The East Village Independent Merchants Association in collaboration with the East Village Community Coalition are seeking volunteers to help local businesses.
Per a tweet yesterday:
COVID-19 and current social unrest have hit the East Village hard, particularly local businesses. We could use your help. Interested in volunteering around the East Village? Sign up here to help out.
Again, that volunteer form is here. (Among other things, the form asks if there are any skills or volunteer interests you would like them to know about, such as painting, carpentry, cooking or teaching.)
By my count, more than 50 East Village storefronts were damaged in recent days from either post-protest vandalism or break-ins — many of them late-night Sunday/early Monday morning.
At Ama Raw Bar, the three-month-old restaurant at 190 Avenue B near 12th Street, someone tried to break down the front door, but was unsuccessful at gaining entrance.
[Photo by Stacie Joy]
Regardless, the Ama team — Will, Harvey and Rita (above) — decided to shut down for now. They had just reopened for take-home food and drinks.
Previously on EV Grieve:
• 2 break-ins on Avenue A: Village Square Pizza, Tompkins Finest Deli & Grill
• Noting another break-in, this time at Rue-B
• The break-in at Khiladi on Avenue B
• Here's the moment of the break-in early this morning at Alphabet City Beer Co.
• A broken window and burglary at C&B Cafe
• More about the damage at B&H Dairy
Question: all these stores and restaurants that people are volunteering to help during the Pandemic and looting, will they, in turn, help those who have lost their jobs for the same reasons? I do not see any plans or movement from those who receive donations and support during the lockdown to help those that will not have a job when everything reopens? Free meals, coffee, internet for the unemployed ? anything ?
ReplyDeleteI noticed many of these so called small businesses don't hire Black American people. Black jobs matter just as much as lives. I only see Blacks as bouncers/security in clubs restaurants bars standing OUTSIDE on the concrete. Never see Black American chefs, cooks, wait staff, managers,or bar tenders. The only places I see Black Americans working are the chains, Target, Starbucks, Wholefoods, and Trader Joes. I will volunteer when you prove to me that BLM. Have a blessed Day.
ReplyDeleteThis statement is ignorant.
DeleteYou 7:25 AM are a biased disgrace to the BLM movement and obviously only see Black where you want to.
DeleteThe sign-up forms are from the EVCC — ?
ReplyDeleteIf Ray can tell people not to start a GoFundMe on his behalf, surely our upscale restauranteurs—especially those who are as healthy-looking and well-dressed as those depicted here—can probably help themselves? Apologies if I am unfairly conflating the efforts of EVIMA and the needs of Ama Raw Bar. The post is unclear.
ReplyDeleteI am in agreement with the two comments above @ 7:18 and 7:25.
@7:25am: "so-called small businesses"? If they are small businesses, what do YOU call them?
ReplyDeleteI have regularly patronized East Village restaurants where the waiter, the bartender, and/or the chef is black. Maybe you should spend less time in places that NEED bouncers, and more in neighborhood restaurants.
BTW, in terms of the chef or cook, how often do YOU actually take a LOOK into the kitchen of a restaurant?? I know the cooks in my local restaurants.
That chip you're carrying on your shoulder is going to throw you way off balance. Nobody has to "prove" anything to you. Have a blessed day!
@8:47am: Wow! Do you look healthy? Are you well dressed? What exactly are you bitching about?
ReplyDeleteI will not stay silent while our EV business owners are trashed based on their "depiction." I will help our neighborhood by spending as much as I can in this and other local establishments. Because they are local. Because they are our neighbors. Because I care about this community and everyone in it.
ReplyDeleteI expect the other decent people in the EV will do the same.
Done! Shared to FB as well.
ReplyDeleteInteresting points raised above.
ReplyDeleteI've lived here longer than almost all of the local merchants have been in operation and I can't afford to shop in the current boutiques or eat out in the neighborhood.
@7:25 AM Cook is not a great job. Many are Hispanic. Chef is a very specific highly skilled job with insane hours and pressure for okay pay. Many of the businesses are family run or owner operator.
The nightlife venues hire beautiful young people of all skin colors. Venture into one and see if you want to break your budget.
No one will hire "old" people, regardless of skin color.
When the looting was going on I could only think of one establishment I would go to the mat for and they have roll down gates. Volunteerism is great. Let's connect with our neighbors and local businesses. This isn't anywhere near the final crisis of this sort. Treat the pandemic and the looting as a warning. Modern society is interconnected. This time, so far, society is holding together. The next time we may need each other more.
The EV/LES community has been of the most diversified areas in then entire country for centuries....not years, not decades,... centuries! We've been showing the world how it is done, but in all that time the rest of the nation wallows in ignorance and stupidity. We are the light in the harbor. We are the hope of the country. We are, the past, the present and the future. The EV/LES community has survived everything ever put in it's way. Neither Covid nor Criminals will bring it down.
ReplyDelete@9:45am: You're right: the decent people of this neighborhood will support and help the small businesses here, b/c that is what neighbors do for neighbors. And I love where I live.
ReplyDeleteTo the people who won't lift a finger b/c they're pissed off about something: you condemn yourselves by your inaction. And yes, I do judge you.
I already signed up to help yesterday, but I will be selective in my volunteering. I think it's a great idea to execute general cleanup efforts rapidly. I am concerned that volunteers might undercut paid workers for jobs, especially with special skills like carpentry (which is listed on the intake form).
ReplyDeleteI also wonder about the state of things when businesses require volunteers. Are they really businesses anymore? I know small businesses are suffering, and at the same time many have stepped up to serve the community during Covid, while putting profit concerns aside. So this is an observation that the nature of business seems to be changing, possibly a good thing! This has been underway even pre-Covid, with GoFundMe and so on for businesses.
Maybe businesses need to shift to a not-for-profit model.
How can they (shift to a not for profit) if their monthly rents are still far over 10k?
DeleteWhy aren't the real estate developers who have made so much money from the neighborhood being asked to step up?
ReplyDelete@Jill W
ReplyDelete> Maybe businesses need to shift to a not-for-profit model.
Then they wouldn't be businesses.
Not-for-profit restaurants would be a great idea but a lot of work for the volunteers. The lowest end not-for-profit restaurants are soup kitchens. Food coops exist but we need many more of them. As my friends in the restaurant business would point out: Most restaurants fail.
Maybe there could be a barter arrangement. Volunteerism in exchange for a localized currency that participating businesses would accept. Maybe call it "LESCash" or "EVCoin" or "GrieveBucks". Put it on a blockchain for buzzword compliance.
It is not just about helping this or that location in our neighborhood, it is about community building.
ReplyDelete