BENSONHURST'S PREMIER NEWS BLOG

Loans available by gold bars or check…just kidding. (Source: Angico Eagle Mines Limited via Wikimedia Commons)

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the City of New York are providing small businesses with disaster recovery loans. According to a press release, the city, through federal Community Development Block Grants, will by distributing $293 million in loans for the purposes of business recovery.

Small businesses that experienced damage as a result of Superstorm Sandy and can demonstrate that you can repay the loan, will be eligible for up to $150,000 in loans. They will have a one percent interest rate and must be repaid in five to seven years. Businesses who get their loans approved also are eligible for a matching grant up to $60,000.

The program will be administered by the New York City Department of Small Business Services and the New York Business Development Corporation.

Here is a list of relevant links that will help you apply for the loan and give you more information on the program.

Please see the NYC Hurricane Sandy Loan & Grant Program Core application.  Once complete, please contact an account manager at one of the local NYC Business Solutions centers to submit your application. For more information, please see our Loan and Grant Program FAQs and Document Checklist.

For more information about this important loan and grant resource, follow the link below:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/sbs/nycbiz/html/home/home.shtml

And a consolidated list of resources available to businesses is always located here:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/sbs/nycbiz/html/home/Hurricane%20Sandy%20Recovery%20Services.shtml

A new program for residents affected by Sandy will launch next month. We’ll have details then.

Source: J. Reed via Wikimedia Commons

UPDATE (5/22/2013 @ 12:45 a.m.): It turns out that Nathan’s famous opened for business the night before we posted this story on Monday, May 20, at 7 p.m., according to a CBS report. Hot dog mode, engaged!

Original Post

The iconic Nathan’s Famous (1310 Surf Avenue) has faced a long and sometimes trying path to recovery. Weathering extensive flood damage following Superstorm Sandy and a small fire that broke out on its roof while being repaired, the famous wiener mecca is closer than ever to reopening, hoping to dole out dogs before Memorial Day.

NY1 is reporting that not only are the repairs on Nathan’s almost complete, but that they have significantly upgraded their service counters and infrastructure. The changes include a redesigned interior space, a new clam bar that will be serving oysters for the first time in 30 years and an overall modern more modern look.

Nathan’s also made the effort to protect themselves against future storms.

“We used to have all of our utilities in the basement, so we brought everything above flood line, so if something should happen again it won’t knock us out completely,” Bruce Miller, senior director of operations told NY1.

While lamenting that they couldn’t recreate the location exactly as it once was, Miller promised that the new Nathan’s is working hard at improving what they have.

“You can’t go back to the way it used to be 50 years ago. You have to make everything current to code, so Nathan’s took the opportunity to not only bring everything up to that level, but also to take an opportunity to provide a better service for our customers,” Miller said.

People visiting Coney Island before the Surf Avenue Nathan’s reopens can still grab a hot dog at their boardwalk spot, which was quickly rebuilt following the storm.

Gargiulo’s Restaurant (Source: Facebook)

The relief organization #ConeyRecovers doled out some big money to some needy Coney Island businesses. According to a News 12 report, an event was held at Gargiulo’s Restaurant (2911 West 15th Street) where a range of Coney businesses received grants of $100,000 each.

The grants, culled from private fund raising, hope to not just help specific businesses but get the entire Coney Island community back on its feet.

“This award is helpful in funding all of the efforts that we are providing here on Coney Island,” Pastor Edwin Malave, a grant recipient, told News 12.

Superstorm Sandy not only destroyed businesses and homes but some of our favorite Coney Island attractions, including the ominous ‘Cleveland Grandma Fortune Teller.’

In the video above, posted by NationalJukeBox, John Poppa shares the history of the famous wax figure which dates back to the late 1920s.  When Poppa’s repair shop received Cleveland Grandma, Sandy had put it in bad shape, messing up the moving eyes and the mechanical hands.

The most disappointing thing about the video was seeing a behind the scenes demonstration on how these fortune tellers work. I just assumed they operated on magic like the creepy fortune telling guy from the movie Big.

Thanks to Deno’s Wonder Wheel on Twitter for tipping us off on the video!

Source: Free Press Pics via Flickr

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, many business and homeowners were left with tough financial decisions as to how to rebuild their lives. Many were offered loans by the Small Business Association (SBA) but rejected them because they didn’t want to incur more debt.

Because of complex bureaucratic rules, business and homeowners who rejected the SBA loans are now being denied some resources, leading politicians like Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Michael Grimm to press the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) into changing their rules, according to a press release.

Current HUD policy now demands that the amount of approved loans, including those who didn’t even accept them in the first place, are to be counted against the potential grant amounts they are eligible for in the upcoming distribution of the Community Development Block Grants. The justification of the complex rule that Schumer and Grimm are battling against was explained in the release:

Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding, which comes in the form of a grant, not a loan, is intended to supplement other forms of available aid, and cover only “unmet need.” In determining the amount of “unmet need,” HUD regulations provide that any SBA loans for which a homeowner is approved are counted against the of unmet need.

The problem with this regulation is that it does not take into consideration the circumstances that might have led someone to reject a loan in the first place. Schumer expressed concern that this policy will hurt people who need it most.

“This policy will punish these homeowners and HUD should do everything in it power to make sure these individuals are eligible for additional federal assistance,” said Schumer.

Schumer’s concerns were shared by Grimm, according to SI Live.

The Kickstarter campaign to save the Mermaid Parade launched yesterday and they are already a quarter of the way to their goal.

Because of damages sustained by Superstorm Sandy, Coney Island USA, the parade organizers, needed to cut back on expenses, leaving them $100,000 short of affording all the things that make a parade happen like security, supplies and staff uniforms. Organizers have already reeled in over $24,000 in just a few days of activity. If this trend continues, their $100,000 goal will be reached long before the deadline hits at the end of the month.

Those who decide to donate will get access to a slew of exclusive prizes.

For example, if you decide to give $13 to the parade you receive a specially designed temporary tattoo from a local Brooklyn artist and you get your name added to a big “THANKS” banner in the parade.

If you give a whopping $10,000 you are declared “King Midas” and are given this  ambiguous promise:

King Midas! You are the Merfolk hero. We’ll make things happen for you by land or by sea. Write us a private message; there are plans to be hatched. (Most of your contribution could be tax deductible)

I wish I was rich enough to just fork over 10 grand just to see what “things” will happen to me. Anyway, if you would like to donate you can do so by visiting the Mermaid Parade’s official Kickstarter page by clicking here.

Source: @NYCFireWire via @evgrieve via the Village Voice

A fire broke out at Nathan’s Famous on Coney Island (1310 Surf Avenue) over the weekend, according to a report by the Village Voice.

The famous hot dog mecca  is still undergoing construction after the damage it took resulting from Superstorm Sandy. The fire broke out on the roof  this past Saturday due to that ongoing reconstruction effort.

The fire was put out by the FDNY in less than 20 minutes and no one was hurt. Nathan’s is still expected to reopen for summer business.

Councilman David Greenfield (center) and Mayoral Candidate Christine Quinn standing in front of a Muni-Meter

The war against the machines has begun. Muni-Meters, the electronic parking meters, have a lot of flaws and members of the City Council have been seizing on them.

Some of the biggest problems with meters came after Superstorm Sandy wrecked a whole bunch of them. Despite the presence of malfunctioning machines, the Department of Transportation still ticketed drivers. Without giving any notice or direction, drivers were expected to find the nearest working Muni-Meter and pay, outraging people who received tickets.

Earlier in the month, we reported that Councilman David Greenfield planned to reform Muni-Meters by making them accept payments 30 minutes before the meter regulations went into effect. This would allow people finding parking for work or doctor appointments not to have to wait by a meter once it activates at 9 a.m.

The latest legislation on the meters, set to be introduced to the Council on May 8, will address a number of other annoying Muni-Meter problems, according to a press releases recently fired off by a myriad of local elected officials.

“The meters will automatically shut off and not accept payment at times when drivers are not required to pay for parking at that location. In addition, the machines will not accept payment when it is out of paper needed to print receipts, and will allow drivers to pay for parking beginning one hour before the regulations go into effect,” said one release from Greenfield’s office

Politicians were quick to lend support to Greenfield’s measure.

“Whether you’re doing your laundry or parking your car, you should always get what you pay for. This legislation ensures drivers will no longer pay for parking at a meter, only to find out that this requirement ended 20 minutes earlier. Our legislation will reduce frustration and increase fairness in how we pay for parking,” mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn said at a press conference with Greenfield.

Councilman Vincent Gentile also gave a full-throated endorsement of the proposed legislation.

“I have received numerous complaints from constituents in my district who feed their muni-meter only to learn that it is out of paper or out-of-order altogether after they’ve made their payment. This common sense bill will effectively end that sort of frustration,” Gentile said in a press release.

Source: Facebook

Six months after Superstorm Sandy thrashed Southern Brooklyn, Congressman Michael Grimm stated in an interview that the full recovery has merely just begun, according to a report by the Hill.

In an appearance on CNN’s “Starting Point,” Grimm noted that the Congressional funds approved by Congress late last January are just now reaching the people and communities that need them. Grimm discussed the logistics of why aid is only starting to flow a half a year since Sandy struck.

“$51 billion, that’s a lot of taxpayer money, so obviously the Congress wants to be stewards of their money and make sure that its spent correctly. To do that through a massive city like New York, and a massive state, a lot of things need to be put into place,” he said.

Grimm also stressed that even though the money is finally starting to reach those who need it, that the recovery will be long and especially tough for those who have been waiting.

“There’s a lot of work to be done for not only people like that but for small businesses that are struggling, and if they don’t get their funding soon they will unfortunately close their doors forever.”

Activists were displeased when the Parks Department decided to replace the wooden boardwalk on Coney Island with a cement and plastic one. Now, six months after Superstorm Sandy battered our shores, the New York Post is reporting that residents and business owners are complaining that sand is accumulating on the new boardwalk.

The barrage of sand upon the historic promenade has been so terrible that the city has been forced to assign extra workers to keep shoveling it back on to the beach. Boardwalk preservationists are blaming the new cement base for all the extra sand.

“With cement, there’s nowhere for the sand to fall through. There’s no doubt the new surfaces are causing the sand to pile up like never before…This is what you get when the city decides to make changes without doing a proper environmental review,” Todd Dobrin, president of the Friends of the Boardwalk and a candidate for City Councilman Domenic Recchia’s seat in the 47th District, told the Post.

Residents, including Maureen Masterson, 32, were also angry. While trying to maneuver her two-year-old daughter’s stroller through obstructive piles of sand, the Bensonhurst mother expressed negativity over the situation.

“This is horrible. It’s like Sandy never left,” Masterson told the Post.

The encroaching sand isn’t just bad for people trying to walk on the boardwalk. As sand accumulates, it starts blowing in people’s faces, which the city has been vigorously trying to prevent by wetting the sand down.

Local business owner Dennis Vourderis, co-owner of Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park, told the Post that the sand has never been worse. It is “even piling up in the amusement district — which still maintains a wooden boardwalk,” he said, blaming the extra sand on Sandy “pushing it closer to the boardwalk and making it ‘finer’ so it blows more freely.”

“This is the worst we’ve seen it,” said Vourderis, who recently put up netting outside Deno’s to block sand from damaging his rides’ motor systems. “We have to shovel all week just to be ready for the weekend.”

For its part, the Parks Department is blaming Mother Nature and isn’t accepting the idea that the new boardwalk has anything to do with all the extra sand.

“Sand will accumulate on a boardwalk without regard to the decking or the foundation,” the Post reported Parks Department spokeswoman Meghan Lalor as saying.