MAYOR MAMDANI, HELP THIS MAN! Executive order 11, good place to start.

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Hey everybody, how's it going? Hope you're having a lovely day. Welcome to today's episode of How a Small Business Owner in New York City is getting [ __ ] I'm your host, Lewis Rossman.

[00:00:06]I'd like to go over their case and see if we can get some attention to it. And hopefully if we can get some attention to it, we can try and improve some of these things. Even though I don't live in New York City anymore, even though I don't run a small business there anymore, I still have sympathy for the businesses that go through the plight that mind it. This business is called Brooklyn Uprising. They have a gym. I think this is Oh, god. Yeah. They're paying a lot more money than I paid for my store to be in this neighborhood. So, they're in Dumbo. This is a neighborhood that costs a lot of money. and they said this. We completed construction on our gym in March. Since then, we have been going through the painstakingly slow process of closing construction permits.

[00:00:35]We went into the Department of Buildings multiple times this week in hopes of securing our TCO before the holiday weekend. Then we learned we are on step five out of 11 in that process. At New York City Mayor, if you really do care about small business, please help. And what he's referring to here is an executive order that came out, executive order 11. The entire point of this was to try and reduce red tape that would hurt people's ability to start a business in the city. Now, what this person did that was a big grave mistake in my opinion is they actually gave a [ __ ] about going about it the right way.

[00:01:00]One of the things that you'll notice is that the Department of Buildings process, this is something you do if you're Starbucks that you do that if you're Whole Foods. You do that if you're Chase Bank or Trader Joe's or Best Buy or Madison Square Garden. You don't do that if you're a small business cuz none of them have money for this.

[00:01:12]When you see construction going on at a bodega, a corner store, any sort of small business or new restaurant, they're not going to the Department of Buildings to get things done. What they are doing very often is they are putting up some brown paper with some tape on the window. They are playing music inside so that there's plausible deniability that they're actually doing work in there. They are then doing construction. They do the construction in stints so that you cannot see when it's being done or let's say you'll do it now. So that if somebody saw the construction was being done by the time the inspector has the time to come by after the report, they don't see anything being done and then that loop just kind of keeps resetting itself. Or sometimes what they'll do is they'll take a permit that was open in the building because a lot of the times landlords forget to close really old permits. They'll take that and they'll put it on the window so it looks like there's a permit. And usually the person that works for the city that's, as I've gone over in my video series here, uh not often the the brightest at anything, are probably not even going to check to see if that if that permit is actually even valid anymore or for that business.

[00:02:04]And they just get the construction done and that's it. The reason that they don't go through the process properly is because they have to pay something called rent. And in New York City, rent is very expensive. I had a [ __ ] hole in the wall back in 2012. And that hole in the wall was about $3,500. At that point in my life, I had never had more than $7 or $8,000 in the bank ever. And here I was paying $3,500 a month in rent. So the moment that I start renting that thing, the second that I start paying, I need to get customers in the door immediately. There is no time to wait three or four or five or nine months to go back and forth to department of buildings over every little thing that I do. And the same is true for any of your bodeas or small consignment shops or small used clothing stores or any other small business you see small restaurants in New York City.

[00:02:43]What you will see they do is they will put up some brown paper and they will tape it to the window so that you can't see in and they will do construction in stints. They'll do it today but not tomorrow, today but not tomorrow. So that by the time they get reported for something, by the time the Department of Buildings inspector or somebody comes by to take a look inside the store and see what's going on, there's no actual construction going on. The reason that they do this is because it is impossible if you are paying 10 or 20 or $40,000 a month in rent to wait two or four or 9 months before you can open. You can do that if you have a gigantic loan. You can do that if you have [ __ ] AI bubble money. You can do that if you're Chase, Starbucks, or Whole Foods. You cannot do that as a small business. Most small businesses are not run by rich people, people that inherited money or millionaires or even 100ires. They're run by people that very often simply could not figure out how to integrate into the real world. Could not figure out how to get a job, so they started a company like me. When you're in that situation like this gym, you can't afford to pay 20 or 30 or $40,000 a month in rent for five or six or seven months without being able to charge people to actually use the gym. Nobody's going to pay him for his gym while it's not open, which means that this money is being paid out of pocket, which means that they are going to go out of business at some point and be like any of these other stores that I detailed in my dead neighborhoods walkthrough in New York City. There's this playlist I did right before I left where I was showing you what all these different neighborhoods look like and where you see all these places that used to be great small businesses that are now just empty space for lease, retail space for lease, retail space for lease, and nothing else. And it's very depressing.

[00:04:04]Now, you may think, "Yeah, they should go through the permitting process.

[00:04:06]Everybody should go through the permitting process." and true. But if your choice is be a millionaire and go through the permitting process or not be a millionaire and just do it this way, most people choose two because one is not an option for most people. Like there's not just like you can't just well why don't you just have more money thing. It doesn't work that way. Most people don't have more money. This is something that [ __ ] over many New York City small businesses. He actually tried to do it right. And because he tried to do it right, he got [ __ ] This is so common in New York City that when I was speaking to legitimate construction companies, like people that had real budgets that work as real clients, they were just on the street talking to me in plain view of everybody and explaining how they're going to do it. Oh yeah, we're going to build this thing so that they can't see inside and they won't be able to see that there's anything happening. We're going to get a simple permit. We're going to get a permit to build this little scaffold so that we can actually do all the work that's inside that would require different permits, but that they are not going to be able to see that anymore. And I'm just thinking to myself, okay, firstly, you just met me, Matt. You have no idea who I am. You don't know if I'm a narc.

[00:05:01]You don't know if I'm a snitch. You don't know if I'm a goody two shoes that's going to report you to the city.

[00:05:04]You don't know if I'm recording you. And and you're talking like this on the street. For all you know, one of these people walking by as you're talking with this loud voice is somebody that's going to actually hear all this. And what I I found so funny is that I'm not just talking about going to Home Depot and picking up a few people from the parking lot. I'm talking about people that had like four and a half stars on Yelp, five stars on Yelp or Google that had hundreds of reviews that have been in business for 30 years. Their default when dealing with anybody that is not worth $10 million is to just tell them, "Here's exactly how we're going to get around having to get permits so that you can actually deal with your business."

[00:05:37]And this is before I even mentioned any of this. It's before I I expressed any concern over timelines or permitting or anything else. It is a it is built into the structure in New York City that small businesses that are looking to do any sort of renovation are going to cheat because they cannot afford to go through this process unless they are a rich landlord, a Chase, or a Starbucks.

[00:05:56]And this is just one of the things that keeps people from being able to have a business in New York City. And it's one of the things that drives people away.

[00:06:03]I've gone over the many things that drove me out over the years. One of them is when I paid my taxes in full in 2012, they showed that they literally deposited my [ __ ] check. When I went to chase.com, I could see my deposited check. I could see the stamp on the back of it that said New York State Department of Taxation and Finance with a date. Four years later, they claimed I didn't pay my taxes. But they didn't tell me this. They told PO Box 824 or 278 or whatever the [ __ ] else in Berwick, Maine that I didn't pay my taxes. So, I had no idea that they didn't even think I paid my taxes even though I did. They sent a warrant and a lean to that PO box in Burwick [ __ ] Maine. And they never let me know. And that kept me from being able to get financing for many years. I don't know about you, when I make my breakfast and my morning coffee, I don't think to myself, hey, let me check if the state of New York just placed a random lean on me that they didn't send to me for a crime I didn't commit. There's another time that I renewed my license and they told me that I did not renew my license even though I had a copy of the receipt.

[00:06:52]There was nobody that I could speak to because the office wasn't open. There was nobody to call. There was nobody to email. And the only way that I was able to get any response to their request that I either renew my license, which I had already did, or close my company was to get featured in the local [ __ ] news after doing a video that got almost a million views. This is what I hung in the front of my store. It's an email from June of 2020. In July of 2021, they were claiming that I would have to close because I didn't renew my license. I sent this to Steve and Paul S. who were the managers at the time, and I quote, "If a Department of Consumer Affairs inspector comes in after the 30th and says that our license has expired, show them this that we paid for renewal. It takes them forever to send a new one. I sent this email in 2020 fully knowing that these pieces of [ __ ] [ __ ] that run the city were not going to send me my [ __ ] license because they haven't done it three or four times in a row."

[00:07:38]And I started to get inspected more once my business was a little bit more known on YouTube and online. I uh put this right next to my other license and a Pikachu card, which by the way is worth more than every single license there combined. Along with the NYC City Pay official email thanking me for my payment with my for my license renewal.

[00:07:53]I paid my license renewal a year in advance. They did not send it out a year [ __ ] later. And then they told me that I would have to close unless I renewed my license using paperwork that no longer existed because I had already renewed it. I don't know if this person has more followers than me. I haven't looked into them on social media. I'm going to take a wild guess that most people don't have millions of followers that they can use to get news attention when they get [ __ ] by the city of New York. I would hope that he's able to get through this process and reach out and find somebody who can actually help with that process a little bit faster as a result of me doing a video on it. But I don't know, the part that is the most frustrating for me is that it's this the subtle reminder every single day that I was in New York City that if you're worth less than $4 million, you're just kind of not really supposed to be there.

[00:08:32]And I I visited Zurich recently and I guess I think there the figure is probably closer to like $10 million. But that's the problem. That message is not solely delivered by hedge fund managers and rich landlords and CEOs and S&P 500 companies. It's very often delivered by the city government, by the people who you're paying taxes to to try and help you. They are the people that are reminding you in these subtle ways, hey, are you trying to run a business as somebody that has less than $4 million?

[00:08:56][ __ ] you. If you want to do things the right way, I know people that I showed this to and they're actually looking at me like, what kind of [ __ ] I'm not saying the gym people are morons to be clear. That's not my words. Like what kind of idiot is deciding to actually go to the department of buildings? And because to people who've lived in New York City and done business their whole lives as normal people who are not millionaires or multi-millionaires, I understand his point when he says somebody must be ignorant of the area, the culture, and the way things work to actually try to do things the right way.

[00:09:23]In other parts of the country, you're not an idiot for trying to do things the right way, but in New York, you are. It shouldn't be that way. This is one of the things that Mandani talked about when he became mayor. He released an executive order that sought to figure out what are the things that cause red tape in New York City that stopped businesses from being able to stay open.

[00:09:41]This was executive order 11. And I said I was in support of it. I actually emailed his office and said, "I will help you in any way that I can. I do not want money. This is not about cloud or getting a job or something for the resume. If there's any way, shape, or form that I can help future small businesses not go through the [ __ ] that I went through, I am more than happy to help in any There's also a New York Times article about here which I thought and I thought it was a pretty cool executive order. It doesn't seem like this is actually working. I don't even necessarily blame Amdani for this.

[00:10:07]He is going to be untangling a cluster [ __ ] that has existed literally before he was born. I think the mayor is younger than me. I think he's 33 or 34 years old. This cluster [ __ ] has existed for over 40 years. People have been cheating and getting around the system, not because they want to cheat and get around the system, but because if you live in New York City and you run a small business, it is literally the only way to stay financially solvent. If you are paying $20,000 a month for your gratty ass bodega that's half the size of my living room, you cannot afford to wait 6 months without making money. That is impossible. It is simply nonoption.

[00:10:38]So, if there is work that you need to get done to your business so that it is actually able to be opened, you are going to do that work whatever way you can. And most of the people, let's be real, I don't know a single [ __ ] company in the that was a small business in New York City that actually goes to the department of buildings that does everything through the permitting process. Even when I got my store, like this is a patio door that I had in my store. I said I found it for years. I put up this shitty patio door at my old store at 186 Avenue because I ran out of money to put my store together properly.

[00:11:05]I replaced with something proper 5 months later, but I never had proof of what it looked like before. Bada bing, winter 2012 patio door. Don't wait for perfection to build your dream. Do it now. Everybody in the block may laugh because you may like just literally be the only person in all of Manhattan with a patio door to a retail store. You might just be known around the world a few short years later. I got side eye from other business owners and some of my own customers for how the place looked. None of the people who did that are people I trade places with if given the choice to now. And I did a video on this a while back. Stop waiting for perfection. Get your patio door where I talked about this a little bit. And yeah, I you may notice that a few years later my store didn't have a patio door on it anymore. And they didn't have a filing with the Department of Buildings for it either. I don't give a [ __ ] Stop [ __ ] with small businesses. Stop making it impossible for them to stay open. Stop making it impossible or financially viable to be able to have a basic [ __ ] business in the city. Stop not doing your job. Stop putting people through this type of [ __ ] [ __ ] where you literally send out a [ __ ] lean in and a warrant on their company that ruins their financial standing for years without even informing them because you sent it to another [ __ ] state to a P.O. box that has nothing to do with me. Stop doing [ __ ] that causes the city to look like this.

[00:12:10]New York City gave me all the opportunities that I have in life. Being able to be surrounded by eight and a half million people that all come from different walks of life, different financial standings. Being able to meet all those people, being able to learn from all those people, being able to work at Avatar Studios under Philips Comb, Ricky Began, Gretchen Mathwitch, and uh Roy Hendrickson. That's something that I'll never forget for the rest of my life. Being able to get access to some old landlord like Allan Park that sees that I have no [ __ ] credit score, like I'm a complete bum. I have no history. and allowing me to rent a store on First Avenue, a few blocks away from NYU on a handshake in a city of 8 and a2 million people that I could have as a customer base. The business that I built up, I would not have been able to build that anywhere else. I would not have had 30 or 60 people with broken MacBooks and broken boards walking in every day that I could use to learn the different failure modes to be able to become a good technician and be able to do the videos I did, promote the company that I did, get to the point where I'm lobbying for right to repair in a more professional capacity and do all these things that I did. They came out of being able to start in a park in a city where it cost me $2 to get from one end to the other and go anywhere I wanted in a day and get access to a customer base of 8 and a2 million diverse people. I wouldn't have been able to build what I built anywhere else.

[00:13:18]And I'm sick and [ __ ] tired of seeing how dedicated they are to just running it into the [ __ ] ground. I'm genuinely frustrated. This is not like the [ __ ] New York because I'll get more monetization channel. I'm not Cash Jordan. I was able to get to where I am because of a ladder that no longer exists. And you guys are actively trying every step of the way to empty the [ __ ] city out so that nobody is able to actually get to where I was able to get to. And that pisses me off.

[00:13:41]Everything I've done with this channel from the very beginning. I'm not going to say, "Oh, I learned all this great stuff. Let me not tell anybody and just use it to promote my company more." No.

[00:13:48]I wanted to use everything that I learned and show everybody else how to do it so that everybody else could benefit as much as humanly possible. I wanted other people to be able to start businesses similar to mine. I wanted people to be able to do the work that I was doing, even if they didn't understand exactly where to get access to everything. And I wanted to make it all open and free. I'm not going back to New York after what I dealt with there.

[00:14:05]It pissed me off to see that there are other people like me that are doing their best to provide for themselves and their families and create some sort of service for the community, creates a place that could have some community, and you're doing your best to turn that space into another [ __ ] retail space for lease. Get your [ __ ] [ __ ] together and stop doing this to people.

[00:14:21]It really does piss me off. I don't like I I know I'm repeating myself at this point. I don't even [ __ ] care. It's so [ __ ] annoying. It's so like people, this is this idea that people have. I'll read in the comments all the time that like I moved here to make more money saving on taxes. My city here has 800,000 or 900,000 people. New York City has 8 and a half million people. Do you think that I make more money there with 8.5 million customers or here with 800,000 customers? There is no tax savings that makes up for losing 90% of your customer base. The reason that I am happier here is not because I make more money here. I make less money now than I did many years ago when my business was at its peak, at least from a company.

[00:14:58]Like, what makes me happy is that I don't have to deal with this anymore.

[00:15:02]And I'm willing to accept less money at this point in my life. I'm willing to accept that if it means that I don't have to lose my hair as fast as I was before. Whoever's in charge of this, please start taking it more seriously.

[00:15:11]Start going through these systems and really combing through them. Ask small business owners what their actual experience is like. Start asking as many questions as you can. Walk into those offices. Don't give a [ __ ] who you piss off, who aggravates, who's aggravated at you, who may not like you, who may say this, that, or the other behind your back, who's going to say this that may [ __ ] up your later per [ __ ] all that.

[00:15:27]Forget about the future of your career.

[00:15:29]Start thinking about the future of the city. I guarantee you, if I was in the position of small business, I would do this [ __ ] for free, I'd be going into every single one of these offices and getting answers and things would [ __ ] change.

[00:15:49]See you in the next video.