Hundreds of NY small business owners demand Cuomo let them reopen
"Our businesses are the backbone of this state, and quite literally what we depend on to put food on our tables and is equally vital to our employees, vendors and local neighborhoods."
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo delivers remarks at a news conference. New York City, New York, U.S., March 2, 2020(photo credit: ANDREW KELLY / REUTERS)
Approximately 300 New York small business owners gathered for a demonstration in Manhattan on Wednesday, calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo to let them reopen following coronavirus-related closures, Collive reported.The protestors included hundreds of diverse businesses from throughout the five boroughs, who demanded they be allowed to reopen their businesses by Tuesday, May 26.One protestor, Bruce Backman, CEO of Pesach in the Northeast, is pushing for businesses to reopen now that cases are going down."At the start of this pandemic, and when our city needed it most, we shut our doors to flatten the curve," he said, according to Collive. "But today, while the curve has been flattened, our requests to reopen our sources of income have fallen on deaf ears."Our businesses are the backbone of this state, and quite literally what we depend on to put food on our tables and is equally vital to our employees, vendors and local neighborhoods."Backman is leading REOPEN NY, a campaign pushing for the reopening of small businesses. Sitting on the campaign's executive committee are other notable small business owners, such as Sarale Giter of Hair By Sarale, Sara C. Brafman of Gymies and Simcha Minkowitz of Amor Fine Jewelry. Minkowitz gained notoriety for a widely shared video demanding that she be allowed to reopen her business, which is located in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Boro Park, Brooklyn. This video led to a change.org petition on the matter, which has since garnered over 7,000 signatures, Collive had reported.Speaking at the protest, Brafman, who was forced to shut down her children's multi-sport facility in Crown Heights, discussed the emotional and financial toll the lockdown has had on families."Children are experiencing negative effects from screen fatigue, and the lack of human interaction is something that I cannot underscore enough," she said, according to Collive."The economic devastation that is occurring to parents that are home with their children with no childcare opportunity is going to be almost impossible to remedy," she added.The demonstrators said they were committed to operating their businesses while abiding by regulations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, such as wearing masks and maintaining social distancing."If big-box stores can service hundreds at a time, we citizens should be equally trusted to service smaller numbers of clients in our places of businesses," the demonstrators said, according to Collive. "Common sense dictates that it is obviously much easier to monitor smaller and more controlled environments and enterprises."
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