Mayor Adams Kicks Off Small Business Week
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) Commissioner Kevin D. Kim yesterday kicked off a grand celebration of National Small Business Week with five days of events planned in all five boroughs.
The events will raise awareness of the many resources and services SBS offers to small businesses, encourage New Yorkers to shop local, and celebrate small businesses that are at the heart of the city’s economic recovery and growth. The week-long celebration will also recognize the city’s ethnically diverse neighborhoods and immigrant-owned businesses.
Mayor Adams also signed Executive Order 15 that establishes a Small Business Advisory Commission, a key commitment in the “Rebuild, Renew, Reinvent, A Blueprint for New York City Economic Recovery.” The commission, which is comprised of small business leaders throughout the five boroughs, will be tasked with helping the city cut red tape, improving business services and programming, and promoting an equitable, broad-based recovery.
“New York is a big city of small businesses, which make our city vibrant, resilient, and reliable,” said Mayor Adams. “We are celebrating National Small Business Week by taking the city’s small business services on tour in every borough. And by establishing a Small Business Advisory Commission, we are empowering small business leaders to help shape an inclusive economic recovery.”
Sillitti, Kaplan Deliver $5 Million for Manhasset Sewer Project
Assemblywoman Gina L. Sillitti (D-Port Washington) and Senator Anna M. Kaplan (D-North Hills) announced last week that they had secured $5 million for the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District to help transform the private septic tanks of dozens of businesses along Plandome Road in Manhasset into a public sewer system.
The lawmakers secured the $5 million grant in the recently passed 2022-23 state budget.
“For years, many small-business and building owners in our community have struggled with the high costs of maintaining septic tanks, cutting into their bottom line and making it harder to make ends meet,” said Sillitti. “I made this issue a top priority during budget negotiations – not only to support local business, but also to protect our bays and the Long Island Sound from environmental harm.”
“For too long, the lack of sewers on Plandome Road has held back our downtown in Manhasset, forcing small businesses to pay through the nose for private septic tanks that pollute our environment and threaten our drinking water. I’m proud to have fought alongside Assemblywoman Gina Sillitti to secure $5 million in this year’s State budget so that we can invest in this critical infrastructure that will protect our natural resources and allow our downtown and our small businesses to thrive,” said Kaplan.
In recent years, Long Island has grappled with the impact of pollution caused by outdated septic systems that allow excess nitrogen and dangerous bacteria into our groundwater, bays, and the Long Island Sound, making our water dangerous for swimmers, and destroying natural buffers in our local ecosystems that once protected coastal areas from storm surge. By replacing these outdated systems with sewers that remove harmful pollution, we can reverse the damage done to our local environment and begin restoring our beneficial coastal ecosystems.
Lee, Joseph, Stevens, Caban to Outline Roadmap for an Equitable Recovery & Call for Key Investments in FY’23 NYC Budget
New York City Council Members Linda Lee (D-Queens), chair of the Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addictions Committee), Rita Joseph (D-Brooklyn), chair of the Education Committee, Althea Stevens (D-Bronx), chair of the Youth Services Committee chair), and Tiffany Caban (D-Queens), chair of the Women and Gender Equity Committee will join advocates from the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York (CCC) on Thursday to outline key steps New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council must take to advance an equitable recovery and ensure that the FY’23 NYC Budget prioritizes the needs of children and families.
During the Roadmap to Resiliency data briefing and policy discussion, speakers will provide an overview of CCC’s new report, Keeping Track of New York City’s Children: 2022, which found 4,730 New York City children under 18 lost a parent or caregiver to COVID-19 from March 2020 through December 2021.
Advocates will urge City leaders to address heightened disparities in child and family well-being by lifting incomes, stabilizing housing, improving access to child care, youth services, and education; addressing the behavioral health crisis; and investing in strength-based approaches to support families, youth, and communities.
Following a briefing on Keeping Track, Jennifer March, CCC’s executive director, will moderate a policy discussion with Council Members, where they will outline their key budget priorities. A Q&A with attendees will follow.
The event is slated for 8:30 a.m., Thursday, May 5 at the FPWA’s Conference Center, 40 Broad Street in Lower Manhattan.
Jeffries to Call for Every New Yorker to have a Meaningful Opportunity to Present Views on Redistricting
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn, Queens), Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, will be joined by members of the UNITY MAP COALITION today to to host a press conference on the millions of New Yorkers being denied a meaningful opportunity to present their views as it relates to legislative representation in Albany and in Congress through the court-ordered redistricting process.
The gathering comes following the New York Court of Appeals ruling last week that put the redistricting process under the sole judicial jurisdiction of Judge Patrick McAllister who had earlier indicated that there will be a single public hearing where interested parties could participate on May 6 in the Village of Bath, more than 300 miles from New York City.
The press conference is slated for 11 a.m., today, May 3 at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan.
