7 reasons why Greenwich Avenue needs Little Britain
Reader comment on: Committee Rules No Britannia for West Village Street

Submitted by info@campaignforlittlebritain.com, Jul 13, 2007 13:03

Seven reasons why Greenwich Avenue needs Little Britain.

1. To support small, local businesses by generating more customers, so that they can afford the four fold increase in rents landlords are demanding.

2. To recognize a nationality that has been an integral part of the neighborhood for over 100 years - see New York Times article below, published November 23rd, 1902, recognizing the neighborhood as the "British Quarter".

3. To support the small, local businesses who contribute to the character and diversity of the neighborhood that are being pushed out by uniform global brands.

4. To recognize the contribution Tea & Sympathy has made to the neighborhood in the 17½ years it has been here - 90 letters-of-thanks received from neighborhood organizations over the last year.

5. To create a destination for Anglophiles among the 44 million people visiting New York each year, that will benefit every business on the block - which is why all these businesses have signed individual letters of support.

6. Because to date over 6000 people have voted for Little Britain in the Big Apple - of which one thousand signatures were collected in the store and 57% of the total online signatures were NYC residents.

7. To increase the West Village's share of New York's $22.8 billion direct visitor spending each year, of which Great Britain is the top-producing nation. [source: NYCvisit]

In summary, while we respect the Community Board #2 Traffic and Transportation decision, we believe our cause is just and the tongue-in-cheek campaign we created is no different in principle from all political or lobbying campaigns in the USA, in that we raised funds from a like-minded corporation. To hold that against us is, we believe, unreasonable.

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