Other potential zoning tools include community impact reviews, under which new commercial developments, or developments above a certain size, are subject to a comprehensive review before they can open for business. Brattleboro, Vermont has amended its zoning code to require a community review of any retail project that will eat up more than 65,000 square feet. Establishing "neighborhood serving zones" is another tactic: In Palm Beach, Florida, stores over 2,000 square feet require a permit, and the applicant must demonstrate the store is "for townspeople." Finally, San Francisco has gone so far as to simply ban chains in two neighborhoods and require public review of any new "formula business" that would open in the city.
Of course, formula businesses are by no means the only driver of gentrification; in this part of Chelsea, actually, small stores are mostly being replaced by other small stores –just aimed at a wealthier clientele. This is why Weiner declares, "One tool is not enough. ...There's a place for land-use regulations, and there's a place for some sort of rent cap … It calls for serious planning."
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Julia Vitullo-Martin, director of the Center for Rethinking Development at the Manhattan Institute, rejects all of these approaches. The best fix for rising rents would be to increase the supply of land by "eliminating artificial restrictions," including zoning, and encouraging property owners with street frontage to rent it. Vitullo-Martin points, for example, to the opportunity provided by the Fulton Houses across the avenue, a New York City Housing Authority complex.
"Of its 343 developments, NYCHA offers commercial leases in only 28," she wrote in an e-mail. "What an amazing and destructive restriction on the supply of land – not only could NYCHA reap revenues from good retail, its tenants would benefit from having the services they need – grocery store, pharmacy, bank, dry cleaner, etc."
"And it's not just NYCHA shunning retail leases – but most of the nonprofit world," she writes. "When a social service or nonprofit agency takes over a commercial building, as has been happening on Broadway on the West Side, it shuts down all retail – bad for the neighborhood, bad for street life, and restricting supply."
For now, it looks like one of the last redoubts of the old neighborhood is at risk. On a recent Friday afternoon, a few older men lounge on folding chairs that Chelsea Liquors owner Rhee keeps in his store for them.
“They sit over there talking, talking,” Rhee says, “but their eyes are all over the place. They’ve lived here 30, 40 years; they know everybody.” The relationships that small businesses sustain are hard to quantify, but no less important.
The shop owners "know exactly how we like our coffee,” says Acevedo. “What newspaper we read. If one of our kids is diabetic, they know what to sell them.” All this is at risk. “It’s just a family feeling that we have with these small businesses, and we don’t want to lose that either.”
Nor does Brian Rhee want to lose his store. “I’m 68 years old, my daughter is in school, I want to retire,” he says. “This is my life.”
