“We must confront a basic but often overlooked truth: supporting small businesses means investing in the commercial districts they rely on.”

A small business in The Bronx in 2023. (Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit.)

This primary election season offered a powerful takeaway: new approaches can disrupt even the most entrenched establishments. Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, though lacking big money and relying heavily on digital tools, managed to reshape the conversation by deploying strategic tactics to connect with New Yorkers.

For our city’s small businesses, this lesson offers powerful possibilities about what’s achievable when underdogs embrace a new playbook—one that they too can use to survive and thrive.

In New York City, microbusinesses—those with fewer than 20 employees—account for roughly 15 percent of the city’s 4.3 million private-sector workers, employing approximately 635,000 people. This figure doesn’t even include the estimated 65,000 app-based delivery workers who support many of these businesses, nor the growing number of gig workers and sole proprietors who emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In New York City, these businesses are concentrated in industries like food service, retail, personal care, and professional services and are decidedly not located in shopping centers. Instead, they are central to the vitality of our city’s retail streets and corridors. That is why we must confront a basic but often overlooked truth: supporting small businesses means investing in the commercial districts they rely on.

Retail is undergoing a period of profound transition. Hybrid work has reshaped daytime foot traffic in many commercial districts, leading to a decline in weekday worker spending. At the same time, consumer behavior is increasingly shaped by social media—more than 60 percent of all retail sales are now digitally influenced, according to the National Retail Federation. Gen Z and Millennial shoppers—the first fully digital-native consumers—are coming to expect seamless experiences that bridge online and offline environments. And if small businesses can’t keep up, they risk falling behind.

But this moment isn’t just about technology. The fundamentals of street-level retail still matter. For retail districts to thrive in this new day and age, they must be places where people want to be. Based on decades of experience working with commercial districts across the country, I believe our small business policies shoud be grounded in three enduring principles that help create streets that attract and retain consumers:

Access matters. Successful commercial corridors are easy, convenient, and comfortable to reach. That requires a multimodal approach to access: reliable public transit (trains, buses, ferries), safe biking infrastructure (one Toronto study found that replacing 12 parking spaces with a bike lane quadrupled retail sales on that block), walkable streets, and yes, in some cases, parking.

Public spaces drive foot traffic. Safe, clean and attractive public spaces and destination-worthy amenities help bring people to local businesses. District-level marketing campaigns are especially valuable for small businesses with limited capacity to promote themselves. Parks, plazas, and street improvements also make a difference. When I lived in Jackson Heights, a trip to the P.S. 69 playground with my son often ended with a stop at Lety’s Bakery on 37th Avenue. That kind of everyday synergy between public space and small business strengthens neighborhoods.

Access to capital is essential. Competing in today’s market requires investment—in digital tools, physical improvements, and storefront enhancements. But among small businesses, capital is scarce. According to JPMorgan Chase, U.S. small businesses have an average of just 27 days of cash reserves; for Black- and Hispanic-owned firms, that number drops below 21. And outdated signage regulations—largely untouched in the City of Yes for Economic Opportunity—often prevent businesses from promoting themselves effectively. We need to enable more flexible options like blade signs, sandwich boards, outdoor displays, and affordable options for outdoor dining.

Yet another looming challenge that we must grapple with is the generational transition already underway—what some call the “Silver Tsunami.” Nearly 73,000 businesses in New York City are owned by Baby Boomers who will retire or transition out in the next decade. Without support, these businesses risk closing rather than being passed on. With the right tools in place, we can facilitate handoffs to family members, employees, or emerging entrepreneurs.

To meet this moment, City Hall must align the often-siloed programs and policies that touch small businesses—across agencies like Small Business Services, Transportation, Sanitation, and Planning. This requires strong mayoral leadership with a clear, integrated vision for our city’s small businesses. 

New York is at a crossroads. We have the opportunity—and the obligation—to reimagine what small business support looks like in a 21st-century city. Now is the time to seize it. 

Larisa Ortiz is managing director of the public and non-profit solutions team at Streetsense, a former New York City planning commissioner, and the architect of the City’s Commercial District Needs Assessment (CDNA)—a framework developed with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) for the NYC Department of Small Business Services.

The post Opinion: Street-Smart Strategies for NYC’s Small Business Future appeared first on City Limits.

By MATT BROWN and MICHELLE L. PRICE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Joe Biden’s physician has asked to delay his testimony before the House oversight committee this week, citing the need for an agreement that will respect doctor-patient confidentiality rules as part of the investigation into Biden’s health in office.

Dr. Kevin O’Connor, who served as Biden’s physician at the White House, requested a delay until the end of July or early August “to reach an accommodation that will protect the very substantial privilege and confidentiality interests of Dr. O’Connor and former President Biden,” according to a letter from his lawyer sent to Rep. James Comer of Kentucky on Saturday. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter.

A spokesperson for Oversight Republicans said the committee will follow the House’s deposition guidelines, which allow for witnesses to assert privilege on a question-by-question basis, with the committee chair ruling on each claim. But O’Connor is not allowed, in the committee’s view, to delay or decline a congressional subpoena due to concerns over questions about potentially privileged information.

The back-and-forth is part of a broader struggle over the scope of the House Republican inquiry into Biden’s age and mental fitness, with serious implications for both politics and policy. Republicans have also claimed that some policies carried out by the White House “autopen” may be invalid if it is proven that Biden was mentally incapacitated for some part of his term.

Biden has strongly denied claims that he was not in a right state of mind at any point while in office, calling the claims “ridiculous and false.”

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The House Oversight Committee first requested O’Connor testify before the committee last July, but the Biden White House blocked his testimony. Comer renewed his request in May and later subpoenaed the doctor in June.

David Schertler, the attorney for O’Connor, in the letter said the committee is refusing to “accommodate to any degree Dr. O’Connor’s objections” over protecting privilege. He said the committee’s decision was “unprecedented” and “alarming” and warned that it threatened broader principles around medical privacy.

Scherlter said O’Connor could face “serious consequences” for violating his obligations as a doctor, including losing his medical license.

In a June subpoena of O’Connor, Comer said that claims of physician-patient privilege under the American Medical Association’s code of ethics “lack merit” because that code is not part of federal law. He said the committee’s subpoena meets the AMA’s own requirement that physicians must share a patient’s medical information if “legally compelled to disclose the information” or “ordered to do so by legally constituted authority.”

Comer has promised that the committee will make all its findings public in a report after the inquiry has finished. He has subpoenaed O’Connor and Anthony Bernal, former chief of staff to former first lady Jill Biden. The committee last month heard voluntary testimony from Neera Tanden, former director of Biden’s domestic policy counsel.

The committee has also requested the testimony of nearly a dozen former senior Biden aides, including former White House chiefs of staff Ron Klain and Jeff Zients; former senior advisers Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn; former deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, former counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, former deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and a former assistant to the president, Ashley Williams.

The Trump White House has waived executive privilege, a principle that protects many communications between the president and staff from Congress and the courts, for almost 10 senior former Biden staffers. That move clears the way for those staffers to discuss their conversations with Biden while he was president.

While the privilege can apply to former staffers, the decision of whether to waive it is decided by the sitting administration.

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government of El Salvador has acknowledged to United Nations investigators that the Trump administration maintains control of the Venezuelan men who were deported from the U.S. to a notorious Salvadoran prison, contradicting public statements by officials in both countries.

The revelation was contained in court filings Monday by lawyers for more than 100 migrants who are seeking to challenge their deportations to El Salvador’s mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.

The case is among several challenging President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

FILE – The exterior of the Terrorist Confinement Center as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrives, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

“In this context, the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities,” Salvadoran officials wrote in response to queries from the unit of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The U.N. group has been looking into the fate of the men who were sent to El Salvador from the United States in mid-March, even after a U.S. judge had ordered the planes that were carrying them to be turned around.

The Trump administration has argued that it is powerless to return the men, noting that they are beyond the reach of U.S. courts and no longer have access to due process rights or other U.S. constitutional guarantees.

But lawyers for the migrants said the U.N. report shows otherwise.

“El Salvador has confirmed what we and everyone else understood: it is the United States that controls what happens to the Venezuelans languishing at CECOT. Remarkably the U.S. government didn’t provide this information to us or the court,” American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Lee Gelernt said in an email.

Skye Perryman, CEO and president of Democracy Forward, said the documents show “that the administration has not been honest with the court or the American people.” The ACLU and Democracy Forward are both representing the migrants.

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A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. White House and Homeland Security Department officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The administration in March agreed to pay $6 million for El Salvador to house 300 migrants. The deal sparked immediate controversy when Trump invoked an 18th century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to quickly remove men it has accused of being members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

In a related case, the administration mistakenly sent Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the same prison, despite a judge’s order prohibiting the Maryland man from being sent to El Salvador.

The administration initially resisted court orders to bring him back to the U.S., saying he was no longer in American custody. Eventually, Abrego Garcia was returned to the U.S., where he now faces criminal charges of human smuggling while legal battles continue.

Last month, a coalition of immigrant rights groups sued to invalidate the prison deal with El Salvador, arguing that the arrangement to move migrant detainees outside the reach of U.S. courts violates the Constitution.

After serving in the role for more than two years, History Theatre artistic director Richard D. Thompson has stepped down from the St. Paul theater company.

Local theater veteran Laura Leffler will serve as interim artistic director in partnership with managing director Karen Mueller, the company announced Monday, adding that further announcements regarding the transition and leadership plans will be made “in due course.”

Richard D. Thompson (Courtesy of History Theatre)

Thompson has more than 30 years of experience as a director, administrator, choreographer, educator and performer, including extensive work with History Theatre. He succeeded Ron Peluso, who retired in January 2022 after 27 years at the theater.

“Richard’s impact on History Theatre has been nothing short of transformative,” said president of the board John Sebastian in a news release. “He brought artistic excellence and a strong sense of storytelling to every aspect of his work. We are grateful for the vision he shared with us and proud of all that was accomplished during his tenure.”

Thompson said the past two years have been among the most meaningful in his career, but that the job ultimately wasn’t right for him.

“After much reflection, I’ve come to realize that my true passion lies in the creative process itself — developing work, collaborating with artists and centering my energy on the artistic journey of directing plays, operas and other performance pieces,” he said. “I’ve decided to step away from the administrative responsibilities of leading an organization so I can focus exclusively on my artistic practice. I leave History Theatre with tremendous gratitude and excitement for what lies ahead for both myself and this extraordinary company.”

Leffler has specialized in creating new works for the stage and new play development during her career. She co-founded and was the artistic director for 13 years of the now-sunsetted Savage Umbrella/Umbrella Collective, a collaborative theater ensemble dedicated to social issues, women and LGBTQIA+ theater.

She also served as the associate artistic director of St. Paul’s Park Square Theatre from 2017-2019 and has worked with numerous local theaters, including the Guthrie Theatre, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Children’s Theatre Company and the Playwrights’ Center.

Leffler’s first credit at History Theatre was directing “Superman Becomes Lois Lane” in 2020. She joined the staff in 2022 as new works and producing associate, producing and directing in the annual Raw Stages Festival. More recently she directed “The Boy Wonder” and “Whoa, Nellie! The Outlaw King of the Wild Middle West.”

“I am humbled to be entrusted to lead History Theatre through this transition,” Leffler said. “With genuine excitement, I am committed to continuing our vital mission of telling the history of real stories and real people.”

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