SBC Small Business Congress
A warning to all Democratic Socialists politicians, there are real estate lobby loyalists collaborators working behind the scenes to turn the city’s immigrant working families against DSA candidates in future elections. Some DSA lawmakers’ misguided actions and blind trust or is it trusting blindly, are making it far too easy for REBNY to be successful!
A desperate scheme by the real estate lobby REBNY to keep landlords in control of the vital commercial lease renewal process involves deceiving DSA lawmakers into being lobbies for their destructive status quo bill, New York City Small Business Rent Stabilization Act, rightfully called REBNY’S BILL.
For well over a decade now, a powerful real estate lobby has played a successful chess game at City Hall using elected officials they helped put in power through their several partner's PAC money, lawmaker loyalists endorsements, and corrupt party machines. With the Kings being the Mayor, Queen being the Speaker, Rooks being the hand picked SBS & EDC Commissioners, and the Bishops being Democratic leadership on key Chair positions. The lobby has been successful in moving their pieces around to have a government make it a priority to promote and protect big real estate investments in NYC. While at the same time, successfully for Big Business is having a network of lobby shills to cover up the negative consequences to: society, all business owners, and working families caused by a real estate oligarchy economy. An economy that over the past decade has been the catalysts for three citywide crises: small business, empty store blight, and affordability. An economy that has been the foundation of the greatest transfer of wealth in decades from business owners, their workers, and New Yorkers to landlords. Big real estate now has hoodwinked some DSA lawmakers into becoming lobbyist for their “status quo” legislation keeping landlords in full control of the futures of business owners and their employees and sadly the DSA has no idea.
For over a decade, New Yorkers see their beloved popular mom and pop merchants regularly forced to close in record numbers when their leases expired. Citizens also have walked by empty store fronts in every neighborhood where once thriving businesses were. The real estate lobby orchestrated a successful campaign of insincere political theater at City Hall allowing lawmakers to do nothing of real meaning to stop this destruction of the backbone of local economies.
Lobby created Machiavellian schemes, worthless programs, useless legislations, fake studies, distractions and misinformation, and a lobby controlled narrative at every hearing/forum/CB/media/seminar/and by the lobby’s elected loyalists all pretending to care about the futures of small business owners but willingly serving only their own and Big real estates interests. Not surprisingly, the outcome of the real estate lobby’s stranglehold on City Hall is the destruction of the American Dream for countless business owners and their workers.
No lawmaker has the political will or courage to stand up to REBNY to find a real honest solution to any one of the three growing crises that their real estate oligarchy economy created. REBNY now turns to DSA lawmakers to continue this charade of pretending to care about the welfare of business owners and their workers, but with the real goal of continuing to “do absolutely nothing” to restore their American Dream.
It is important to fully understand what is behind the goals of REBNY to explain why they are using DSA lawmakers to accomplish their goals. Also, to know why they have increased their influence more and more in our elections and corrupted the Democratic leadership so much. For over 4 decades their primary goal was to never have legislation that regulated landlords in the highly profitable commercial lease renewal process. To always have this vital process fully in the hands of only the landlords so that the landlords would always be in the best position to maximize their potential for profits when a commercial lease expired. The profits or survival of the business owners did not matter! The security of the jobs of workers also did not matter. The impact upon the neighborhoods did not matter. The negative consequences to society did not matter. For well over a decade to accomplish this goal they must prevent a vote on the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, Jobs Survival Act. Today, REBNY will use DSA lawmakers to continue to prevent a vote on the Jobs Survival Act.
This bill, first introduced in June 1986 was the oldest pending legislation in recent Council history. It was drafted by small business advocates representing every segment of commercial tenants, including the art community. It has had the most hearings in the City Council, 12 twelve, of any issue. Over the years it was amended five times to make sure it was legally sound, fair to both parties, having no government involvement of any kind, the least costly to both parties. It was simple to understand, offered reasonable length of leases for business owners to make business plans for their futures, leveled the playing field for tenants to negotiate equally with landlords, and most importantly had an independent arbitration process with “case by case” fair guidelines that would assure an end to any landlord abuses and instead encourage a return to bargaining in good faith and compromise by both parties. This fair regulated commercial lease renewal process would recognize that both parties had a right to make a reasonable profit from their investment.
REBNY had been successful in recent times in preventing a vote, four (4) times, on the Jobs Survival Act, even with the majority of Council Members as sponsors of the bill. The first time REBNY stopped a vote was in Aug. 2009. An emergency hearing by the Small Business Committee was called to find the best solution to stop the record closing of businesses caused by sky high rent increases demanded after a lease expired. The entire Committee Members selected the Jobs Survival Act as the only real solution to protect the business owners in the commercial lease renewal process and end the small business crisis caused by high rent increases. Every member of the Committee became sponsors of the bill making 32 Council sponsors and easy passage at the next full Council meeting.
But REBNY was not going to allow good government to work for the city’s small business owners and their workers. And they still will not in today's City Council. This only lifeline bill never had a vote due to the collusion with then Speaker Quinn and her legal department who cooked up a bogus legal roadblock, by knowingly falsely claiming the bill had legal issues. This collusion with a lobby and Democratic leadership to rig the system to prevent any vote on the Jobs Survival Act would happen three more times: Jan. 2011, Nov. 2018, and Mar. 2022. All of these shameful acts to prevent a vote on the Jobs Survival Act were covered up by the lobby’s many shills, in and out of government.
If a lobby had not interfered with democracy and the proper workings of the City Council’s Committee system, the Jobs Survival Act would have been voted on in late 2009 and easily passed. The small business crisis caused by high rent increases would have ended. The empty store blight and affordability crisis would have been prevented!! And over 1.5 MILLION jobs would not have been threatened and would have been saved!
Yes, shameful but true that the city’s unchecked and ignored three growing crises are the result of a lobby corrupted City Hall. After the new Council was sworn in on Jan.1, 2010 until today, the city’s small business owners would never have an honest hearing to find a real solution to stop the closing of those long established successful businesses with a growing loyal customer base and who were willing and able to pay reasonable rents and fair lease terms but instead were given only a “take it or leave” demand from their landlords. The system was rigged to treat business owners as only second class expendable collateral damage to a real estate oligarchy economy. And rigging still is happing today!
Today, the lobby wants the DSA lawmakers to join in their collusion to deny small business owners and their workers economic justice and rights. Rights that they deserve and need to restore their American Dream that is being destroyed by a real estate oligarchy economy.
By making DSA key players in their scheme to keep landlords in control of the commercial lease renewal process, REBNY has made the biggest move ever, and the biggest gamble , in their chess game to keep their destructive oligarchy economy in place. They have used their most reliable loyalists to dupe DSA lawmakers into moving their status quo REBNY’s Bill out of the City Council and to Albany for DSA lawmakers to lobby for its passage! What caused this high risk vs high reward move? For the first time in over 4 decades, on June 11, 2026 a resolution was introduced in the Council, led by DSA Council Members, to transfer REBNY’ Bill to DSA lawmakers in Albany that would put the fate of every business owner and their workers into the hands of DSA lawmakers in Albany to champion? What REBNY sinister scheme is really behind this call to transfer REBNY’s ironclad control over the guidelines of the highly profitable landlord controlled commercial lease renewal process?
Four DSA Council Members: Tiffany Caban, Alexa Aviles, Chi Osse`, and Shahana Hanif, after being easily deceived by friendly lobby loyalists supported a resolution to move REBNY’s Bill (with a change that still kept it a status quo bill) to Albany. This act was a mockery of the principles of DSA! They were being singled out by the real estate lobby to play a key role in a new scheme by REBNY to keep the status quo for their landlords while protecting the reputations, image, and disgraceful records of their Council Members loyal to them. REBNY knew the outcome to DSA lawmakers promoting their status quo bill would be rage from the city's immigrant families.
These DSA lawmakers sponsoring and promoting REBNY’s Bill is the heights of hypocrisy! REBNY’s Bill is an insult to every hard working business owner and their workers, as well as an insult to every DSA member. DSA ideals stand for lawmakers fighting for the rights of workers to empower them so they can have a stronger political voice in their futures. DSA always stands with the oppressed and exploited working families and never with the oppressors. Also, an ideology ignored by these DSA lawmakers is the DSA belief and commitment to protect small business owners and their workers from the worst greedy Capitalism exploitation. Which under a real estate oligarchy economy is what has been taking place in the open against all business owners and their workers for well over a decade. City Council DSA lawmakers willfully wanting other DSA lawmakers to drop a good tenant’s rights bill and replace it with a bad landlord status quo bill, is truly a disgrace. Why do these DSA lawmakers feel they have no moral obligation to protect and restore the American Dream for countless business owners and their workers? They should be ashamed.
What an embarrassment to DSA’s principles these four Council Members are. They passed up the single greatest opportunity to show New Yorkers and every American what DSA lawmakers can achieve for working families and all society when lobby corrupted Democratic lawmakers willingly failed to do, and never will do. Are these four DSA Councilmembers totally detached from their responsibility to the merchants and workers of their own districts? Every elected Council Member is fully responsible for the stability, prosperity, vitality, and for the promotion of the potential for growth and job creation of their own local merchants. Why would any true progressive DSA member willfully abdicate that responsibility to a real estate lobby?
Any true DSA members would welcome a real challenge to promote legislation that protects small businesses, the jobs of their workers, and improved the quality of life for all New Yorkers. The record of the lobby controlled Democratic leadership is crystal clear when it comes to the city’s economy. The word economy only means BIG BUSINESS! What is now, and always will be, the stabling factor for every family, especially immigrant families, are Job Security and Job Opportunity. After all, in the cry for affordable housing what is affordable if you lose your job? Why then would these four DSA Council Members support legislation keeping the status quo of the most anti- jobs, anti- small business, anti- immigrant families legislation in Council history. *
*https://www.savenycjobs.com/crs-bill-anti-jobs
Supporting REBNY’s Bill is indefensible and unconscionable when keeping the status quo for the landlords of the most destructive landlord controlled commercial lease renewal process in the nation. A process which is the root cause of tens of thousands of good businesses being forced to close and over 1.2 million good jobs to be threatened or lost. REBNY’s Bill protects the root cause of the destruction of the American Dream for countless business owners and their workers. Why was it placed in DSA lawmakers hands to take responsibility for?
Are these four DSA Council Members that clueless to not realize the opportunity to make DSA look good to New Yorkers and to the entire nation. The steady misinformation and false negative image given in the media and by both parties of what DSA really stands for, what they are capable of doing, and their ideals and commitment to protect and empower working families is being reinforced and being given credibility by these four Council DSA Members acting as lobbyists for REBNY. These four do not deserve to be called progressive or DSA loyal.
In Part II: We will detail why the most powerful city lobby in America fears DSA lawmakers. Also, why and how REBNY used their most loyal cronies to hoodwink DSA lawmakers into lobbying for the most anti-immigrant, anti-jobs and anti-small business owners bill ever in the Council. How REBNY’s Bill will be the foundation to turn immigrant families against DSA lawmakers.