Something Isn’t Right in Brooklyn – Chamber of Commerce
Who is overseeing what is happening at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce?
I called 311 because I couldn’t figure out if the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce (or any of the NYC Chamber of Commerces) are NYC Government offices. Even 311 operators couldn’t figure it out and after 10 minutes the phone attendant told me that the Chamber of Commerce falls under NYC Department of Health and Hygiene. Yet, some chambers say that these are not-for-profit agencies with a 501c classification.
What’s strange about the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce?
- Last September, AirBnB gave the Brooklyn Chamber $15,000. The Brooklyn Chamber had to be aware that NYC has strict rules about housing to protect tenants (and sometime landlords too). Leticia James, the Public Advocate has protested against AirBnB and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal wrote and passed a bill to fine owners $7,500 for renting out entire buildings or for less than 30 days. Linda Rosenthal reminded people that this has been the law since 201o. Why are city and state government offices (Linda fighting for people’s rights while another agency is welcoming this company?
- There are affordable hotels in Brooklyn, so why would the Brooklyn Chamber President push Airbnb like this:
- The Brooklyn Chamber sent employee to represent the Chamber and intimidate a Brooklyn Property Owner with eminent domain proceedings for a walkway between areas of Coney Island. Adriana Scotti of the Brooklyn Chamber said this Coney Island project was necessary (REALLY?) Eminent domain should not have even been brought up because as the owner stated it was an abuse of eminent domain. The NYC Parks Department sold property to a developer in Coney Island and then the city went after Carol Murray. The City already had an EDC member at the meeting to present the findings on behalf of the city. Carlo Scissura served as Marty Markotwitz’s chief of staff before being the head of the Brooklyn Chamber, so he knows that the EDC was representing the city. There was no reason for anyone from the Brooklyn Chamber to be present except to intimidate the property owner. Murray’s family owned the Coney Island for 100 years. Coney Island is known for it’s amusement park so the City employees should have had more respect for this woman. I contacted Mark Treyger on this issue and he was lax and allowed Murray to stand alone. In 2007, my family and their elderly neighbor fought eminent domain in Downtown Brooklyn and Leticia James stood with the neighbor and brought hope to the property owners. If people have invested in Brooklyn, City Council members who were elected by the people should not be acting against them. *By the way, the “fair market deals” that are offered to owners are less than half the price of the property on the open market. City Council members need to not be so willing to fold to DeBlasio and be able to stand up for people who have invested in Brooklyn. Carlo Scissura, President of the Brooklyn Chamber was named King Neptune in Coney Island this year. Ironic?
- The Brooklyn Chamber has pushed another company called Cars2Go. Why is a private company allowed to use public space for free? Their garage is our city streets FOR FREE. Other car rental companies, need to pay to store their cars. Cars2Go is a good idea, but whoever allowed them to place their cars on our streets did the wrong thing for Brooklyn. Residents can’t find parking and that’s causing businesses in Brooklyn to suffer because people can’t find a place to stop for 10 minutes and pick up items while Cars2Go is all over our neighborhood. When I contacted Eric Adams about this last Fall, his office backed away from the issue. Four hundred cars were dropped in Brooklyn and then another hundred were put in the borough, yet Adams didn’t even investigate it. Adams could have recommended that Cars2Go use commercial plate sso they can not park on the streets overnight. Instead Eric Adams and his office DID NOTHING. Cars2Go had over $250,000 outstanding parking ticked fines in NYC. Reviews about Cars2Go are mixed.
In Bay Ridge parking spots are sparse so a resident wrote this:
Besides the issues above, there are just a lot of different things about the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce such as:
1) Employees at the Chamber of Commerce – The Brooklyn Chamber has three times as many employees. Something is not right here.
| Chamber | Number of Employees |
|---|---|
| Brooklyn | 34 listed – 4 job vacancies |
| Manhattan | 5 listed and some interns |
| Queens | 7 listed |
| Staten Island | 9 plus interns |
| Bronx | LinkedIn shows 1-10 employees |
| Chamber of Commerce | Cost for Membership |
|---|---|
| Brooklyn Chamber | $150 – $25,000 a year |
| Manhattan | $125 – $1,250 for large companies |
| Queens | $125 – $25,000 |
| Staten Island | $750 – $15,000 |
| Bronx | $350 – $2500 |
Hardly any businesses in my neighborhood, Bay Ridge belongs to the Brooklyn Chamber. Why? Maybe because they saw this review: Here’s a review of the Brooklyn Chamber . This person found the chamber to be:
- Not very helpful to startups
- Costly events and not great networking opportunities
- Waste of money.
- Waste of time.
b) There is an additional fee for businesses to use the Brooklyn made logo: http://brooklynmade.nyc/application-process Why are Brooklynites who own a business being nickled and dimed by the Brooklyn Chamber?
3) Web addresses – You should be able to tell if the Chamber of Commerce is a not for profit by it’s web address as you can with Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx addresses.
| Chamber of Commerce | Web Address |
|---|---|
| Brooklyn Chamber | http://ibrooklyn.com |
| Manhattan | http://www.manhattancc.org |
| Queens | http://www.queenschamber.org |
| Staten Island | http://www.sichamber.com |
| Bronx | http://www.bronxchamber.org |
4) Tourist info:If you search for Brooklyn tourism, you get this site. which links to visitbrooklyn.com – which doesn’t exist.
The Brooklyn Chamber is using a different site called Explore Brooklyn. Yhe webmaster has done a terrible job keeping the site up-to-date. My neighborhood of Bay Ridge only shows a few businesses. One is closed -> Robicelli’s Bakery closed in the Winter, but it still remains on the site.
Another -> The Pearl Room moved from 82nd to 85th Street months ago, but the Explore Brooklyn site still shows the old location on 82nd Street.
Finally, a store called The Lipstick Box store doesn’t have a website set up so when you click there link there is nothing. Yet the shop has a working Facebook page that the web design could have linked to. I didn’t check the other areas of the Explore Brooklyn site, but that’s a lot of mistakes for one neighborhood in Brooklyn! There are 30+ people working on the site and it’s odd that not one of them is checking that their website is up-to-day.
This Explore Brooklyn site also has a facebook page which is being updated with info, but tourists need hotels, restaurants and sites by area. Tourists look online for travel packages and deals. In contrast, Manhattan’s Chamber of Commerce site answers questions and links to a fantastic NYC owned tourism site.
5) Visits to Albany as Lobbyists Because they are Lobbyists!
In 2015, Scissura said that NYC should encourage larger stores to come to Brooklyn. Little stores are failing and Scissura is calling for more big box stores to come into Brooklyn?
Really – something is not right here.
Hugs,
marlene
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