Survey Aims To Understand Changed Bed-Stuy Business Landscape

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — A new survey will seek to help Bed-Stuy businesses by getting to know how the neighborhood landscape changed through the tumultuous obstacles brought on by 2020.

Council Member Robert Cornegy Jr., the city's Department of Small Business Services and Bridge Street Development launched the "Bed-Stuy Merchant Survey" this week, according to an announcement from Cornegy.

The project asks Bed-Stuy merchants to fill out a brief survey about their challenges with the aim of helping officials work on solving them.

"COVID-19 has changed our neighborhood landscape, and we need to adjust to the realities of 2021," Cornegy writes.

The survey comes as, like the rest of New York City, Bed-Stuy enters a new year of responding to the economic woes of the coronavirus crisis.

Experts fear the financial strain could close a third of small businesses in the city. It has already left a drastic number of vacant storefronts throughout the five boroughs.

Bed-Stuy was no exception. Patch recently began compiling a listof businesses that were lost last year.

The survey is among many efforts to sustain businesses that survived the year. In 2020, neighbors showed their support through fashion shows, winter wonderlands or fundraisers.

The changing landscape is also due to some neighbors who also found new opportunities and opened new businesses, including, most recently, an Acai bowl shop or a new burger joint.

The Merchant's Survey takes about 10 minutes to complete, according to Cornegy. Find the survey here.