Sign Fines 'Break The Backbone' Of NYC Small Businesses: Electeds

NEW YORK CITY — A decade-old deli sign will cost its owners upward of $13,000 after the Department of Buildings demanded the awning be redesigned by an architect and the owners pay a hefty fine.

"Of course it's a hardship," said Bronx building manager Grey Wolf, who has spent months trying to comply with difficult-to-understand regulations that landed him with a $6,000 fine and the bodega without means of advertising.

"A building without a sign is a sign of a building without a business."

Wolf and his tenant, deli owner Walaed Almozalem, were among dozens of small business owners who gathered on the steps of City Hall Wednesday afternoon to support City Councilman Rafael Espinal's proposed legislation to put an end to surprise sign violation fines.

"It's no secret the city is willing to give $3 billion to Amazon," said Espinal. "We're calling on City Hall to take action and do right by our mom-and-pop businesses."

Espinal's proposed legislation would reinstate a lapsed moratorium on a 1961 New York City law that empowers DOB inspectors to hand out "debilitating" fines that range from $5,000 up to $20,000, he said.

The Bushwick lawmaker's legislation also calls on the city to provide refunds to more than 900 New York City businesses that have been fined since the first moratorium lapsed in 2017.

Espinal was joined store owners, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Bay Ridge City Councilman Justin Brannan in criticizing the DOB's enforcement of the sign regulations.

"You hit the streets with a sledgehammer of tickets that break the backbones of these small businesses," Adams said. "And it breaks the backbone of our community."

"They head out there with lights and sirens like it's a murder case," added Brannan. "It's the weaponization of our 311 system."

DOB officials argued at a City Hall public hearing in June that the sign regulations did not cause undue hardship and would be difficult to refund.

"Running a comparable program for a subset of signage violations would be a costly endeavor," said spokesman Patrick Wehle. He also argued the awning rules serve a vital purpose.

"These regulations exist to protect people from dangerous and illegally installed signs," Wehle said.

Espinal's press release notes many store owners were ticketed because their signs displayed telephone numbers or words with an improper font size.

Photo by Kathleen Culliton