January 14, 2025 • 9 mins
Alan Rosen speaks with Mendte in the Morning about congestion pricing. Alan discusses how the plan is affecting businesses in the congestion area.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, congestion pricing. I don't care if it works
or not. I don't even know what the success rate
would be. I'm not sure except for money, except for
grabbing money because it hurts so many people. We've had
firefighters on the air, they talked about how much it
is hurting them. We of course have had commuters on
(00:20):
the air, people that can't pay it, They just can't
afford to pay it. Nurses and waiters and waitresses who
are now forced into the subway system, which of course
is unsafe. And this is all caused by General Lieber
and the end in the MTA and the incompetent governor
we have Kathy Hochel. But how about businesses? How about
(00:44):
businesses in Midtown in the congestion pricing zone. Did they
even think of them? Did they even think about how
that would affect them. On the line with us right
now is Alan Rosen. He owns Junior's Restaurant, famous for
their cheesecakes, but they have so much more than that. Alan,
(01:05):
thank you so much for joining us. You have two
businesses in the congestion pricing zone.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I have two of the larger restaurants in New York
City inside the congestion zone. Thank you for having me
this morning.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Sure, no problem. I thought that was important to point
out because it's going to be double the cost for you.
How much is this affecting you?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So you know, the jury is still out on how
much it's affecting me. But what I find kind of funny,
you know, alluding to what you were saying earlier, Jana Lieber's,
you know, doing a dance at how traffic has been
reduced immediately. But I wonder if he's ever worked in
a restaurant or a parking garage, or a Broadway theater
(01:47):
or any other type of retail shop in the congestion
pricing zone that could be affected and somebody in effect
could lose their job because of this. You know, traffic
might be freed up, but that could mean you know,
I don't know how many fouls of less visitors to
New York City every day.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, no, I understand that. I also and you have
these men and women and working for you. I bleed.
I really feel bad for the people who work in
restaurants who have to work in the city over the night.
The waiter, of the waitress, of the bartender that doesn't
get off until two in the morning, or the nurse
(02:25):
that has to be in or the construction worker that
has to be in early. They can't afford it. They
can't afford it.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Not only then, they can't afford it, and they can't
afford not to use their cars because, as you pointed out,
they're going home at two to three in the morning.
And if the subways were perfect, but you and I
both know they are not. They're less perfect now than
they've ever been. To be totally transparent, maybe they'd have
a shot. If crime was down and there was no
quality of life issues in New York, we could focus on,
(02:55):
you know, getting people onto the raws and stuff like that.
But it just seems to me ill timed, a cash grab,
no doubt, or regressive tax against the people and working
people of New York who can least support it. And
it's just to me, it's again another example of our
government doing what they want to do, overreaching, and even
(03:16):
you know, the governor to say she wasn't going to
put it in play way till after the election then
put it in place seems so disingenuous to me that
you know, it just stinks.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
You said it's too early to really see the effect.
Has there been any effect whatsoever? Right now?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So overall compared to last year, we are down fractionally
a little more than fractionally, to be honest. But there
was also some cold weather last week, So I don't
want to judge based on one week's data. You know,
the same thing I'm accusing the MTA, which is celebrating prematurely.
I want to give this time to play out and
(03:55):
be more pragmatic in my approach to everything I do
before I say. But as I said, they're saying car
traffics down, they think that's a great thing. I just
want to make sure that visitors to New York City
aren't down.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
You know, you're supposed to be the good guys by
the way, Yeah, you know, the people that have businesses
in midtown. Then it seems like every regulation, everything that
comes out hurts businesses in the midtown. Talk about this
new charbroial rule.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
It only gets stillier by the minute, Larry. So the
other day I became aware of a new dep ruling
or law coming down that was passed years ago. I
guess not enforced that if you cook over eight hundred
and seventy five pounds of meat on an open flame
in New York City, and you don't have a certain
(04:45):
way to clean your smoke, and you do it on
an open flame, as we have been doing a Juniors
for seventy four years. You're going to have to get
a new broiler and or fix your exhaust. And I
just found out this morning they're gonna have to register
your tar broiler. And you know what goes with registering
a char broiler a fee? How I mean, it almost
(05:10):
makes you feel like you don't want to do business
in New York City. We have four hundred employees in
the city. We have one hundred and fifty in Brooklyn,
and they're going to punish you for cooking a burger
on an open flame. Look at what we have going
on in the world. Okay. We have forest fires in
Los Angeles. Okay, and I'm not making light of that.
(05:30):
That is a serious situation, Okay. And there the DP
is going to have a hearing on hamburger smoke.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah. And the reasons for this, by the way, they
should be celebrating you if they talk about a cash grab.
The taxes you pay and the employees you bring and
the people you bring to the city they should be
celebrating that and saying to you, what do you need?
Not making your job more difficult. I just don't understand.
(06:02):
I don't understand the rationale of the mind of people
that run government, that feel like they see you, and
I'm sure you feel this way. They see you and
their first thought is how can we make more money
off of them?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
And when they I think, you know, I'm start to
interrupt our celebration. What I do want is some mutual respect.
You know, many of these politicians, as you just noted,
they probably have never worked in a fast food restaurant
or a regular restaurant, or delivered newspapers or all the
stuff that I've done. I mean, I've spent a career
(06:38):
developing myself into a restaurant tour and our employees are
hard working and they want to be safe. We don't
want we don't want to be overly regulated, but we're
not doing anything so bad. The fact that they have
to go after eight hundred and seventy five pounds of
steak or hamburgers only is a reflection on them and
the absurdity of this government over me. And it's gotten
(07:01):
to the point where, I mean a lot of if
I didn't have such a good business, i'd leave.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, I get it. I understand. I completely understand because
after a while you feel like you're not wanted. I
can't imagine this congestion price. In getting back to that,
the effect on your employees. Have they talked to you
about it?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, So we have employees who come from New Jersey
and it's almost I think it's twenty seven dollars in
change to get to work. It's nuts. Yeah, Kimy, I
don't even know how to address it's so much money
per day. If you work five days a week, it's
almost one hundred. No one can afford that, but you know,
(07:43):
it's I didn't do the math, but I think it's
seventy five hundred dollars. Ye.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Have you lost anybody because of this yet or do
you expect We haven't.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
We have not lost anyone yet. Going to We're going
to talk about it in our meetings, and you know,
make sure that everyone has alternative solutions. Change some schedules
if we have to, if people are not close to
public transportation, and make some accommodations where we can. We
don't want to. We don't lose anybody we're we're a
family type of restaurant operation, and we treat our employees
(08:12):
that way, and so we'll work it out like family
always does well.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I wish the city would learn from that on how
to treat your employees, because in very many ways, you're
contributing to the city and you're just like your employees
that show up every day they make this Do you
make the place better? They make your place better. You
make our place better by just being there and existing.
But they don't tell you like that.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
They You know, what makes New York City so wonderful
is all those occasions to go to New York Broadway shows, dining,
sporting events. Of course, we all have to go to
work every day. Why do we want to penalize people
for doing that?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Absolutely amen to you.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Living their lives in a free way. You want to
take the train, take the train, you want to take
the bus. To take the bus, you need to drive
your car. You know there are people that are unable
to get into the city of the subway. My mom's
eighty three years old. She's not taken a train to
get to the city.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Alan Rosan, the owner of Junior's Restaurants, thank you so much.
I hope things get better for you, but I'm not
sure they're going to under at least this administration,
You know, congestion pricing. I don't care if it works
or not. I don't even know what the success rate
would be. I'm not sure except for money, except for
grabbing money because it hurts so many people. We've had
firefighters on the air, they talked about how much it
is hurting them. We of course have had commuters on
(00:20):
the air, people that can't pay it, They just can't
afford to pay it. Nurses and waiters and waitresses who
are now forced into the subway system, which of course
is unsafe. And this is all caused by General Lieber
and the end in the MTA and the incompetent governor
we have Kathy Hochel. But how about businesses? How about
(00:44):
businesses in Midtown in the congestion pricing zone. Did they
even think of them? Did they even think about how
that would affect them. On the line with us right
now is Alan Rosen. He owns Junior's Restaurant, famous for
their cheesecakes, but they have so much more than that. Alan,
(01:05):
thank you so much for joining us. You have two
businesses in the congestion pricing zone.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I have two of the larger restaurants in New York
City inside the congestion zone. Thank you for having me
this morning.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Sure, no problem. I thought that was important to point
out because it's going to be double the cost for you.
How much is this affecting you?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So you know, the jury is still out on how
much it's affecting me. But what I find kind of funny,
you know, alluding to what you were saying earlier, Jana Lieber's,
you know, doing a dance at how traffic has been
reduced immediately. But I wonder if he's ever worked in
a restaurant or a parking garage, or a Broadway theater
(01:47):
or any other type of retail shop in the congestion
pricing zone that could be affected and somebody in effect
could lose their job because of this. You know, traffic
might be freed up, but that could mean you know,
I don't know how many fouls of less visitors to
New York City every day.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, no, I understand that. I also and you have
these men and women and working for you. I bleed.
I really feel bad for the people who work in
restaurants who have to work in the city over the night.
The waiter, of the waitress, of the bartender that doesn't
get off until two in the morning, or the nurse
(02:25):
that has to be in or the construction worker that
has to be in early. They can't afford it. They
can't afford it.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Not only then, they can't afford it, and they can't
afford not to use their cars because, as you pointed out,
they're going home at two to three in the morning.
And if the subways were perfect, but you and I
both know they are not. They're less perfect now than
they've ever been. To be totally transparent, maybe they'd have
a shot. If crime was down and there was no
quality of life issues in New York, we could focus on,
(02:55):
you know, getting people onto the raws and stuff like that.
But it just seems to me ill timed, a cash grab,
no doubt, or regressive tax against the people and working
people of New York who can least support it. And
it's just to me, it's again another example of our
government doing what they want to do, overreaching, and even
(03:16):
you know, the governor to say she wasn't going to
put it in play way till after the election then
put it in place seems so disingenuous to me that
you know, it just stinks.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
You said it's too early to really see the effect.
Has there been any effect whatsoever? Right now?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So overall compared to last year, we are down fractionally
a little more than fractionally, to be honest. But there
was also some cold weather last week, So I don't
want to judge based on one week's data. You know,
the same thing I'm accusing the MTA, which is celebrating prematurely.
I want to give this time to play out and
(03:55):
be more pragmatic in my approach to everything I do
before I say. But as I said, they're saying car
traffics down, they think that's a great thing. I just
want to make sure that visitors to New York City
aren't down.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
You know, you're supposed to be the good guys by
the way, Yeah, you know, the people that have businesses
in midtown. Then it seems like every regulation, everything that
comes out hurts businesses in the midtown. Talk about this
new charbroial rule.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
It only gets stillier by the minute, Larry. So the
other day I became aware of a new dep ruling
or law coming down that was passed years ago. I
guess not enforced that if you cook over eight hundred
and seventy five pounds of meat on an open flame
in New York City, and you don't have a certain
(04:45):
way to clean your smoke, and you do it on
an open flame, as we have been doing a Juniors
for seventy four years. You're going to have to get
a new broiler and or fix your exhaust. And I
just found out this morning they're gonna have to register
your tar broiler. And you know what goes with registering
a char broiler a fee? How I mean, it almost
(05:10):
makes you feel like you don't want to do business
in New York City. We have four hundred employees in
the city. We have one hundred and fifty in Brooklyn,
and they're going to punish you for cooking a burger
on an open flame. Look at what we have going
on in the world. Okay. We have forest fires in
Los Angeles. Okay, and I'm not making light of that.
(05:30):
That is a serious situation, Okay. And there the DP
is going to have a hearing on hamburger smoke.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah. And the reasons for this, by the way, they
should be celebrating you if they talk about a cash grab.
The taxes you pay and the employees you bring and
the people you bring to the city they should be
celebrating that and saying to you, what do you need?
Not making your job more difficult. I just don't understand.
(06:02):
I don't understand the rationale of the mind of people
that run government, that feel like they see you, and
I'm sure you feel this way. They see you and
their first thought is how can we make more money
off of them?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
And when they I think, you know, I'm start to
interrupt our celebration. What I do want is some mutual respect.
You know, many of these politicians, as you just noted,
they probably have never worked in a fast food restaurant
or a regular restaurant, or delivered newspapers or all the
stuff that I've done. I mean, I've spent a career
(06:38):
developing myself into a restaurant tour and our employees are
hard working and they want to be safe. We don't
want we don't want to be overly regulated, but we're
not doing anything so bad. The fact that they have
to go after eight hundred and seventy five pounds of
steak or hamburgers only is a reflection on them and
the absurdity of this government over me. And it's gotten
(07:01):
to the point where, I mean a lot of if
I didn't have such a good business, i'd leave.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, I get it. I understand. I completely understand because
after a while you feel like you're not wanted. I
can't imagine this congestion price. In getting back to that,
the effect on your employees. Have they talked to you
about it?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, So we have employees who come from New Jersey
and it's almost I think it's twenty seven dollars in
change to get to work. It's nuts. Yeah, Kimy, I
don't even know how to address it's so much money
per day. If you work five days a week, it's
almost one hundred. No one can afford that, but you know,
(07:43):
it's I didn't do the math, but I think it's
seventy five hundred dollars. Ye.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Have you lost anybody because of this yet or do
you expect We haven't.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
We have not lost anyone yet. Going to We're going
to talk about it in our meetings, and you know,
make sure that everyone has alternative solutions. Change some schedules
if we have to, if people are not close to
public transportation, and make some accommodations where we can. We
don't want to. We don't lose anybody we're we're a
family type of restaurant operation, and we treat our employees
(08:12):
that way, and so we'll work it out like family
always does well.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
I wish the city would learn from that on how
to treat your employees, because in very many ways, you're
contributing to the city and you're just like your employees
that show up every day they make this Do you
make the place better? They make your place better. You
make our place better by just being there and existing.
But they don't tell you like that.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
They You know, what makes New York City so wonderful
is all those occasions to go to New York Broadway shows, dining,
sporting events. Of course, we all have to go to
work every day. Why do we want to penalize people
for doing that?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Absolutely amen to you.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Living their lives in a free way. You want to
take the train, take the train, you want to take
the bus. To take the bus, you need to drive
your car. You know there are people that are unable
to get into the city of the subway. My mom's
eighty three years old. She's not taken a train to
get to the city.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Alan Rosan, the owner of Junior's Restaurants, thank you so much.
I hope things get better for you, but I'm not
sure they're going to under at least this administration,
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