Council To Vote Today on Overriding Mayor’s Veto of Stoop Line Stand Bill
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The City Council’s Transportation Committee today will vote on whether to ask the full council to override the mayor’s veto of Council Member John Liu’s stoop line stand bill.
The bill would require the Department of Transportation to conduct an on-site investigation of each of the city’s 2,126 stoop line stands before the Department of Consumer Affairs issues or renews its license.
At present, the transportation department investigates the stands – extensions of stores built onto sidewalks, most commonly seen in the form of fruit-and-flower stands in front of greengrocers – only when someone lodges a complaint with them or the DCA.
Some are saying the new regulations would be extremely costly, perhaps ruinously so for some small businesses.
“This bill would … require us to create a new unit, and hire and train staff to conduct these analyses – functions, of course, that must be paid for,” the transportation department’s deputy commissioner for external affairs, David Woloch, said in his August 17 testimony before the Transportation Committee. “DOT estimates that the annual cost to the city for this new unit would be approximately $1 million. This does not include any expenses that DCA would incur in order to meet their requirements in the bill.”
He asked: “How does the council propose to pay for this $1 million cost? We certainly do not want to pass more of a burden onto these small businesses as is generally the case when new licensing requirements are imposed.”
Mr. Woloch estimated that, unless the taxpayers foot the bill for the inspections, licensing fees for the stands would increase to more than seven times the current $160.
Some greengrocers have up to 10 items that require a license, the president of New York’s Small Business Congress, Sung Soo Kim, said.
Because all the current licenses expire on March 21 and the transportation department estimates that each inspection would take two days, some stores would have to wait months to operate their stands legally, or risk fines or closure.
“There’s no store without the stands,” Mr. Kim said in a telephone interview. “Why is John Liu doing this now? Bankruptcies were the highest last year in New York City’s history. Margins are down.”
A survey of 48 store owners the group conducted in August found that almost half of the stores generate more than 30% of their revenues from the stands.
“This agency has received virtually no complaints about stoop line stands over the past several years,” Mr. Woloch testified. Mr. Kim said that the one example of a stoop line stand violation Mr. Liu presented to the City Council turned out to be a fine for unrefrigerated fruit.
“The issue is the DOT’s recalcitrant attitude towards acknowledging their obligation and responsibility to ensure pedestrian safety,” Mr. Liu said.
The bill, co-sponsored by the speaker of the council, Gifford Miller, was introduced to the council and passed on the same day. Usually, the council votes on bills months or even years after they are introduced.
“This compressed time-period and lack of public debate is anti-democratic, deeply troubling and is indicative of the poor thought put into the drafting of this legislation,” Mayor Bloomberg said in his veto message.
If the Transportation Committee votes to send the override motion to the full council, the override vote would take place October 11.
Mr. Kim says he has already convinced several of the bill’s supporters to change their minds.
“If this bill passes, we are killed,” he said. “It is anti-small business, anti-immigrant, and anti-minority.”