The People's Money (2022-2023)
Your Money, Your Community, Your Voice.
Rent Subsidies for Business related to Arts and Culture.
What problem would you like to solve?
The dull character of Manhattan retail, due to the high cost of rent for ground-floor commercial real estate.
Why is it important to solve? Why is it relevant for the community?
Neighborhoods thrive when they have ground-floor businesses that encourage customers to linger in the area. Arts and culture businesses favor activities that encourage people to spend long periods of time in a particular place. (i.e. People might get hungry and go out for lunch after a tap-dancing class.) However, time-based retail activities often do not attract customer volumes that generate revenues commensurate with market-rate rents for ground-floor commercial real estate.
What idea do you have to address the problem?
Businesses that support arts and cultural activities would be allowed to apply for rental assistance from the city if they present a petition with a (to-be-determined) number of endorsement signatures from residents in their surrounding community. This would allow, for instance, an art supply store to afford their rent, based on the fact that people in the neighborhood value having an art supply store in the neighborhood, even if they only buy something from the store, once a year.
Who would that help?
Neighborhood residents and their landlords. This would bring diversity and interest back to the neighborhoods of Manhattan, providing the 'local color' that attracts people to NYC, and also buttresses real estate value. This would also help reticent landlords, afraid of leasing to arts and culture businesses that don't generate high revenues. All residents would benefit from the increased occupancy of ground-floor vacancies all over Manhattan.
What NYC borough would benefit from your idea?
Mostly Manhattan, but there's no reason why it couldn't work in other boroughs. The rent is too damn high all over NYC.
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