NYC Unveils $8.4M Boost for Small Businesses, From Greenpoint’s Shops to Chinatown’s Lanterns

On a steamy Monday morning, Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood beneath the shade of scaffolding on Bayard Street, flanked by Greenpoint deli owners and Chinatown jewelry merchants. The reason: an $8.4 million lifeline for New York City’s small businesses—a package designed not only to bolster existing merchant groups but to seed new ones in corridors where mom-and-pop shops are facing their toughest summer in recent memory.

The grants, rolled out this week by the Department of Small Business Services, are earmarked for neighborhood merchant associations and business improvement districts (BIDs). In Greenpoint, a chunk of the funding is going straight to the local merchant group, which has seen foot traffic dip as residents decamp to the Rockaways and upstate cabins. Meanwhile, along Mott Street, small grocers and lantern shops will get support to keep the lights on and the sidewalks lively as Chinatown’s night markets draw late-summer crowds.

A portion of the funding is set aside for neighborhoods that have never had a formal merchant association. In Queens’ Jackson Heights, where taquerias and sari shops compete for attention, city officials are working with business owners to jumpstart a new corridor-wide group—one that can advocate for everything from street cleaning to outdoor dining permits.

The move comes as many business owners grapple with rising rents, construction detours, and a shifting summer economy. “Every dollar will help us keep our doors open through September,” said Linh Ngo, who runs a family bakery on Avenue U. City Hall’s hope is that these grants will translate to more organized, resilient commercial strips—places where local businesses can band together to weather the city’s economic crosscurrents.

With the program kicking off this month, merchant leaders are already sketching out plans for late-summer sidewalk festivals, block beautification, and collective marketing aimed at both weekday locals and tourists chasing the city’s August energy.