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Friday, March 29, 2024

NYC’s Underground Businesses in Dire Straits as Subway Ridership Drops

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By: Hellen Zaboulani

For more than a century, New York City’s subway has offered commuters and tourists a dependable ride to workplaces, and popular destinations.  It has become one of the backbones of the city’s economy, and it has come to host its own economic ecosystem of businesses created to serve the millions of daily riders in their hustle and bustle.

Since the pandemic hit in March, however, the subway has lost its luster.  People are still wary of riding such a public form of transportation.  This is despite all the efforts the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the city’s subway, took to keep subways open for essential workers, to clean more frequently, and to arrange schedules so as to avoid congestion.  More than seven months after the pandemic first rocked our city, the subway system continues to suffer record low ridership—which is now at just 30 percent of normal levels.  As reported by the NY Times, however, it is not only the subway that suffers.   All the underground restaurants, bars, newsstands, shoe shiners, hair salons, and businesses which served the commuters, are ailing.  The MTA disclosed that 77 of the 321 retail businesses still operating in the subway system have permanently closed.

As per the Times, even famed locations, such as Oyster Bar, which served regulars and tourists alike, and reopened to a rush of excited patrons, has once again closed its doors due to lack of customers.  “It’s just not sustainable,” said Sandy Ingber, the executive chef and a co-owner of Oyster Bar. “Until we have more foot traffic in Grand Central we just can’t do it.”  He is uncertain when the restaurant will reopen again.  “People are very worried about going into restaurants indoors, much less going into a train station,” he said.

Last week, in an effort to keep remaining shops open, the MTA implemented a plan to offer businesses long-term rent relief, adjusting rents to reflect current sales until business levels go back to normal.   “We want to make sure when the system comes back, we haven’t lost all the amenities for our customers,” said Janno Lieber,  Chief Development Officer of the MTA .  For some of the store owners even this lower rent will not be enough to keep them afloat though.  Many former commuters are still working remotely, many are taking alternate transportation, and even those who take the subway rush out of the underground halls rather than linger as they once did.  “We’re in a time when people want to move quickly in and out of public spaces,” said Mr. Lieber.

 

 

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