Several EVG readers told us about the pending closure, which they say is due to a rent increase that is more than the current ownership can manage.
Here's the closure notice, posted over the "We ❤️ NY Small Business" poster in the window between First Avenue and Second Avenue...
Patrons signed a petition urging the landlord to allow the business to stay. We stopped by multiple times, though we were always instructed to return later to speak with the owner. (The owner also did not respond to our call-back requests.)
"The laundromat has had a petition on its counter for a few weeks and got hundreds of signatures to try to keep it open, but the landlords are demanding an obscene rent hike," a patron told us. "All of us neighbors are so upset."
5 comments:
I can understand raising the rent to cover costs; but to deliberately force an entity out of business just so you can make a killing? That's infuriating. Businesses have always come and gone, and usually it was attributed to poor planning, bad management, or unforeseen circumstance. This seems to be a case of good old fashioned greed.
Just ask any restaurant or small business owner how difficult it is to exist with the ridiculously astronomical rents charged by these landlords, many of which are owned by corporate entities who could give a rat's ass about screwing hard working folks.
A lot of us rely upon these neighborhood laundromats since we don't have the "luxury" of having washer/dryers in our buildings or apartments. Over the years, schlepping further and further distances to find a place to do laundry has become the norm.
I went from just walking a few doors down the block, to walking around the corner to eventually hiking four blocks - all because the rents created impossible scenarios for small operations to survive.
Yet, we'll always have enough weed shops, coffee shops and burger joints to see us through.
This sucks.
I worry about the day when we lose a critical mass of laundromats.
As I have previously noted, this is another victim of the the NYC Council not taking a vote on the passage of the SBJSA:
"The "Small Business Jobs Survival Act" (SBJSA) is a proposed bill in New York City designed to protect small businesses, particularly from rent increases and unfair lease renewal practices. It has been introduced in the City Council multiple times but has yet to pass into law. The SBJSA aims to require landlords to offer 10-year lease renewals, give tenants the right of first refusal, and prevent rent gouging. "
"In 1986 (and again in 2008, 2014 and 2018) the Small Business Jobs Survival Act (SBJSA) was introduced. The SBJSA afforded commercial tenants the right to a minimum 10-year lease renewal and restricted landlords from passing property taxes onto small business owners. The legislation never made it past the committee."
Predatory capitalism strikes again. This is devastating. They were the best laudromat in the neighborhood. The staff was always so helpful. All that is left to is the overpriced place on Second where hot water is rare and clothes never smell clean because they do not use enough water.
At this point, since the small business protection law never gets passed due to the all controlling real estate industry (largest NY's political donor) there should be a law that stipulates reasonably priced neighborhood service space in all the "luxury" condos and rental buildings that get tax breaks. You know, landromats, cobblers, and all the other stores and services communities need that have been priced out of Manhattan. Obscene what has happened here over and over again.
This will eventually be a crisis. This neighborhood is filled with apartments that do not have the luxury of in-apartment washer/dryers. These small businesses are slammed by ever-increasing Con Ed and water bills. If they do not own the building where they conduct business they will not have a chance to survive. People - contact your City Council person (well wait until Carlina Rivera leaves) and other elected officials to alert them of this dire situation and demand some action.
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