Council Member Salaam questions Khan on protecting Black-owned legacy businesses under Intro 874
Salaam raises concerns that Harlem's Black-owned and immigrant businesses faced redlining and disinvestment, making 20-year track records harder to document. Khan acknowledges the concern and says SBS wants to work with sponsors on defining legacy business criteria, suggesting a nomination system with trusted community leaders.
I'm going to move to
Harlem specific, you know, Harlem's legacy businesses carry the cultural history of black America.
Many of them faced redlining, lost access to credit, and survived disinvestment that make a 20-year track record harder to document.
How will SBS define significant contribution to history?
Identity or character so that black owned and immigrant owned businesses aren't disadvantaged and how will SBS weigh a community board's recommendations against the landmarks preservation committees since the two
may value different things.
Thank you council member.
So on
On introduction 874, we would love to work with the bill sponsor to have further conversations and the city council on what would be a program that we could operationalize.
We do have some concerns.
We'd love to mitigate those concerns.
The points that you're making relate to some of those concerns.
There's other concerns as well.
But the point that we feel strongly about and in alignment with Councilmember Maloney 100% is we should be promoting legacy businesses, period.
And then it's a question of what would legacy business mean?
And the point we just made of there are businesses in the city and like in popular culture and in our psyche, we may think this is definitely a legacy business.
But we may find out four years ago they sold interests to another private equity firm.
And now it's it's.
and it's branded as family-owned, whatever, whatever, but it might not really be a legacy.
So what is a legacy business, I guess, is the more foundational question, which is why one way of going around it would be a nomination system of credible partners in the community, such as yourselves and the council,
other leaders, such as the community boards, business improvement districts potentially, but all areas of potential collaboration where we're really interested in figuring out a way to deepen and expand the promotion of legacy businesses.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chair.
Okay.