Rally for Galicia

Yesterday, local organizers, politicians, and community members rallied to save Galicia restaurant on Broadway near 172nd Street in Washington Heights. After 30 years in business, they're being denied a lease renewal by the Edelsteins of Edel Family Management, owners of several buildings in the area.



As always, the restaurant was full of faithful customers, dining on delicious home-style meals.

Hand-lettered signs in the windows read "Save Galicia" and "Make the Small Business Job[s] Survival Act Law!!"



A large crowd of New Yorkers gathered on the sidewalk. Unlike at last week's rally for Coogan's bar and restaurant a few blocks south, the phalanx of major news cameras was not present. (NBC4 got some shots.) I saw no reporters from major papers. (Patch was there.) Congressman Adriano Espaillat, Public Advocate Letitia James, and City Comptroller Scott Stringer did not appear.

But dozens of others did--and they were passionate about small businesses in Washington Heights.


Lena Melendez

Rally organizer Lena Melendez spoke of the "favorite and authentic" restaurant, a survivor from the difficult days of the 1980s. She introduced Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who promised to "Do what we can to pressure the Edelstein family to come to the table" and negotiate a fair lease renewal. "We expect our small businesses to be treated fairly," Brewer said. "Let's keep the pressure going."

David Eisenbach, former candidate for Public Advocate, made a push for the Small Business Jobs Survival Act (SBJSA). "We can't keep counting on politicians to save the day," he said. "This can't be done on a case by case basis." We need legislation, he argued, "to level the playing field." He called for a full public hearing and a City Council vote on the SBJSA. "Let democracy happen!"


David Eisenbach

Peter Walsh, co-owner of Coogan's, began, "As a child of Irish immigrants, I was saved by new immigrants--the Dominicans of Dominican Heights!" His bar has been sustained by Latinx locals--and was recently saved from a massive rent hike. He recalled the days of high crime, when Galicia opened and survived. And he spoke of gentrification's power to displace. "Now that the neighborhood has become attractive to everyone else, who do they want to kick out? The pathfinders. The Dominican immigrants who built this neighborhood."

Someone from the crowd shouted, "We are what's right with America!"


Peter Walsh

For well over an hour, several community members got up to speak, in English and in Spanish. City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez ended his speech with a chant of "Si, se puede!" Yes, we can.


Ydanis Rodriguez

How can you help? Write to City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and tell him to bring the SBJSA to a vote. Write to your City Council members and tell them to pass the SBJSA. You can find their contact info here -- and sample emails here and here.

It can be done.

Saving Coogan's

Yesterday, local politicians and community members gathered to rally for Coogan's Bar and Restaurant in Washington Heights. After hiking Coogan's rent by $40,000, the landlord, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, surrendered under public pressure this week and made a deal to keep Coogan's in place for the foreseeable future. (The details are being kept confidential.)



On the cold and sunny Sunday afternoon, in front of a large crowd, Congressman Adriano Espaillat, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Public Advocate Letitia James, and City Comptroller Scott Stringer made celebratory speeches, calling Coogan's "the United Nations of Washington Heights" and a "civic center" for the neighborhood. They also promised to save small businesses across the five boroughs.

"We spoke with one voice," said Brewer. "We want to do the same thing for other mom and pops. This is just the beginning."

"Our work must continue," said James. "Small businesses are suffering and we need to come to a resolution to protect small businesses in the city."

"Coogan's," said Stringer, "is the line in the sand."



But what do they plan to do? After questions from the press, the discussion got around to solutions, specifically the Small Business Jobs Survival Act (SBJSA), a bill that many activists have been pushing for years (see flyer below).

"We need a hearing on the SBJSA," said James. "We're going to be urging the City Council and Corey Johnson to put it forward."

Currently, most City Council members support the SBJSA. To pass, the new Speaker must bring it to a vote. This is essential. Only a broad-reaching policy like the SBJSA--or the return of commercial rent control--will save our small businesses. Like Espaillat said to the crowd, handling the problem of evicted mom and pops one by one is not a solution. "We're going to lose a lot of them," he said, "and we need legislation. We're going to stop hyper-gentrification."



After the rally, inside Coogan's, I talked with Lena Melendez, a local social worker and organizer with RENA (Riverside Edgecombe Neighborhood Association) and Dominicanos Pro Defensa Negocios Y Viviendas (DDNV).

Lena and I discussed hyper-gentrification in Washington Heights. "The landlords are being incentivized to push people out," she explained, pointing to the 20% vacancy bonus loophole in the rent regulation laws. "It's an erosion of the consumer base. And small businesses have no protections whatsoever."

Real-estate speculation has been pushed into overdrive by the city's rezoning of Inwood. Lena noted the spread of high-rent blight infecting upper Broadway, a rash of storefronts forcibly emptied and kept empty. "The landlords need to be punished," she said, with disincentives like a vacancy tax. But that won't fix every situation. "If a business is in a two-story building, they're a dead duck." With a demolition clause in the lease and no rent-regulated tenants to deal with, the developers can just kick out the business and demolish.



Why is this problem so hard to fight? "Because REBNY is so strong," Lena said, "and the politicians are like prostitutes being bought." She wants to see the neighborhood get organized. "The Latino community has to stand up. But they need to be informed. If this community knew what that rezoning will do to the neighborhood, they'd be marching in the streets."

"The politicians want us all to think the rezoning is a good thing." To that she says, "You're jerking me around. You're pissing on my head and calling it rain."

When we finished talking, Lena went back to gathering signatures on a petition to save Galicia, a restaurant just a few blocks up Broadway, getting forced out after 30 years in business.


flyer by Jenny Dubnau

Galicia Restaurant

VANISHING

At yesterday's rally for Coogan's, Congressman Espaillat pointed up Broadway and announced, "My next stop is Galicia restaurant." After 30 years in business, he explained, they're being denied a lease renewal by the Edelsteins of Edel Family Management, owners of several buildings in the area. "I spoke to the Edelsteins," Espaillat said, "and they seem to be over the top and heavy handed."



After the rally, I went for lunch at Galicia. The place is warm and welcoming--and busy. Customers converse from table to table. The counter fills up and empties, and then fills again. The food is good. So is the cafe con leche.



On my table I had the flyer announcing a rally to save Galicia, January 21 at 12:00 noon. A woman stopped to read it. She said, "I'll be there. Just because this neighborhood is changing, everybody has to get out? No. We've been here. This place is part of our community."

She went on to her table and I enjoyed my chicken, beans and rice, and plantains.



I got into a conversation with another woman, Mrs. Doris Giordano, who was born and raised in Washington Heights. She rescues cats and has been coming to Galicia since it opened.

She showed me a handful of family photographs--her father with his friends on the stoop, her mother on the rooftop they called Tar Beach.



"Tiny Tim was born in Washington Heights," she told me. "Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers came from here. Lewis Lymon and the Teenchords, too. George Raft was from here. My grandmother had a crush on him. They went to school together."

"It's heartbreaking," she said about the demise of small businesses in the neighborhood. "And it's all to do with real estate and landlords." We talked about the closure of the Reme diner and the high-rent blight that is sweeping upper Broadway. "It's like a ghost town. To see stores that've been here since I was a kid, all gone. It's heartbreaking."



She doesn't want to see Galicia go. "Everybody's like family here. I'm not Spanish, but I've been eating here for so long. People say hello. It's safe. You get homemade meals. They have the best coffee and it only costs a dollar-fifty." A rent-controlled tenant on a fixed income, she can't afford Starbucks.

"They're building upscale gourmet places," she said. "The bodega where I got my Italian bread? It's gone and now they're upscale. They cater to the wealthy now. The rent is outrageous all over New York City and people are being relocated. They're moving out all the people who were born and raised here."

We talked about the upcoming rally and the promises of the politicians. Mrs. Giordano shook her head. She said, "I'm not trusting the politicians anymore. They tell you one thing, but nothing's being done. They talk the talk, but they don't walk the walk."



Want to help? Sign the petition to save Galicia. And go to the rally on Sunday, January 21, at 12:00 noon, 4083 Broadway near 172nd St.

Save Coogan's

Earlier this week, the Times reported that Coogan's bar and restaurant will be forced to close at the end of May after being in business since 1985. The closure will happen, wrote Jim Dwyer, "for the usual horrible reasons, the end of a lease and impossible rent demands for a new one."

Coogan's space, at 169th and Broadway, is owned by New York-Presbyterian Hospital. “They want about $40,000 a month more,” said one of Coogan's partners. That's a lot of beer.

This loss is hitting home with many New Yorkers, including Broadway luminary and Inwood native Lin-Manuel Miranda, who tweeted the announcement, saying "My stomach hurts from this news":



Graham Ciraulo, an organizer with the Northern Manhattan Is Not For Sale coalition, started a petition to Save Coogan's. Over 10,000 have signed so far.

And there's a rally at Coogan's this Sunday, January 14, at 12:00 noon, organized by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Congressman Adriano Espaillat, and other community leaders.



Whether you know Coogan's or you don't know Coogan's, you know it's another brick in the wall of the sterilized, de-urbanized, hyper-gentrified zone that New York is becoming thanks to unregulated landlord greed.

If you're sick and tired of that, then be there. And tell our city's leaders to make a real change -- pass the Small Business Jobs Survival Act and let's talk about bringing back commercial rent control. It's time to #SaveNYC.

*UPDATE: Coogan's has been saved!

Reme Restaurant

VANISHED

Reader Keith Taillon writes in about the recent loss of yet another affordable coffee shop:

"A beloved neighborhood diner in Washington Heights abruptly closed recently, and I don't know why. I visited one week, and walking past a week later, found the space emptied with auction fliers taped to the windows. It remains empty."


photos by Keith Taillon

"The diner was called Reme, and it sat at the northwest corner of 169th and Broadway. It was a classic NYC diner, open for at least 40-50 years, attracting old timers, hospital workers, students, and newcomers (like myself) drawn to the area by low rents and a sense of 'home' you can't find elsewhere in the city anymore. Part of what made Washington Heights home for me was being able to go to Reme, where I knew all of the employees by face if not by name, and where I knew I could get a good hot meal for just a few bucks."



Keith shares a few anecdotes:

"- It was cash-only, and very affordable.
- It attracted a great mix from the neighborhood. Lonely old Dominican men & women sitting alone at the bar, loud multi-generational families spilling across tables in the middle of the room, and doctors & students from NY Presbyterian Hospital all could be found there on a daily basis.
- Sheila was my favorite waitress. She was a short, gruff, and sassy Trinidadian woman who lived in Queens and commuted in almost daily. She was even there during blizzards and immediately after Hurricane Sandy, though god knows how she made it in. She was always ready with her order pad and a 'whattayahavin?' I'll miss her.
- There was an ancient TV above the kitchen prep alcove that was usually tuned to the news or a soap opera, sometimes kids' shows. Next to that was a shelf covered with a menagerie of action figures. I don't know why.
- The breakfast menu, which was used before 11AM, had a long history of the restaurant printed on the back. The details I remember are that it was originally called 'Remel Restaurant' when it opened in the 40s, but that the L fell off at some point. When it was bought by a new owner, he liked the metal lettering, even without the L and decided to just call the place Reme from then on."



He concludes:

"I can't help but think a lot of people in the neighborhood are missing Reme, but Washington Heights lacks the preservationist infrastructure to discuss what's happening or to properly mourn our losses as they pick up speed. Whatever replaces Reme will have to work hard to pry any dollars from my wallet. This is a bitter loss for me."

Washington Heights Gentrification Sale

When the 25-year-old Jesse's Deli got the boot from its landlord in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, local customers Doug Cameron and Tommy Noonan protested with a colorful collection of "artisanal landlord price hike" posters. They created a sensation.


all photos courtesy Doug Cameron

Now they've turned their talents to a block of mom and pops in Washington Heights. The businesses, many of which have been on Broadway and West 162nd for decades, have been evicted by the building's new owners, again with an impossible rent hike. (Read about their story in the Village Voice.)





Doug Cameron explained to Vanishing New York:

"This time an entire block in Washington Heights is throwing a ‘Gentrification In Progress’ Sale. The Punta Cana is officially rebranded as the Casa de Campo, which is the name of an extremely wealthy gated community and resort in the Dominican Republic. Posters in its windows now offer 'small plates for twice the price,' such as a single Hand-Cut Seasonal Summer French Fry for $8.99. The awning displays the new Casa de Campo name, along with the logo of a large wealthy man with a monocle eating a tiny portion plate of food."





"The only other business that has not yet moved in the past couple weeks is the Frutera El Buen Camino. The landlord can’t re-rent the space because of a structural problem. Now, next to the Frutera is a new awning: The Nueva Frutera El Buen Hipster, a yuppie juice bar offering Fresh-Mowed Wheatgrass Shots for $7.99, and Locally-Skimmed Pond Scum Smoothies for $14.99."



Doug and Tommy have included a call to action as well: "Tell Bill De Blasio to support the Bill De Bodega," a.k.a. the Small Business Jobs Survival Act (SBJSA). They've also created a site for the Bill de Bodega.


For more on what you can do to save small businesses in the city, visit #SaveNYC and join the group on Facebook.