Photo: Woodhaven Business Improvement District Executive Director Maria Thomson this week continued to defended her efforts to promote commerce along Jamaica Avenue and asked for more input from the community going forward. Forum Photo by Michael V. Cusenza.
Responding to recent expressions of frustration with the current business conditions of Jamaica Avenue—specifically the proliferation of 99-cent stores, delis and the perception of vacancies along the historic commercial strip—Maria Thomson, executive director of both the Greater Woodhaven Development Corp. and the Woodhaven Business Improvement District, told The Forum that she would welcome any assistance in helping area businesses thrive.
Last week, Thomson addressed those concerns and more with the thoroughfare at the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association meeting.
“I told [the WRBA]: Bring me business cards,” Thomson said about a week after the meeting. She asked area residents to bring her the business cards of the owner or operator of a successful establishment who does not have a presence on Jamaica Avenue, and that she will try to recruit them to the shopping district.
In a letter to the editor in this week’s Forum, Thomson also said that the BID cannot legally determine who can open what type of business in the community.
“It is up to the potential store owner to determine whether he/she can do business in the community and up to the landlord to rent it to these stores, she wrote. “These potential stores and landlords have no obligation to come to the Woodhaven Business Improvement District in regard to any of their decisions. Also, if the Woodhaven Business Improvement District stated that they did not want an additional deli or 99 cent store they could be sued for restriction of trade.”
Asked about his constituents’ issues with Jamaica Avenue and the BID, City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) said, “Maria Thomson has done over the years a phenomenal job representing the business community on Jamaica Avenue. I don’t think she is to blame for the fact that we have an abundance of 99-cent stores, because she has no say in who can open a store and where; and she has no control over the [commercial] rents that have steadily increased year after year. If people have constructive criticism, I want to hear it, but just knocking Maria is unfair. She lives and breathes Woodhaven the way other people do not. And that’s worth a lot in my book.”
By Michael V. Cusenza michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
