WINTER IS COMING: NEIGHBORHOODS NOW ADDRESSING WASHINGTON HEIGHTS LOCAL SMALL BUSINESS ANXIETIES

WINTER IS COMING: NEIGHBORHOODS NOW ADDRESSING WASHINGTON HEIGHTS LOCAL SMALL BUSINESS ANXIETIES

Community League of the Heights (CLOTH)

Now that outdoor temperatures are about to drop drastically, Washington Heights business owners are worried that the Open Streets program will fail to sustain their businesses, especially after they suffered major losses during the pandemic. 

“People couldn’t come as often and we were scared,” manager of El Patio Mexicano Miguel Aguerre said. “We got to a point where we couldn’t even pay the workers. We couldn’t even make rent. Even with online deliveries. So, now that it’s getting cold, we’re trying to see what can we do.”

In order to help alleviate small business anxieties, The Urban Design Forum and the Van Alen Institute partnered up with community organizations like Community League of the Heights (CLOTH)  to form Neighborhoods Now. This coalition explores ways in which urban planning can help businesses in neighborhoods who have been most affected by the pandemic and address anxieties about the challenges that the winter season brings. 

“I’m most worried about the increasing rent and the erosion of small business especially with winter being just around the corner,” Washington Heights resident Anarlyn Nunez, 24, said.”“Covid has made that situation worse by making “non essential” businesses close for several months, so it’s making a lot of people nervous.” 

By May 2020, the pandemic had caused 520,000 job losses from the small business sector in the city and unemployment was at an all time high at 18.3%. 

“I think immigrant neighborhoods have been hit hard because of the occupations and industries of workers who live there, '' Paulette Goddard, Professor of Urban Policy and Planning, Director for Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. 

In an email, Ingrid Gould Ellen wrote, “a disproportionate number of workers were unable to work remotely because of the nature of their jobs.” 

According to Mastercard, by March 2020, consumer spending “bottomed out at a 44% year over year reduction.”

Stores suffered major losses after losing pedestrian traffic. After 35 years of business, Coogans, a neighborhood hotspot closed down because of the economic strife caused by the pandemic.  

“Even with the attempts of doing delivery and trying different things, Peter couldn’t afford the rent anymore,” Lorial Crowder, the small business development program director for CLOTH, said. “People were scared to use public transportation, they were afraid to be outside and go to these stores.” 

“Once the pandemic was in full effect, we quickly realized that aid was not being given in an equitable way,” writes the Communications Associate for Urban Design Forum, Kima Hibbert. “The communities we rely on most, filled with our frontline workers, were being forgotten and left to fend for themselves... ”

“We have realized during this program that the federal government and even local governments aren’t the best ways for communities in need to gain support,” Hibbert added. “ While we wait for governmental change and efficiency, we hope this program will provide these neighborhoods with the tools and resources the need to get through this pandemic and to last them long after”

Made up of architects, engineers, urban planners, lawyers and community leaders from the boroughs most affected by the coronavirus, Neighborhoods Now in partnership with CLOTH wants to aid Washington Heights small businesses by providing them with urban design solutions for their establishments. 

These modules would address how small businesses, specifically eating establishments, would deal with declining temperatures and Covid 19 safety precautions. CLOTH, however, is struggling to get through to local business owners in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood. 

“Ideally we would love to partner with one of these small businesses and provide one of these modules with the assistance of one of the sponsors, like Home Depot,” Crowder said. “It's a tricky relationship, from our standpoint, a lot of the business owners were wary of us.The hope would be to communicate much more smoothly with folks and to build these connections with the business and the individual.”