Contentious newsstand makes news at board mtg.

Chelsea Now photo by Caroline Debevec

The northeast corner of 15th St. and Seventh Ave., where the addition of a proposed newsstand was not recommended for approval by the community board this week.

By Heather Murray

The addition of a small newsstand to a Chelsea intersection has created a big discussion in the community, raising questions over market competition, mom-and-pop livelihood and neighborhood overdevelopment.

Community Board 4 members Corey Johnson and Allen Roskoff both shot up their hands as a heated full-board discussion was winding down Wednesday night seeking to introduce opposing motions on the fate of a newsstand applicant hoping to set up shop on the northeast corner of 15th St. and Seventh Ave.

Johnson, a member of the West 15th Street 200 Block Association, had opposed the newsstand going in on his block. “We’re seeing on Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Chelsea and Clinton mom-and-pop stores going out of business,” he said. Johnson asked why the board was considering allowing the newsstand to take up space where it’s not necessary and “why hurt mom-and-pop businesses?”

Roskoff, however, supported the applicant. “I really believe working people should be given the right to earn a livelihood,” he said.

The board’s Transportation Planning Committee had earlier expressed support for the application at its Sept. 17 meeting, provided that two Department of Transportation and Buildings reviews are completed with satisfactory findings.

CB 4 chairperson J.D. Noland called on Johnson, who introduced a motion to amend the board’s letter to the Department of Consumer Affairs by recommending outright denial of the application. The motion eventually passed by a vote of 22 to 17.

Jimmy Pelsey had expressed his support for the applicant, saying, “All he wants is a job, a working business to take care of his family.” He called on his fellow board members to “be reasonable. These places need to be here.”

The newsstands also have a legal right to be here, Noland pointed out. “There’s a legal right to open this, so let’s be consistent,” he said. “I would be careful about denying something that’s legal,” unless the board has a reason to do so.

“Yes, the legal right is there, but it has to fit into the neighborhood,” replied Joe Restuccia, who noted there is an ongoing issue in the neighborhood with sidewalk space being lost to newsstands, bike shelters and other street furniture. “Where do we start saying that we need to say no? When do we stop encumbering and say no?”

Lee Compton wondered “what kind of unfair competition might we be putting up against the people that need to pay rent.” He asked whether the city is subsidizing the applicant, to which transportation committee co-chairperson Jay Marcus responded no. The applicant, Mahamud Sapan, will have to pay a licensing fee every other year to operate the stand and an initial $27,000 installation fee. Transportation committee co-chairperson Christine Berthet said that she did a quick calculation, and the applicant would pay half as much in real estate costs over the next five years as a small business owner taking up an equal amount of space of 72 square feet.

“New York has a tradition of having newsstands and healthy businesses all around it,” Marcus contended. He added that his committee only supports the application if the DOT determines there is safe and sufficient passage for pedestrians by tracking pedestrian traffic on the block during a peak hour. “This was a hard balancing act for the committee and indeed a close vote on how we went for it,” Marcus said. The committee is trying to balance the city’s goal of making public space more public rather than private, he noted, and newsstands are often valued by the community after they are installed.

“Mahamud has been doing this for a while, understands the business and now wants to have his own newsstand,” Marcus said, pointing out that the newsstand will leave a 13-foot-clear path of sidewalk space, which easily meets city guidelines.

The draft letter from Board 4 to the DOT, which will now have to be revised after the vote, voiced the board’s concern “that the city’s recent agreement with Cemusa to replace existing and create additional newsstands as a means to increase city revenue has led to an increase of newsstand applications in CB 4 (five in the last three months, though two were withdrawn) and may unreasonably burden this community board.”

The DOT contracted with the Spanish street-furniture company in 2005 to design, manufacture, install and maintain 330 newsstands, 3,300 bus shelters and 20 pay toilets at no cost to the city. Cemusa then benefits by selling advertising space on the street furniture.

Sapan had worked with his brother at the corner of 49th St. and Seventh Ave. for the past two years. He said at the meeting that he needed the job to feed his six family members, and observed that “it’s a big sidewalk, and I’m confident there’s not going to be any problems.”

But others weren’t so confident. Liz Wainstock, of 161 W. 15th St., said, “The feeling amongst some people is that it’s OK to do this and it’s also OK to overdevelop the sidewalk. Our concern is about the overdevelopment … but also about the existing storeowners.”

Bill Borock, president of the Council of Chelsea Block Associations, and Stanley Bulbach, president of the West 15th St. 200 Block Association, advocated for the protection of public space and long-time local retailers across the street, including L&M Deli, which opened in 1971, and 30-year-plus store A & H Newsstand.

Bulbach questioned why the board has no policy on the increasing commercialization of public sidewalks. Noland said he has asked two community board members to develop a policy about sidewalks.

“Everybody is concerned that there is no sidewalk space left,” Noland said.