CHL
A Facebook post that went viral earlier this month resulted in a lively discussion about the amount of guidance and assistance a minority-owned business in Rome has received from the city she pays taxes in.
Shelley Gardner purchased a former Caribbean restaurant and adjoining lot at 401 W. Dominick Street in Rome, beautified the location, and opened Gardner’s Farm to Table restaurant, which offers soul food and locally produced foods.
Gardner’s Farm to Table is one of a small number of minority-women owned businesses in Rome and the entire Mohawk Valley region. In recent years, New York State has set more ambitious goals to boost these businesses.
Gardner’s recent Facebook post recounts what she says is her futile attempt to get assistance through the City of Rome’s Community and Economic Development Department.
“Rome City government has refused to give Gardner’s Farm to Table any financial support, and Community Block Grant funding the city receives are earmarked for women and minorities first,” Gardner wrote in the post.
In a follow-up interview several days later, Gardner says three or four visits to Rome City Hall yielded no encouragement at all for her business. “I’ve been given zero in any kind of actionable or even inactionable suggestive measures, or even friendliness—not even to the point of expressing gratefulness I inquired,” Gardner said.
Gardner feels the City of Rome provides grants with impunity, without a watchdog agency to review this type of funding. “I have never applied for any funding, because every time I went to the City, they said nothing was available, and I was not even guided toward potential future sources of funding,” Gardner said. “This wasn’t just a one-time entrance—I’d look at one site (for the restaurant) and be told there is nothing. Then, I’d ask again and be told nothing was available. They could at least help with a low-interest loan, or a facade or awning grant, but I haven’t even been able to get that, or a tax abatement.”
Rome Mayor Jackie Izzo recalls Gardner requesting a façade grant prior to owning the building she is currently in. However, Mayor Izzo informs, “Façade grants are only available to property owners. And it is a first come first serve policy. We don’t have an Economic Development person or programs. We are limited to CDBG for low to moderate income residents but applications are accepted for the State CFA program as well as MVEDGE grants.” Izzo did approve Gardner’s request for a bike rack for her Gardner’s Farm to Table Restaurant and encourages Gardner to apply early in 2021 for the façade grant.
Gardner points out that existing higher-level assistance—such as certification of Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises is an extremely detailed process that is daunting at best for a small business owner.
Mayor Izzo agrees that the MWBE application process is extremely involved and herself opted out of completing the application for her own private business.
What seems to be missing in upstate New York is an agency or entity that works on a regular basis to ease the roadblocks and provide encouragement to minorities seeking start-up or expansion assistance.
One effort ongoing in New York City has drawn a number of partners with the goal of developing and expanding the number of financially sustainable Black businesses in New York City from two percent to 22 percent in the next two years. Meetings and focus groups have been developing a written strategy for achieving this to present to those seeking office in New York City.
We would encourage state and local officials to buy into this approach at the state level, so that the existing goal the state has to boost contracts to minority and women-owned businesses can be achieved—and so new and existing smaller businesses get the guidance and nurturing they deserve to be part of the economy of the Mohawk Valley and the rest of upstate New York.
