BY: Keith S. Shikowitz, Editor in Chief/Investigative Reporter
Pasta Cucina in Stony Point has been a staple in the town for nearly 25 years. Owner Mario Espana has been feeding the throngs of customers Italian food ranging from simple pasta dishes to lasagnas, chicken and veal dishes and many more. They offer catering, takeout and people can reserve the restaurant for parties of any kind. The restaurant has been thriving during this time.
Lately though with the work that CHPE (Champlain Hudson Power Express) has been doing along the Route 9W corridor from Congers all the way up to Stony Point and the additional work on the Stony Ponit Bridge project, Pasta Cucina has lost approximately 25 – 30 percent of its business over the past two years.
Espana explained a little about the business, “We do weddings, we do birthday parties, we do whatever comes over. You have people come in just to eat and dine in. We’re open 7 days a week. Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner. Saturdays and Sundays we open at one o’clock for dinner.”
During 25 years in business, Espana has seen a lot of changes in the neighborhood, and as far as the traffic goes, how’s business been overall?
“Since we got COVID that was the first strike that caused us to almost go out of the business, then this thing now with the CHPE work, that is killing us.”
Another thing that he says is hurting business is the government shut down. He says he can’t figure out why it is affecting business, but since the start of the shut down his business has gone down another 10% to 15%.
Does he think that the problems primarily have to do with the traffic situation from the CHPE work that’s going on in the in the in the 9W corridor. There aren’t that many federal government employees living up here that that could affect his business like that.
“You know, something though, I first of all, this thing with the with 9W it’s affecting us big time. I don’t say I’m losing 80-90% of the business, no, I’m losing like about 20, 25, 30%. Now, what I mean is I can’t figure that out if it if because now that the Stony Point Bridge is open, it is supposed to be back to normal. Then as I say, 30, 40 days business went back down again.
Espana is not the only one affected by this, what various people have called a disaster. Hundreds of businesses along the corridor have been losing money to the combined tune of close to $10 million. One guy said he’s losing 40% of his revenue.
“You have to understand something too though, everything is going up. I’ve had Pasta Cucina 37 years.
But being in business right now. I feel that that now is the worst time. Because remember everything is going up.”
Some people say because of the government shut down and the fact that the Trump economy under the BBB hasn’t completely kicked in, but once we start pumping our own oil, gas prices will go down, and other prices will come down with it. It’s just a matter of waiting for the government to reopen and things to start moving. Additionally, they say that under the Biden economy, the inflation was bad. You’re talking 9, 10%, 12% inflation averaged out. There were shortages of eggs and things like that, the supply chain stuff, the stopping the gas, the oil and gas prices up, you know, and that’s all stuff’s going to be coming down soon.
The main question here that business owners have been asked is, What do you want to see the politicians do? The collective answer has been for them to straighten out the stuff with the 9W corridor and the problems that CHPE is causing.
Espana said, “I think that all of us, in this area, we should get help from the government. One thing that I don’t understand a lot of times is an example. Our landlord from this place. He got a big chunk of money for them to be in this spot over here. What about us?”
Stephanie, Melowsky of the North Rockland Chamber of Commerce said the 100 businesses in the corridor have lost about $10 million combined, and then, and they’re offering $150,000 for everybody that’s an insult as far as she was concerned.
“Oh yeah, most definitely, and just remember that right now, Christmas is coming, and I hope, people, book a lot of parties and they spend a little more money because that’s another thing that I think everybody’s afraid to spend the money because they don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
A lot of times, even when the economy is good, sometimes people are afraid to spend money because they don’t know where or which way it’s going to turn. Falling back on what the economists have been saying about the economy is that coming out of the Biden economy into the Trump economy people are still leery because of the Biden economy and how bad that was and how much, devastation it put on people, on their on their base income. Once the Trump economy kicks in and things start to improve, people will be like, oh, okay, we’re getting more money back in our paychecks.
Two things that show that people are taking home more of their pay is that service people are not paying, taxes on tips anymore and people also aren’t paying tax on overtime.
Historically when there’s more money in people’s pockets, eventually it’ll trickle out. They’ll say we can go, have dinner out.
By their actions, not so much their words, Governor Hochul, the state and CHPE have basically been telling you guys, they’re not going to help you and we don’t care if you know you’re going to lose money and have to go out of business. But the lifeblood of any small town is its local businesses.
What do you have to say? Look right here in the camera, tell Hochul and, and the Democrat majority in the Assembly and the Senate in New York, what do you want them to do to straighten this out?
“Well, you know something, though, I think the main thing right now, we need help. I think all of us, I don’t say just Pasta Cucina. I think it’s all of us that, we need help from whoever is in charge of, you know, Rockland, whoever is in charge of Albany, PLEASE HELP US OUT!!!. That’s all I can say because money wise, all of us, I think we are struggling.”
Espana, like many other businesses, if not all of them have employees who rely on the solvency of their work place in order to get paid and take care of their families. It’s not just a small mom and pop operation that is run solely by one family. From all of the people I have spoken to and heard from in various venues, businesses are losing from 20 to 40% of their income. That comes out to a lot of money, especially when you are taking in six figure incomes annually.
That would mean in order to just break even with where they were before this disaster hit, they would have to lay off 20 – 40% of their staff. Staff that they may never get back even when this disaster is cleared up.
Whether you lay people off or not, you still have to pay them for their work at their current salary, BEFORE you pay yourself. You can’t just cut their salary 20 – 40% because you are losing that much money.
At various times during the day and night you see the trucks and stuff going through, you see them setting up everything. I mean, you know, when you look at that, what goes through your mind?
“First of all, you know something though. They are taking so long to do whatever they are doing. They are 2 years behind schedule. I can’t tell you how it’s supposed to do it because I don’t know anything about this. When I see these guys all over the place, it’s very, very depressing for us in business, like over here (he pointed to the far side of the parking lot). I see them one, you know, like the other day they blocked up the parking lot again and they left. They took everything out of here and they’re beautiful, they left. Guess what? 2 or 3 or 4 weeks after back again in the same spot, digging again and I’m like, they just left. Now a month off, they’re back again.”
What does that say to him as far as what he’s dealing with here, as far as the their ability to do the job and get it done so that the businesses can get back to normal life.
“I don’t want to say much because, again I don’t know much about this but. When I go to the meetings. In my head, right away, I start to think about what is the point of having this meeting? We’ve like 3 or 3 or 4 already. I don’t see anything.
Well, at the, roundtable, I was at the roundtable that they did. Bill Webber was there hosting it. Ed Day was there. Senator Ortt from, Northwestern NY, Senate minority leader was there. Stephanie Melowsky from the North Rockland Chamber of Commerce was there, and one of the gentlemen from the federal government was there.
I think the purpose of these types of meetings is for the elected officials to hear from the constituents what’s going on and the problems they’re having, and hopefully, I mean, they can at least try to get things done to help the businesses. As many times they hear things because, not everybody goes to every meeting. You’ve got people who went to one meeting but couldn’t make to others. It’s a chance for them to hear from as many of the business owners as possible, and hopefully kick somebody in the tail to get some things done.
“Yeah, but, look at what happened now. After they opened the bridge and everything is gone. You don’t see people talking about that anymore. I don’t see anybody online in about a month, 2 or 3 months ago, everybody was talking about this because the bridge was blocking off everybody’s access to everywhere now the bridge is open, but no more controversy. The damage is already done and who’s going to take care of nobody.
One suggestion that Espana can consider is to start posting stuff on Facebook. Have other people posting on Facebook saying, look the damage that was done to traffic by the bridge closure is over, but the damage that it did to the businesses is still here with us. If things don’t turn around, we’re going to be losing a lot of the small businesses.
“I think that’s going to happen. You know? Because remember right now, all of us in the food industry, we’re trying to do whatever looking forward to the busy season, we start to save the money for January, February because, in March we are very slow. So what are what are we going to do now if we don’t get no business? What is going to happen in January? In February You know, that’s in my head, that’s my thinking about that I’m like, surely, you know what I mean like we have to start to get busy. We have to start to see the business again so we can survive in the beginning of next year. It’s tough. It’s not easy.
As well as these disasters affecting the monetary part of his business life, there is an affect on his personal life that is on the line here. Espana has three people he is taking care of, him, his wife Maria and son John.
They are all in the same boat and it’s going to take a lot more than just $150,000 for 100 businesses to split in order to survive. Stephanie Melowsky said in the press conference Lawler had at the bridge, you’re looking at $10 million lost and that was two months ago.
“Oh right now forget it, but you know, but like I told you, the damage is already there. You know, the damage has happened already. So right now in this moment is when we need help. Like I’m talking about my, life.” Espana said pleadingly.
People have to remember, it’s not just his life and business in the balance here. All of the businesses in this corridor are in the same danger of failure. If something isn’t done to help these small businesses survive, the entire strip mall sand the entire 9W corridor could end up as a ghost town if, things don’t turn around.
“I don’t think, to be honest, I don’t think they care about us. I don’t think they’re even thinking about us because every time I watch the news since they opened the bridge, nobody talks about that anymore.”
With the Stony Point Bridge issue solved, the issue comes down to the rest of the 9W corridor with the construction or destruction as some people have called it, going on, and there was a guy down in Congers that pointed out that there was an explosion near his business the gas line had ruptured.
That’s dangerous stuff happening to people. You haven’t had anything like that around here, have you any with any major explosions or anything? Nothing blowing up from underground or anything?
Knocking on his desk, “No, nothing, nothing like that. We need to remember that it always could be worse.. I would love them to come over and say listen. One month of rent for everybody, even our landlord, he should say, listen, I’m going to give you a little break on your rent. I’m already here 25 years. Okay, you know, let me help you out. That would be a big help.
It’s a nice thought Espana had and that might help a little, but unfortunately, landlords are not too apt to, Say, OK, I’ll forgive a month’s rent, especially when you’ve got like 10 15 stores along the strip mall here, maybe more. You’re talking about them losing a few $100,000 at that point, I believe they’re not about to do that even with the aid they got from the state, or from CHPE.
“What about the state taxes? Listen, this month, don’t pay taxes. That will help, that will help a lot in New York. That will help a lot. Sometimes I go home and I might go surely, but listen, I mean it is what it is.”
Stress can cause people to lose sleep or at minimum, throw their sleep patterns off. How much sleep has Espana lost because of this?
“I mean, you know, when people are stressed, they lose sleep, but when, especially when you’re normal stress, having your own business, a lot of times people, they think that it’s easy. I run the place and when I go home and I don’t try to think about business in my house and that was our system. I always say to my wife, don’t bring anything from Pasta Cucina to my house and my house to Pasta Cucina, trying to keep that separate.”
This is a great philosophy. Separation of work life from home life. In some professions it’s a necessity because of legal and privacy matters. But with the current situation, this has become impossible for Espana. When he goes home he is worried about making his payroll and bills for the business as well as for his home and family. This is something he has never had to deal with before. Even his sleep pattern is totally disrupted. Many nights he is only sleeping two to three hours a night. This has also affected his overall health.
“When you don’t sleep the sugar goes up. This goes up, that goes up. I used to wake up every morning like 6 or 7 o’clock and go and walk or running or the gym. I haven’t done that in like about 6 months. I haven’t had the energy. Because when I wake up I’m like I have to go back to sleep, or I have to go to work, or I have to do this. You have to look happy no matter what, even if you are breaking inside, you get it’s tough. It’s not easy to keep a smile on your face to your customers when inside you’re asking yourself, ‘can I make my bills,’ I’m asking this because it’s something that I’ve heard other people considering. You have to make up money.”
One way for businesses to make up for lost revenue is to raise prices. Whereas that would help, it has it’s drawbacks. The main drawback is that people will see the prices go up and stop coming. This would add to the loss of revenue.
Espana agrees with this. “Do you know the problem is when you raise prices right away people they know, and the say, ‘I used to pay this much even now sometimes, why the penne ala vodka is too much, why the chicken parm is too much or why the fish is too much.’ You know something though everything’s going up.
If you raise the prices right away if you cut like portion size people will complain or just stop coming. Then you’re out of business.”
“It is, it’s crazy right now, crazy. I’m hoping that it will change and they’ll get this stuff done and things will hopefully get back to normal. I think there’s going to be a lot of publicity needed to go out to the community and to Rockland and North Jersey after it’s all done, so hey, we’re back open. I am saying this straight from my heart, I think this is worse than COVID. With this thing now, and even with the bridge situation over, it’s crazy.”
Pasta Cucina does do delivery, the question here is, has this situation affected its delivery service? Espana pointed out something and then asked me a question.
“All day and night long, you’d hear the phone ringing for delivery and takeout. How long have you been over here right now? Almost an hour? Did you hear the phone?”
I hadn’t heard the phone ringing.
“I don’t, that’s why I said to you, I don’t know if you people, they are saving the money, or they don’t want to spend the money or they don’t have the money. Who knows? It’s a lot of things in my mind that I’m trying to figure it out.”
“Give me one last plea to look right here and say something to Governor Hochul. What’s your plea to her?
He then asked a very legitimate question, Why don’t they sit together and listen to us? First of all, we are paying them to be there. They’re working for us.