Mayor Disputes Westfield's Low Ranking On Small Business List

WESTFIELD, NJ — Westfield landed smack at the bottom of a list of 1,337 "Best Small Cities to Start a Business" released by WalletHub last week — but Mayor Shelley Brindle said she's not too concerned, citing the town's appearance at the top of several other recent lists.

Brindle noted Westfield's high ranking in lists such as Best Places to Live over the past year, and said the methodology of the recent business list seemed vague. "Anyone can manipulate any data they choose and create a story out of it," she said.

Shelley responded after a slate of five Republican candidates hoping to unseat her Democratic administration issued a press release on Monday calling the ranking "embarrassing."

WalletHub released the results of the survey last Tuesday, calling it "2021's Best & Worst Small Cities to Start a Business."

Six of the top 10 were in Utah, with the others in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Florida.

Westfield was among several of New Jersey's more popular cities that appeared at the bottom of the list, including those known for their nightlife. Hoboken landed two spots behind Westfield at 1,335. Other New Jersey towns in the bottom 15: Bayonne, whose waterfront is developing; Bergenfield, Fair Lawn, Clifton, and West New York. Atlantic City appeared four spots behind Westfield at 1333.

WalletHub, which frequently puts out lists such as "Best and Worst Cities for Dating" and others, says that for their methodology for this one, "Our data set of 20 key metrics ranges from average growth in number of small businesses to investor access to labor costs." The costs of office space also played a part, as well as number of startups per capita, and average revenues per business.

The Republican slate hoping to defeat Brindle in November cited the ranking in their press release Monday, and also referred to a matter in which a Republican state senator criticized, on Friday, Westfield's use of state pandemic funds.

"This has been an eye-opening and frankly embarrassing week for our community," said a joint statement from mayoral candidate and former Councilwoman JoAnn Neylan and her slate of four council candidates, "after multiple news outlets reported on a national study that cited Westfield as the worst small town in America to start a business. Westfield is a special place that has long been defined by our attractive downtown, and the unfortunate reality now is that our local economy is failing."

The slate also noted a statement made on Friday by State Sen. Sam Thompson, who listed what he claimed were "abuses" of pandemic funds for main street businesses throughout the state. Among them, said Thomson, "Westfield’s agency was given money to waste on frivolous expenditures. Their funded requests included: purchasing 3,000 canvas tote bags emblazoned with the agency’s logo; buying new 'canvas covers for parkettes'; hiring a New York City-based consultant at a proposed cost of more than $200 per hour; and renting a storefront for a holiday greeting office."

Mayor Brindle said Monday, "Unfortunately, when people are being partisan, they like to take things out of context." She said the tote bags were for shoppers and were part of a welcome center created to drive foot traffic to small businesses during the holidays.

Downtown Westfield had announced in November that they had won a state grant for holiday initiatives. READ MORE: Westfield Gets Grant To Bring Holiday Shoppers Downtown

Brindle said the initiative involved gift-wrapping and other perks for customers, and that it was a "wildly successful" program of which everyone was proud.

Westfield has separately raised funds to help local business owners, and local businesses have received federal PPP funds and other government initiatives.

The slate of mayoral candidate and former Councilwoman JoAnn Neylan wasn't impressed.

"The fact is there are over 55,000 square feet of vacancies in our downtown, not counting Lord & Taylor," said their statement. "The abandoned stores and constant turnover of new business are obvious to anyone who passes through. We acknowledge that the private sector and specifically small businesses have shouldered the majority of the pain as a result of COVID-19; however, it appears as if competing downtowns such as Cranford and Summit are not struggling nearly as much as Westfield."

Last fall, the town began working with Streetworks Development as part of its ongoing planning for the future of the closed Lord & Taylor site. A forum was held on the matter in December.

The group took a shot at Brindle: "It is time for a change in local leadership in Westfield. The mayor and council are elected to serve as our leaders."

Brindle said that Neylan could have made more changes during her six years on the council and while acting as deputy mayor, and that Brindle ran for mayor four years ago partly because she didn't see proactive planning for businesses.

She cited ordinances passed during her term to make it easier for rooftop dining, breweries, and maker spaces to open in Westfield.

Of the press release, she said, "It's unfortunate that they chose to make political hay out of this. If they do that while running for office, how supportive will they be of local businesses while in office?"

See the WalletHub findings and list here.

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