Retailers Struck Hard by Strike

The business folks hit first and hardest by the transit strike are the Manhattan retailers, especially those in the borough's downtown areas. In today's papers the plight of these small store owners is vividly detailed. As the mayor pointed out, "Retail, especially in lower Manhattan, has been hit the hardest. Hundreds of stores haven't been able to open and some that did have had practically no business."

It's certainly nice to see the mayor emerge, even at this late date, as a defender of the neighborhood retailer. We certainly would like to see him do it at a time that is a little less self-serving. As we have said time and again the Bloomberg administration has been distinctly anti-small business and the mayor has never placed the interests of the littlest entrepreneurs on the policy front burner.

Also hard hit by the strike are those food businesses that are located adjacent to train and bus stops. Without their daily ridership these stores will be sunk. As the Post reports, "Businesses that thrive off of transit-related traffic were particularly hurt. 'Business is dead here. There are eight bus lines and six trains servicing this stop and we get a lot of business. Today, no one is stopping here," said the owner of a deli near Queensborough Plaza."