‘Safely’ Out of Business
Nearly 90 percent of city bar and restaurant owners couldn’t make their rent last month, while even some bigname hotels are closing for good. New York’s hospitality industry is facing dire straits — grim news for the entire city.
It’s not just the hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk in this sector alone. If Gotham loses the amenities that make it an attractive place to work, live and visit, it will lose residents, commuters and tourists who support many other jobs. It eats away at tax revenues, too. In the new NYC Hospitality Alliance survey, 87 percent of city bars, restaurants and nightclubs said they couldn’t pay their full August rent. That’s up seven points from June and up four from July. More than a third reported paying no rent at all. Many are still open only because they’ve been able to cut some deal with the landlord.
And a State Restaurant Association survey found nearly two-thirds of members say that without relief, they’ll likely have to close by year’s end.
On the hotel front, among the Manhattan venues to announce they’re closing are the iconic Hilton Times Square and two Courtyard by Marriott facilities. More will close as the normally busy fall season proves a bust. Just 7 percent of the city’s hotel rooms were occupied by traditional guests (not health-care workers or homeless) at summer’s end.
Between bars, restaurants and hotels, it’s roughly 200,000 people out of work, many for six months now.
Yet Mayor de Blasio is still dithering on allowing outdoor dining to continue after Oct. 31, even as Boston, Philly and other nearby cities have plans already set. The major issue seems to be letting them use outdoor propane or natural-gas heaters, because of greenhouse-gas fears. Really.
Gov. Cuomo isn’t much better: It took a lawsuit for him to finally OK indoor dining in the city, at a paltry 25 percent capacity. His flacks praise the gov’s minor concessions like “protecting commercial establishments from eviction” and “allowing bars to sell cocktails via take-out and delivery.” As if any of those crumbs is enough.
Oh, and his obsessive, ever-shifting list of “quarantine” states is another killer: No one (well, except New Jerseyans) can safely plan a trip here unless they can afford the time and money to spend the first two weeks in sequester, because by the time you travel, Cuomo may have put your state on the list.
So say good-bye to much of the city-state tax take from hotels of roughly $3.5 billion a year. Adieu to the revenue — and add-on business — generated by the once-vibrant restaurant scene.
Cuomo understands that raising income taxes drives away higher-earning taxpayers. But he seems to have no clue that a gutted quality-of-life is an economic death sentence for countless thousands of workingclass New Yorkers.
The mayor and governor insist they’re keeping New Yorkers safe, but all too many of us will wind up safely broke, bankrupt — or living and working someplace where the politicians have more vision.