Mayor de Blasio Considers Providing SBS Support to Assist Small Businesses in Creating Websites

By Yehudit Garmaise

If we can’t beat Jeff Bezos, why don’t we just join him?

   Although Mayor Bill de Blasio, the Boro Park Jewish Community Council, and BoroPark24.com have been encouraging New Yorkers to “Shop Local,” one slight problem with that idea is that we are still in the middle of a pandemic, in which shopping online is an extremely safe and convenient way to get the things we need.

   Instead of only trying to get people to go into the stores in their neighborhoods, this morning, BoroPark24 asked the mayor whether he would consider using the resources of New York City’s Small Business Services (SBS) to help small business owners to create their own websites, so that customers can “Shop Local,” while continuing to shop online, a habit many of us do not see breaking anytime soon.

   In addition, attractive, easy-to-use websites could significantly increase the sales of Boro Park businesses because “out-of-town” Jews all over the U.S. could then easily buy online the many items they usually can buy only by visiting Brooklyn. 

    “[The need for local businesses to have good websites] is a good point all around,” said Mayor de Blasio was added that the SBS has made some efforts to help some small business to create websites, but he “wants to do a lot more and go deeper into communities.”

     In fact, the mayor said that he would ask the SBS’s Commissioner Jonelle Doris to follow up about the city providing web design and technical support by doing “special outreach into Boro Park and other communities.”

   “This is exactly something that government can do: provide that technical expertise, show people how to set up those web sites,” the mayor said. “Let’s keep these dollars right in the community. However you shop, shop local this holiday season.

     “I want to say to all New Yorkers, shop local, shop your city. Folks might be tempted for health and other reasons do their shopping online, but you can still shop from local stores online, to the maximum extent humanly possible.

 Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.