Extra! Extra! shopowners protest arrival of newsstand on Broadway

A gleaming metal newsstand is cemented into the sidewalk near the West 231st Street No. 1 train station on Broadway. Although it remains unopened for now, some area residents already see it as a threat to local businesses.

Katherine Broihier, manager of the Kingsbridge Business Improvement District, has opposed the newsstand since it was first proposed.  She said businesses on Broadway will be hit hard if the newsstand interrupts the flow of foot traffic to and from the train station.

“We have a fairly robust business community,” said Ms. Broihier, “but those stores have opened over the years as traffic has increased in our neighborhood, and so to have one more isn’t going to benefit our community whatsoever.”

Unwanted effect

Bobby Patel, who owns three of the neighborhood convenience stores, said he fears that competition from the newsstand will force him to close one or two of his stores within the year.

“The effect is going to be big,” said Mr. Patel, who opened his Kingsbridge store JD Convenience in 1987.  In the Bronx, he explained, “you have a limited street traffic. In Manhattan you have a lot of traffic. That’s why, in Manhattan, the newsstands are successful. And over here, they’re going to be successful, but they’re going to chip away from my business.” 

But Robert Fanuzzi, chairman of Bronx Community Board 8 (CB 8), which recommended approving the newsstand, said it could co-exist with local businesses.

“I always feel that what’s good enough for Manhattan is good enough for the Bronx,” said Mr. Fanuzzi. “So if they’re allowed to have newsstands without destroying their commercial area, then so can we.”

No participation

Neither the newsstand’s owner, the Spanish advertising company Cemusa, nor its operator will contribute financially to the Business Improvement District, which collects a property tax assessment from area businesses to pay for street cleaning, landscaping and graffiti removal. Vandals have spray painted the newsstand twice already. 

“The other stores in the neighborhood are paying thousands of dollars per month [in taxes] that [the newsstand] does not have to pay,” said Ms. Broihier. “This is not competition — this is undercutting.”

The newsstand’s operator Joey Patel, who is no relation to convenience store owner Bobby Patel, previously told CB 8 members that he would attend meetings of the community board’s Economic Development Committee.

Complicating the matter is an application for a second newsstand. If approved, it would sit across the street from the now-vacant newsstand. 

Dan Padernacht, chairman of the CB8 Traffic and Transportation Committee, said his group was caught off guard when it received the the application for the second newsstand on Oct. 15.  “It came up as part of the discussion, ‘Well, why are we looking at a second one when the first one still isn’t occupied yet?’” he said.

The committee decided to postpone its decision on the second newsstand until its Nov. 19 meeting so it would have time to learn whether Mr. Patel still intended to move in to the vacant newsstand.

Mr. Padernacht said his committee would welcome comments from newsstand opponents, but he personally does not think they should consider whether competition from a second newsstand would further harm local convenience stores.

But Robert Bookman, co-founder of the New York City Newsstand Operators Association, said newsstand opponents exaggerate the impact they have on local convenience stores.

“In general, sidewalk newsstands do not compete with stores,” Mr. Bookman wrote in an e-mail message.  “They appeal to different customers.  And to the extent they do compete, that is the American way.”