful in other cities, namely San Francisco, where initial objections were similar to those being bantered about among New Yorkers. Prior to the enactment of the bill in San Francisco there were almost 120,000 workers without paid sick leave. Now, with the paid days in place, many of the business groups and skeptics who opposed the bill admit that it has posed very few problems for their members.

According to a report released by the Drum Major Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit think tank, the industry most affected by the new mandate in San Francisco, restaurant and hospitality businesses, saw strong growth relative to other counties in the region.

Although it is expected that the bill will be amended to include a lesser number of sick days than the nine originally proposed, the urgency of any inclusive measure is heightened by the infiltration of the swine flu.

“If we make serious considerations about the people most affected by this bill,” says Ulrich, “it is a sector of the workforce comprised of employees that have more public contact than any other.” Ulrich says that the restaurant and hotel workers have the largest potential to impact public health by coming to work sick. He also added that the same people would likely be the ones faced with the decision of having to send their sick children to school or daycare so they wouldn’t have to lose the day at work.

The city council's Civil Service and Labor Committee held a hearing on Intro.1059 back in November. A final vote has not been scheduled to be taken.

Addabbo Calls for State to Support Small Businesses

Takes Issue with Tax Breaks to Large Corporations

By Conor Greene

With the economy clearly the main issue for voters, Councilman Joseph Addabbo is making funding for small businesses a major issue in his race for the State Senate.

The main target of Addabbo (D-Howard Beach) is a state program providing hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to companies, including major corporations, which he says needs to be reformed. The tax breaks, provided under a program called ICIP, don’t come with requirements that the company create quality jobs that pay decent wages and provide benefits.

Addabbo, who is challenging longtime Senator Serf Maltese (R-Glendale), held press conferences recently in Ridgewood and Maspeth to focus on issues he has with the program. To highlight the program’s inequities, he recently joined business owner Howard Mishler of Ay-Host Paper Company outside a Hess gas station which receives$13,761 in ICIP subsidies.

“My business is suffering because of outsourcing and a bad economy, but a big international corporation like Hess gets close to $14,000 to stay in the neighborhood,” said Mishler. “I have been here for thirty-eight years, employ local people and give back to my community. Gas is nearly $5 at the pump and the oil companies are busy lining their pockets at my expense. Our tax dollars and representatives should be working for us, and they’re not.”

Addabbo noted that a recent report by the Center for Urban Future found that while the 15th senate district is home to almost half of the Queens businesses receiving ICIP money, the area still includes three of the lowest performing zip codes for economic growth: Ridgewood, Middle Village and Woodhaven.

In contrast, neighborhoods in south Queens, including areas Addabbo represents as a councilman, have seen employment increases of 80%.

According to the Center for an Urban Future report, Middle Village has seen an 8% decline in employment, while Ridgewood has been hit twice as hard, with a 16% decline in employment. While some areas in the northern portion of the district have seen strong economic growth, such as 15% in Maspeth, it still pales in comparison to the southern portion of the council district represented by Addabbo, which includes Ozone Park (80%), South Richmond Hill (49%) and Howard Beach (20%).

“I’m proud that my council district has seen record growth, but I’m concerned about our neighbors to the north,” said Addabbo. “It’s appalling that the state continues to offer incentives to corporate entities while family owned businesses close their doors. We need to end corporate tax breaks for companies which outsource jobs and detract from our tax base. In these tough financial times we cannot afford to lose millions of dollars in revenue.”

While the state legislature approved a bill reforming the ICIP program in June at the urging of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, it failed to address the underlying problems of ICIP by continuing to permit corporations to receive subsidies, the Addabbo campaign argues. The candidate cited a report by the Manhattan Borough President that found that 75% of companies receiving ICIP funding would have proceeded with their projects regardless of the subsidization.

Addabbo continued with the economic theme last Friday at a press conference outside the Comfort Inn on Maurice Avenue in Maspeth. Joined by members of several union groups, he bashed the program for providing funding to numerous hotels that employ nonunion workers. The Comfort Inn receives $237,644 in ICIP tax breaks according to Addabbo, who noted that 92% of Queens hotels enrolled in the program are non-union.

“Currently, there is no oversight of the ICIP program to ensure job creation, nor des the legislation require that companies pay employees a living wage or provide benefits,” said Addabbo. “We need to both grow the economy and lower the cost of living by providing good jobs that offer health benefits, fair pay and pensions. Albany is essentially bankrolling these projects, many of which are of questionable value, on the backs of working families.”

Addabbo argued that the hotel industry exemplifies many of the problems with the ICIP program, including its lack of discretion and lack of job quality requirements. “Because ICIP is an as-of-right program, with no discretion for local elected officials, there is now no opportunity to decide if a given project is worth subsidizing,” the Addabbo campaign noted.

Maspeth resident Laura Tapia, who is a RWDSU organizer, said that Addabbo is needed in Albany to support workers with living wages. “When elected officials like Serf Maltese vote against raising the minimum wage [in 2004], he hurts all workers,” she said. “And when elected officials like Serf Maltese don’t mandate that businesses receiving subsidies from programs like ICIP pay living wages and benefits, it hurts all workers.”

The ICIP program cost the city $512 million in taxes it otherwise would have collected in 2008 alone, according to the Addabbo campaign. That is more than double the $190 million that the program provided in tax breaks in 2002.

The Maltese campaign did not respond to a message seeking comment on the Senator’s views on ICIP and small business.

Forest Hills: A Casualty of the Falling Economy

By Steve Tiszenkel

There’s a store across the street from my apartment building on Queens Boulevard—or, more accurately, there used to be a store across the street. It was a RadioShack, certainly not my favorite chain electronics store—I prefer not to be pressured into signing up for a pricey cell-phone plan when I buy a pack of AA batteries—but a respectable business nonetheless. I’ve long since lost track of how long RadioShack has been gone, but it’s definitely been more than a year, possibly approaching two. The empty storefront casts a foreboding metaphorical shadow over my building, somehow even uglier than most empty store-fronts, for-rent signs posted haphazardly in the windows and hanging limply over the door, mocking the idea espoused by some that the economy is doing better than advertised.

The former RadioShack used to be the only empty storefront in my neighborhood, if you define “neighborhood” as “area I can see out my window.” But in the past couple of months, a real-estate agency went under, too. Just a little farther down the road, there's a guitar store that's been closed even longer than RadioShack. And on the other side of the street, a coffee shop that served the area for decades sits vacant, a desperate-looking plea for renters in the window, its awning roughly ripped off, not looking like it's likely to be replaced anytime soon. And then there's the old Ethan Allen, its last piece of luxurious oak furniture sold months ago, its distinctive architecture making it clear that this building is unlikely ever to be anything but another Ethan Allen.

This is Forest Hills in 2008. Of course, it's not a local problem. In case you didn't get the memo, the economy has seen better days. We're mired in what most economists consider a recession. Times are tough for individuals, and they're tough for small businesses. But even so, Forest Hills seems particularly badly plagued by empty storefronts. And worse yet, our empty store- fronts—especially the ones a little off the beaten path—never seem to fill up again.

Why is the problem so acute here? Maybe, say, Queens Boulevard and 77th Road just isn't a terribly sexy place to open a new business. Maybe the few entrepreneurs left would rather try something less risky. And maybe our local officials just aren't doing so good of a job as they could in spurring local investment. But I think the plague of for-rent signs boils down to one of the primary causes of a recession: a lack of confidence.

I have faith in Queens, and I don't doubt that a little boutique or a nice coffee shop would do great on the barren north side of the Queens Boulevard. But then, it's easy for me to say that when I'm not pouring my heart, soul and life savings into a business. No, in this economy, maybe I wouldn't take a gamble on occupying one of those storefronts, either. But aren't economic downturns supposed to be the times that make millionaires? Moving into the RadioShack space might not buy any enterprising businessman— or even an executive vice president at some soulless chain—a condo in Miami Beach. It might, however, be a surprising success. And seeing success like that would foster a little confidence that all of us could use right about now.

The writer, Steve Tiszenkel is the host of the website Queens Central. Log on to queenscentral.com to read more about Forest Hills and surrounding neighborhoods.

Three Queens Locations Among Closing Starbucks

Two Glendale Stores, Including Atlas Park Location, Will Close

by Conor Greene

Among the 600 stores ordered closed nationwide by Starbucks are 11 in New York City, three of which are in Queens,including the Atlas Park mall location.

The Seattle-based coffee giant announced the stores closures earlier this month as part of “its multi-faceted plan to transform the company.” It described the locations as “underperforming” and expects them to be closed at various times through out the rest of this year and the first half of 2009.

Aside from six stores in Midtown Manhattan, three Queens locations – two in Glendale, at 8000 Cooper Avenue (Atlas Park) and 8989 Union Turnpike (Stop and Shop plaza) and one in Douglaston – are among the stores closing. In addition, the company is shutting one store in both Brooklyn and Staten Island.

The closing of the Atlas Park location comes as a hit to the high-end shopping center at Cooper Avenue and 80th Street. Damon Hemmerdinger, who owns the mall, declined through its public relations firm to comment Starbuck’s decision. However, the store’s business was likely hurt by the fact that the shopping center charges for parking, cutting down on the amount of pedestrian traffic at the store.

However, customers used to frequenting the Atlas Park or Union Turnpike locations won’t have to go far for a replacement coffee store. There still is a Seattle’s Best café - which is also owned by Starbucks - inside Borders Books and Music in Atlas Park, and there is a second Starbucks location inside the Stop and Shop on Union Turnpike.

According to Starbucks, seventy percent of the stores scheduled to close were opened in 2006 or later. That means that nearly twenty percent of all stores opened in the past two years are closing. About 12,000 workers will be affected by the closings, slated to start this month and continue over the next year. Most will be moved to other locations, the company said.

Howard Schultz, company chairman and CEO, said that the company is committed to undergo a “series of critical and strategic initiatives to improve the current state of our U.S. business and build the business for the long term. When the restructuring was first announced in January, about 100 stores were expected to be closed.

“We recognize that it is necessary to make decisions that will strengthen the U.S. store portfolio and enable us to enter into fiscal 2009 focused on enhancing operating efficiency, improving customer satisfaction and ensuring long-term value for partners, customers shareholders,” Schultz said in a statement.