Bklyn Small Business Owners Gripe About Arbitrary COVID-19 Closure Zones

By: Ilana Siyance

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s color-coded COVID-19 restriction zones are the latest plague to inflict small business owners. Brooklyn’s small business owners are at their wits end after losing out to competitors in more permissive zones, though they are just a few feet away. “It was getting better two weeks ago, and now we’re back to square one,” said Vito Conigliaro, manager of J&V Pizza in Bensonhurst. “We’ve just been destroyed.”

As reported by the NY Post, the pizza shop is part of the borough’s unlucky red zone, where Cuomo re-restricted eateries to takeout and delivery only earlier in the month, to combat an alleged ‘uptick’ in coronavirus in the area. Just a two-minute walk away on 18th Avenue, however, other restaurants in the orange zone can still offer outdoor dining. What’s more, just nine minutes away in the least-restrictive yellow zone, patrons can still sit down for a meal indoors.

Cuomo’s three, color-coded zones with differing levels of rules for areas in Brooklyn, Queens and some upstate locations are driving business owners mad, and sowing confusion as to the borders. “We thought we were on the yellow side of the street, and they insisted we were in the orange zone, and said we have 10 minutes to vacate the facility and lock our doors,” said Christopher Ganim, co-owner of gym chain Harbor Fitness, recalling the day city Department of Buildings workers came to close their Mill Basin location. “We had 75 people that we had to kick out,” he said, despite the fact that they are barely in the orange zone, where Cuomo shuttered non-essential businesses, including gyms. “We have a competitor that’s a few blocks away who is allowed to stay open,” he said.

“They are basically going to put us out of business if this stays like this,” said Mike Rudy, co-owner of the Funfest NY bowling alley down the block, who criticized the state restrictions as “absurd and ridiculous.” “My front door is in an orange zone, and if I step off the sidewalk in the street, it’s yellow,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think the area is a hotspot.

On Sunday, Gov. Cuomo hinted that the restrictions appear to be helping to curb the spread, and that the two-week-old zone restrictions may be adjusted possibly on Wednesday, as per the Post. Even if the restrictions are lifted soon, the clouds will be far from scattered. “New York is in really bad shape right now,” said Conigliaro. “There’s a long way to go.”