Business & Tech
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Join the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce and Become Part of the Solution
While there are signs of increasing business activity in downtown Flushing, Queens, many restaurants and mom-and-pop stores continue to suffer from the COVID-19 pandemic related economic downturn as well as the sharp rise in scapegoating against Asian Americans fomented by anti-immigrant politicians and media.
Our community must come together against hate and violence if we are to survive this pandemic and get back on our feet. Please come out and support our small business community, including our local restaurants and mom-and-pop stores. Join the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce and become part of the solution.
Clodagh McGowan from NY1 News recently interviewed our members about this issue. Here's an excerpt:
Find out what's happening in Flushing-Murray Hillfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
For many businesses in Downtown Flushing, the economic burden started even before the city shutdown.
The Lunar New Year is typically the busiest and most profitable time of the year in Flushing, but officials said anti-Asian discrimination kept people from traveling to the area last year. John Choe, who heads the Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce, said that xenophobia has continued into 2021.
Find out what's happening in Flushing-Murray Hillfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“Part of the problem is that we still have this bias against Asian communities. Attacks on Asian Americans that are related to the pandemic in the sense that people are blaming our community for what’s going on here. And the businesses are getting the residual impact of that as well,” said Choe.
Down the block, James Chen was busy when NY1 stopped by. He owns Blink Marketing. He prints menus, T-shirts and fliers for 2,000 restaurants across the country. Many of his customers are in Flushing, but he said about 20% of his clients shut down during the pandemic. He estimates it'll be another year before businesses are back on their feet.
“Still, there’s a long way to go. With the inflation that’s going on, rent is still very high. And a lot of customers still refuse to dine-in to most of the restaurants here in Downtown Flushing, which they heavily depend on dine-in customers because the rent they’re paying does not justify take-out only,” said Chen.
Watch the video and read more at NY1 News.