Councilman Levin’s Rent Control Bill Puts
Future of Small Businesses
In Hands of Mayor de Blasio and Real Estate Industry.
The Same Greedy Team That Caused
The Small Business Crisis and Empty Store Blight!!
Dateline NYC Nov. 19, 2019
Link to honest OP ED exposing Levin’s Bill as weak substitute for the Jobs Act.
Sung Soo Kim*, the “Godfather of Immigrant Small Businesses” and drafter of the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, (Jobs Act) would use stronger language to describe Levin’s new bill. Kim, “ Levin’s bill is a disgrace to democracy and would make the small business crisis worse. It is obvious this bill was created by REBNY to stop a vote on the Jobs Act. True small business advocates will soon release a comparison of the two bills and it will be clear Levin’s bill will be exposed as a fake bill that would not save a single small business owner or job and keep the status quo.
Levin’s status quo bill is shameful because Levin places the very survival of desperate small business owners into the hands of Mayor de Blasio. The Mayor betrayed small businesses when he went from championing the Jobs Act when running for Public Advocate to using his administration to deny economic justice to small business owners. During the entire time as Mayor, not once did de Blasio support the Jobs Act or recommend a solution to stop the business closings. Not once did he expose the lie claiming the Jobs Act was unconstitutional. In fact, de Blasio did what other unethical lawmakers under the control of REBNY did, he lied that he could not support the Jobs Act due to legal issues. When the Jobs Act finally got a hearing, de Blasio’s agencies all testified opposing the Jobs Act and joined in REBNY’s false narrative, concerning the cost of arbitration for small business owners being a burden. Under de Blasio, maximizing and protecting the profits of the real estate industry is the only priority, not saving small businesses. Never in my 30 years of advocating for legislation giving rights to small business owners has a lawmaker changed his policy away from promoting progressive legislation to end abuses against small businesses and giving rights to save small businesses as Mayor de Blasio has done. And this is who Levin wants to empower to control the future of our small businesses in time of crisis, a crisis the proposed majority of rent control board members created.
Kim, "Levin’s bill does not give the “right to renewal” of the commercial lease to the small business owner. Stop reading his bill any further, put into the trash can where it belongs."
Kim, “In my thirty years of advocating for small businesses and dealing daily with their problems, I can state with confidence this reality, the absolute essential component of any law to stop the closing of businesses is giving the tenant the “right to renewal of the lease,” without which all proposals or laws will fail and all independent owners in New York City will eventually be forced to close.”
For those who demand “good government” from lawmakers and demand a real solution to save our small businesses do not be fooled by this Status Quo bill written by REBNY.