The pandemic has battered New York City businesses, with almost 6,000 closures, a jump of about 40 percent in bankruptcy filings across the region and shuttered storefronts in the business districts of all five boroughs, Bloomberg News reported. “By late fall, there will be an avalanche of bankruptcies,” said bankruptcy lawyer Al Togut. “When the cold weather comes, that’s when we’ll start to see a surge in bankruptcies in New York City.” Already, dwindling tax revenue has led to cutbacks in municipal services. Trash on sidewalks, unkempt parks and an increase in shootings have made it more difficult to persuade workers to return to offices, more than 150 executives told the mayor in a letter this month. “It’s a crisis, and we need to act — our economy can’t recover without saving small businesses,” said city Comptroller Scott Stringer, a candidate in next year’s mayoral election. The pandemic could permanently close as many as a third of New York’s 230,000 businesses, according to the Partnership for New York City, a business group. “Retail and real estate will continue to decline in New York until you can reignite the office traffic,” said Joseph Malfitano. Many New York City business owners who give up don’t even bother filing for bankruptcy, which can cost as much as $25,000, according to bankruptcy attorney Leslie Berkoff. Owners just lock the doors and walk away. “Nobody’s going to chase you right now,” said Berkoff. “A lot of your vendors probably aren’t going to survive either.” Almost 6,000 New York City businesses closed from March 1 to Sept. 11, according to Yelp, the website of user reviews. Over 4,000 of those closed permanently.
