By Matt Draper
Special to DNAinfo
UPPER EAST SIDE — More than a dozen Upper East Side business owners and residents held a rally Sunday afternoon to blast the MTA and the Second Avenue Subway project for hurting their businesses.
The rally was set up across the street from a blocked-off construction site at East 91st Street and Second Avenue. Local business owners said lack of store accessibility, unsightly construction areas and poor sanitary conditions continue to keep customers away.
"What the MTA has effectively done is turn our avenue location into a side street that nobody walks down," said Peter Yoo, a protester and employee at Buddha BBeeQ, a restaurant on Second Avenue owned by his mother, Young Yoo, an immigrant from South Korea. "It has completely curtailed our ability to grow business."
Business at Buddha BBeeQ is down 70 percent over the last two years because of decreased foot traffic due to subway construction, he said. The restaurant downsized its staff from six employees to three, and he serves as the only chef.
"My mom is a widow, and she’s an immigrant," said Yoo. "They’re destroying her actual last best effort to have a viable retirement. It’s her life savings in that restaurant. It’s her pension. It’s her future."
"It’s too easy to ignore people who are representing business," he said. "But I’m not here to represent business. I’m here to represent my mom."
The rally comes days after the MTA announced new amenities and improvements to the area, including repaved sidewalks, new light fixtures and maps to guide pedestrians.
But Norman Siegel, a civil rights attorney assisting the Second Avenue Business Association, a group created to help businesses affected by the construction project, wanted more from the MTA and public officials, including offering them financial assistance.
"We’re here to get the MTA, the mayor and the governor to rethink their missing-in-action approach to this," said Siegel. "The hope was not to engage in a threat, but to say, 'Look, here’s another chance to do the right thing and support the businesses.'"
