New York Times article on public lives deficit, Nov 2001

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JOHN TIERNEY ' The Big City Small Businesses Slow to Grasp Government’s Helping Hand :Able to Ad^t By EDWARD WYATT The city and the state are giving money away to small businesses — but almost no among small’businesses could easily cause wider economic pain. Yet even though many small businesses ■

in Lower Manhattan are suffering, from the 'Kt OK To What Fate one is taking it. Some business owners cannot take it, oth­ ers refuse to do so, and some may have yet effects of both the attack and, the sharp economic slowdown, the agencies who work with them say they are struck by the rela­ < L

Throws at Us to hear about it. But whatever the reason, city and state officials who work closely with New York City’s small businesses say tive lack of assistance being sought. “I’m afraid a lot of people are holding back, not asking for help,” said James L. they are growing worried that too few busi­ ness owners are asking for the grants and King of the state’s Small Business Develop­ U "T T could have been far worse,’’ Mayor ment Center. “They don’t know when'busi­ , I Rudolph W. Giuliani said yesterday. other kinds of aid that could help them ness will-return, so they’ve decided to wait. X In another time and place, that would recover from the Sept. 11 disaster. But to make no decision is to make a deci- ' have seemed an odd way to describe the Many owners of downtown businesses tell sio'n not to continue in business.” - plunge of a jetliner into a residential neigh­ another story. They describe a confusing Asad Mahmood, a director in the commu­ borhood. array of loans, grants and charity, with little nity development group at Deutsche Bank, f But yesterday, that was how a lot of New or no coordination among the programs and is even more blunt: “Too many downtown Yorkers responded to the latest rain of fire. agencies, piles of paperwork and differing business owners are. saying ’I don’t want I After the first horrified reaction — “Not conditions for eligibility. That confusion has help; I just want the foot traffic back.’ But againV’ — people were guiltily whispering,, . left many business owners frustrated and, it’s not going to come back.” “ Well, it looks as if it was only an acci­ in essence, frozen in their tracks. Sonic business owners say that they feel I dent.” The failure to connect sources of aid to overwhelmed by the different kinds of avail­ “Only” is not an adjective, that was ap- those in need is not only surprising. It is also able help, saying that there are too many • plied before Sept. 11 to plane crashes. No ominous, because it bears the seeds of an local, state and federal aid programs, with one yesterday wanted to minimize the economic disaster for people in small busi­ little of no coordination between them. tragedy; everyone knew of the agony of the ness that could ripple from ground zero “There’s a lot of confusion and no central­ victims’ families and friends. Yet there across the city and state. Companies that ized information,” Meyer Feig, the owner, of- was still relief at the first suggestions that employ fewer than 100 people account for Justin Lane (or The New York Times Intera Corporation; a three-cmployee com- it might not necessarily be an act of terror­ two of every five jobs iii the city and roughly Okkoo Yeo, who owns a nail salon on Nassau Street in Lower Manhattan, spoke to ism, and that there was “only” one plane. half of all jobs statewide, so a downturn Continued on Page D6 Lennox Ruiz of the-Empire State Development Corporation, a state agency. } the city was accustomed to worse news.* 2 Outside New York, the new images of the A city’s smoke-filled sky probably reinforced ~~1.,. W-.C. ____ m.qnii Anwr-iran*! ’ dgtcrmjn -'/.inn j-fe at ------