 Hello, welcome everyone. I'm Varun Kataria. I'm the owner of the Turks Inn and Salton Room in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Thank you. We are a restaurant bar nightclub in Bushwick. I'd like to welcome Mayor Eric Adams to our space and to express gratitude for the efforts this administration has made to assist our industry through unprecedented challenges. Hospitality is a hard gig. The hours are long, the margins are thin, and that was before we had to work through a global pandemic. But we do it because we love it. We believe that what we do matters and contributes greatly to the spirit of this city. What would New York be without its restaurants, bars, and clubs? They are our gathering places, our places of work where memories and careers are made. There are safe spaces for misfits and the marginalized communities of this city where so much culture and joy is fostered. Historically, our industry hasn't always had favorable interactions with the machinery of government. So it's incredibly refreshing to see that the challenges we face are recognized by the mayor's office. What we're doing here today is just another example of the support we're getting from the city. This bill written by council members Powers and Brannon cuts back on our liquor license fees. When it comes to reducing the cost of doing business, every little bit helps. Thank you for everything you do on our behalf, and I hope that you continue to have our back. With that, I'd like to introduce Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City. You promised me I was going to have a T-dose and sell some. Okay, all right, all right, we're going to do a toast in a minute. Now, I want you to think back, go as far back as you can possibly go. And you tell me, has there ever been a mayor that enjoyed the nightlife of the city like I have? But when you think about nightlife, don't think about the beautiful club that we saw downstairs. You know, do what I do, go into the kitchen, speak to the dishwasher, the waiter, a waitress, talk to the person behind the bar, talk to the people who are cleaning up after it closes. And you'll understand that our nightlife industry is more than a place that plays good music. It is a place that allows people to have the symphony of possibility in their lives. This is an important industry. The city does not end at 5 p.m. What we do from 9 to 5 helps one population, but what we do from 5 to 2 a.m. helps another population. That's why we're out here. And we look at what these councilmen did in introducing the bill and legislation. It's stated to all New Yorkers, we have everyone's back. This is a financial ecosystem that if we lose one part of it, it's going to impact another part of the ecosystem. And so I thank you for this beautiful space. I'm going to be coming here and hanging out. And I thank you for our partners here that they just get it. And you have an amazing borough president who is just pushing it through, making this borough continue the excitement that it deserves. I sat down with Con Edison's once at a meeting and they stated that after 7 p.m., the electricity drops throughout the entire city, but one borough, it increases. And that's Brooklyn. The electricity goes through the roof. People enjoy this borough so much. This puts real money back in the pockets of those who struggle during a difficult time. It's estimated to be $6.5 million. This was a small piece of legislation. We're going to continue to find ways of empowering our small businesses and our nightlife establishment. That is the order that the commissioner has put in place of what we're doing by removing all of those rules that stopped you from being profitable. We're going to continue to be partners in doing that. And I'm just really happy that this is a time, the administration, that just gets it. And we like to get stuff done. And this great council, these council people right here, they got it done for us. Thank you very much. Hi everyone. City Council Member Keith Powers. First of all, I want to start on the sponsor of the bill. And I want to first of all, and I will agree, it is amazing to have a mayor who understands and recognizes the importance of nightlife, hospitality, restaurants and bars to this city. And I think we should give him another round of applause. And this is not the only thing that he's doing. We've been out there standing in my district in Koreatown talking about removing fines and fees for small businesses all across the city. But this is such an easy and common sense proposal. I always say, why did we not do this sooner? And when I called Council Member Brannon, our finance chair, when we were talking about the budget, and I said, I think we should partner and do this together, we both looked at each other and said, this is so common sense. And yet the bars and the restaurants and the businesses and artisans are going to appreciate that the City of New York and the City Council and the mayor are actually reaching out a hand to them to say, how can we help and how can we use all resources to help you. And the story, my life story is that my dad was a bar owner. My dad owned a bar in Stuyvesantown where everybody went and hung out. And I spent a lot of my young days in that bar. It was my first job as well, was busing tables in that bar and my dad's restaurant after that. And when you open your books every single month, as a small business owner, not a big corporate chain, but two guys owned a restaurant and a bar in their neighborhood, and you open your book every single month, you're still worrying about how are you going to pay the rent and how are you going to pay your employees and how are you going to afford the liquor and the food and how are you going to make this business survive. And when you see the City come forward and say, we have some ideas too, I think it is quite, I hope, refreshing to see the City step forward and actually volunteer our services to make their lives better. And this one particularly is just so common sense. We should not be charging small businesses the right to have our liquor license that we as a city don't even issue ourselves. It's so, and you were a state liquor commissioner. I know you appreciate that. We have a duty and a right in this city, particularly at this moment, to be helping out these industries that have been hurt so much during the pandemic. And I want to thank Andrew Ridgey. I want to thank all my friends over here who are doing a lot of advocacy to make sure that their industry has a voice. And our job as elected officials is to listen and to do something about that voice. So on behalf of people like my dad who are out there right now wondering how they're going to pay the bills next month, I want to say thank you to everybody here for advocating for an industry that is New York City. This is New York City. This is what happens the 9 to 5 we get lunch and it's, I go to 4 a.m. sometimes, but I have a little more in me, but the other 9 to 4. But it's so important to us and I really want to say I hope we can continue doing this. I hope we can extend this even further. I think we continue fighting this industry. But on behalf of every New Yorker who's I think appreciating, it's not in here, but we'll appreciate that we're here fighting for these businesses. I say a very big thank you to the mayor and his whole administration for being here today and reminding New Yorkers that we are here to help them. Thanks so much. And I think I am now want to recognize and bring up my partner and our finance chair, Justin Brunham. Thank you. The true story is Keith called me up and said I have an idea that's going to get us free drinks in every bar in the city. I said hit me with it. Let's hear it. You know, I don't think you'll find a politician who doesn't love saying that small businesses are the backbone of the city. It sounds great. Everyone agrees with it. You can't get in trouble saying that. But what does it mean? If you don't back it up with actually helping small businesses, it's just words. It's nothing. Small business are the backbone of the city. All right. Good night, everybody. What is that? Right? It's about what are you doing to actually help small businesses? I was a former, I'm a recovering small business owner. My wife and I owned a business for a long time. I played in bands for 20 years and played in places like this. Now I'm in bed by about 4 p.m. with a hot cup of cocoa. But it's about having a mayor who you can go to with an idea and he goes, that sounds good. Can we do it? Let's do it. It's that easy. That's how it's supposed to be. We need seven years of hearings and figuring out if it's possible. See if it's possible. Can we legally do it? Do we have the jurisdiction as a city to do it? Let's do it. People complain about taxes. The dark secret is that unfortunately the city doesn't control a lot of our own taxes. So we'd love to bring all this stuff down, but we can't do it without Albany's help. We found something here that the city actually controls and we said, what are we doing? Let's get rid of this. It makes no sense. And we're actually, like the mayor said, literally putting money back into the pockets of small business owners that it took a miracle to run a small business before a global pandemic. Now you got to walk on water on a daily basis to survive. So we're doing everything we can. We're putting our money where our mouth is literally and figuratively as a city to make sure that small businesses truly believe that we believe as your local elected officials that you are the backbone of this city. So we're really, really happy to be here today. I now want to call up our Brooklyn Borough President. He's still the Borough President for Bay Ridge as well. We're checking the charter. The Brooklyn Borough President, Antonio Reynoso. All right. Thank you so much. That's the number 10 most powerful Brooklynite according to city and state. So you're around a lot of power here today. So first and foremost, I just want to say welcome to everyone to the center of the universe that is Brooklyn, New York, which is the most important thing. And I keep telling, I always tell the mayor, he doesn't need to say that anymore. So I'll say it for him. He called me the other day and said, hey, you got to say a little more when I'm around. I was like, I got you, Eric. Don't even worry about it. But it's true. Look, the nightlife in this city employs hundreds of thousands of people that otherwise are in the shadows. They're behind the bars, in the kitchens, washing dishes, all jobs that I've done except cooking, washing dishes, busing tables, and tending bar to people in the city of New York. It's been a tough two and a half years. People are dying to get out. These businesses need people to get out. And we should be doing everything in our power to make it as easy as possible for them to do well. That's what we should be doing. I push forward the outdoor dining bill to do just that. To have that conversation, the governor made it so that we can do to go drinks. The mayor is now eliminating the fee for liquor licenses. This is what businesses have been telling us for decades. There's a bunch of nonsense in our code, in our laws, that we could just turn around overnight and help small businesses. But we never do it. But every candidate runs and says they'll do something. And then it goes in deaf ears. And then we've got to wait another eight years for the next candidate to tell us the same thing. Well, this mayor said the buck stops with him. He's going to do it. And it's mostly because he likes hanging out a lot. That's what it is. And he needs to make sure that he walks around and gets us at least a dollar off of these drinks. You know what I mean? No, but I do want to say that. I think it's important that people understand that every bit counts. This business gets to invest an extra $250, $300, $400, $500 to do something else, to pay his workers more, to fix a back of a bar, to fix an electrical issue, to deal with a speaker system. It all matters. It all adds up. And I'm happy to be here in Brooklyn supporting our mayor for thinking these things through and also actually getting stuff done. It's important that we know, yes. Councilmember Brandon said it. It's true. We have studies for everything. I'm surprised we didn't put this through a study for seven years. And he said, why do we need to study this? Everybody knows it's practical. It makes sense. Let's get it done. This mayor doesn't tie anything up. He just does it. And I really appreciate that. And I'm glad he's back in Brooklyn, his home space, doing the best he can. And I'm excited to come back here. This is, I've been here before. I love this place. If you know anything, take time to hear the story of this owner and what they did to make this space special. And what makes New York special is because they do things like this. So thank you so much. Don't forget to spread love. It's the Brooklyn way. Thank you. And now I'll call up Andrew. Come on, Andrew. Thank you. So nightlife. I mean, this is some of the stylist nightlife people right here. Andrew Ridgid, the New York City Hospitality Alliance. It's made me 17 or 18 years. I've been fighting on behalf of restaurants and nightlife. And through most of those years, it was hosting press conferences, fighting about government against them, what we didn't like, what we didn't want to see. I think in the past six months, we've probably done 17 press conferences about what can we do to help small business, help our restaurants, help our nightlife. And the borough president was spot on. You hear the story about how this restaurant, the nightclub, the whole business exists, what they did. You see people like Megan Joanne here that have just especially throughout the pandemic fought tooth and nail for the future and survival of the industry. Because we know our city never recovers unless our nightlife, our restaurants, our hospitality is at the core of the recovery. And talking about communication with government, people are asking, what do we do? Council Member Powers, Brannon, the Adams Administration, what can we do? We're talking about the big picture issues. Yes, outdoor dining, streamlining the permitting licensing process. But when you speak with small business owners, they'll give you a long list of small items that are not insignificant, but they're very important. And they impact them every single day. I was talking with Max Bookman over here who works with a lot of restaurants and bars and saying how many times they get someone a liquor license. And all of a sudden they get a bill in the mail for hundreds of dollars saying, I thought I already paid my liquor license fee to the state. Why am I getting this taxes surcharge from the city on top of that? The privilege of employing people in the city, of paying taxes in the city, having an incredible business in the city of New York, it didn't make sense. And it's amazing to have leadership like the council members, like the mayor, who are standing up, eliminating this surcharge, suspending it, working on so many different issues to make sure that we're not only just thinking about the normal nine to five, right? But also the five to nine. Because there's a lot of people in this city that impact. So I want to thank you all. Glad you're all here. And let's keep going, right? Because what are you, get stuff done? I don't know who I'm introducing.