To some, Sher Singh, a 79-year-old newsstand owner on 116th Street between Claremont and Broadway, is a rogue in the neighborhood.
Rose Parmar, a longtime newsstand owner across the street on the southwest corner of 116th and Broadway, says she’s lost business due to Singh’s new operation.
But despite continued neighborhood opposition against “the rogue kiosk” who opened in the spring, Singh said in a recent interview that he loves the neighborhood and is not going anywhere.
Last April, both the NYC Department of Transportation and the Department of Consumer Affairs approved Singh’s request for a license despite previous resolutions by Community Board 9 opposing the newsstand—which some local residents felt unfairly threatened Parmar.
Despite her customers remaining loyal, Parmar said recently that her sales have decreased in the past few months as a result of competition from Singh’s newsstand just across the street, as well as the slow economy and the rising cost of goods like cigarettes.
“Now it’s 10 to 20 percent less business, but later on, I don’t know,” she said.
Just across 116th street, Singh’s newsstand is similarly not pulling in the revenues he hoped it would. “The community is not buying,” he said. “But we have to wait, we just have to wait.”
Singh said his business was struggling during the summer months due to low traffic, but he said hopes that sales will pick up now that students have returned to campus.
Singh admitted that setting up his stand on a residential street was not a smart business move, but he stressed that it allows him to remain in the neighborhood. Of Parmar’s newsstand across the street, he said he is not in competition with anyone and is simply trying to do his job.
“Everyone has to earn a living somehow,” Singh said. “We are ready to do the jobs, but what jobs can we do? [Selling] something is better than nothing.”
Opposition against Singh surfaced in the spring with many residents and long-time patrons insisting that they would remain loyal to Parmar’s 22-year-old stand in front of Ollie’s Noodle Shop.
“I think we have been well-served by the newsstands that were already there,” said Theodore Kovaleff, secretary of Community Board 9. “We could have a newsstand at all four corners of the intersection and none of them would be profitable.”
According to Abigail Lootens, spokesperson for the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, “The application is reviewed by DOT [Department of Transportation] and the Design Commission, which includes a public hearing. If the newsstand gets DOT and Design Commission approvals, DCA must, by law, issue a license.” The community boards are involved in the review process, she added, but only have advisory power.
According to a spokesman from the office of Assembly member Daniel O’Donnell—who wrote a letter to DCA last spring inquiring about the approval process—once the newsstand meets DOT requirements, DCA cannot take the presence of nearby newsstands into consideration. O’Donnell spoke with DCA Commissioner Jonathan Mintz by telephone about a need to change the current procedure to incorporate community input.
Officials from DOT could not be reached for comment.
Morningside Heights resident and former state Assembly member Edward Sullivan said that system just doesn’t make sense. “The community board only has advisory power because you don’t want a community board to be able to block the services to a city at large. But this is so clearly within the jurisdiction of the community,” Sullivan said. “A change in the law would say, if the community board disagrees [with DOT or DCA], there should be a second review process.”
The community opposition remains a mystery to Singh. “Everything is legal here. Are we hurting anyone? We are not doing any harm to the community here. We are serving papers and sodas and snacks,” he said.
Madeleine Tramm, a Morningside resident of more than 50 years and activist behind last spring’s “Stop the Rogue Kiosk” petition, said she is surprised Singh is still in business today.
“People [in the community] are discouraged. What can we do? We’ve written to the officials and they haven’t responded,” Tramm said.
She said there were talks of a boycott, but that residents ultimately deemed it unnecessary. “It would only draw attention to the stand,” she said. “Whatever we have done is just in limbo at this point.”
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