Mayor Eric Adams gave one of his best speeches to-date at the NYC Small Business Month Expo at Pier 36 this week, creating analogies between child rearing and entrepreneurship, and how loving New York City is like being in a marriage… Since divorce isn’t an option, political personalities, allow us to focus on those who are making this marriage work, starting with our BID leaders like James Mettham of Flatiron NoMad Partnership (home of the portal to Dublin); Matt Bauer, Madison Avenue BID; Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Nightlife, Jeff Garcia, who just returned from a nightlife conference in Dallas, and Calvin Brown, Deputy Commissioner for Neighborhood Development at NYC SBS, who played a major role in getting nearly 10,000 people to attend the first-ever expo!
Former NYC Schools Chancellor now president & CEO, The Bronx Community Foundation, Dr. Meisha Porter joined in on the dance party at the end of the ReThink Foods fundraising event at Tribeca Rooftop with her colleagues, the Foundation’s co-founders, twins, Derrick and Desmon Lewis… Council Member Julie Won was spotted at the same event earlier in the night with both of her children, Rex and newborn Rush, being carried in a holster by the Council Member’s mother…URI’s Wil Lopez also on the scene, overheard sharing the latest from his org in Council Member Amanda Farias’ district, first-of-its-kind shelter housing where tenants can bring their pets… If you were in the room that evening you also would have seen social entrepreneur Junior Martinez being honored with a POTUS Lifetime Achievement Award, or heard about Council Member Julie Menin’s role in helping to secure funding for a $2.5 million initiative to teach kids about the Holocaust, a program in partnership with Battery Park’s Museum of Jewish Heritage: a Living Memorial to the Holocaust…
On Long Island, the HIA-LI trade show at Suffolk Credit Union Arena, sponsored in-part by Sands New York, brought out over 400 businesses to discuss economic development and procurement opportunities across the Island. Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter was on the scene in a neon pink blazer as was Babylon Town Councilman Anthony Manetta, chair of the small business committee… Dan Lloyd’s Minority Millennials hosts its second annual ‘We Are the Future’ summit today, which held a pre-conference kick-off event last night at Nassau Coliseum where former Governor David Paterson spoke to the crowd about fostering growth and creation of minority and women-owned businesses… At the event was Governor Kathy Hochul’s Suffolk County Regional Representative, Thalia Olaya, Community Offshore Wind’s Retha Fernandez who we hear is launching a Black Voters of Long Island initiative… former Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning, John Schneidawin, who has since moved to Albany, attended the Suffolk County Hall of Fame induction of his high school buddy, North Babylon’s Danny Green, a three-time NBA champ before joining at the event… as well as ABLI’s Kyle Strober, fresh back from The Maidstone in East Hampton where he participated in a Suffolk County Village Officials Association golf outing…
Rep. Dan Goldman was granted VIP access into Gracie Mansion Wednesday night for the Jewish Heritage Month celebration, which obeyed kosher dietary laws, serving wine in paper cups. Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine was on the scene with his deputy Aya Keefe – both of whom speak Hebrew. UJA’s David Aronov was overheard sharing his newest endeavor, starting law school part-time, while in and around the crowd were hundreds of Israel supporters and Jewish social media influencers like Brooklyn’s own Kosha Dillz, and Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County’s Dana Arschin… later that evening, political personalities walked from Gracie Mansion to Elio’s on 85th street, where Donald Trump Jr. was spotted dining with two ladies at a round table at the back of the restaurant, the night before his dad’s verdict was announced…
Political Personality of the Week
NYC Small Business Services (SBS) Commissioner Kevin Kim
Closing out Small Business Month, NYC SBS Commissioner Kevin Kim is our political personality of the week.
Kevin Kim is an attorney, entrepreneur, and public servant. As a son of immigrant small business owners, and a former co-founder of several small businesses, he understands first-hand the various challenges small businesses face. Commissioner Kim served as the first Asian American commissioner of the New York State Liquor Authority, and became the first Korean American commissioner in New York City. He is also a certified community mediator through his participation in the Black Korean Mediation Project.
Kim attended K-12 in public school in Queens, graduating from Townsend Harris High School at Queens College, and went on to receive a B.A. and M.A. from Stanford University and his J.D. from Columbia Law School.
Commissioner Kim helped create the $85 million NYC Small Business Opportunity Fund, which will distribute funds to small businesses, fill vacant storefronts, and revitalize commercial corridors across all five boroughs. He also recently announced he will be leaving SBS at the end of June, and rumor has it that he may be joining Frank Carone’s Oaktree Solutions…
Fast Facts:
- Raised in a one-bedroom, one-bathroom home in Sunnyside, Queens
- Son of South Korean immigrants who started their own artificial flower business
- Helped produce the catchiest jingle ever produced by any government agency in the world…(And Mayor Adams agreed!)
- Co-founder of Abakidz, a mental math program
- Father of two girls