Fernando Otero moved out of his brick-and-glass office last Friday. On Monday, his business moved into a wooden shack on the sidewalk just outside.
The move is a happy homecoming for the 59-year-old newsstand operator: Three years ago, his closet-sized newsstand was plucked off the sidewalk by a city crane to make room for construction at the subway entrance. To stay in business, he rented an expensive storefront next door, then watched his profits disappear.
The Transit Authority began construction at the busy Hub intersection, which serves the No. 2 and No. 5 trains, two years ago. When it's finished in another year, the station at 149th Street and Third Avenue will have more and wider staircases, a bigger underground mezzanine and new tile floor, said Manny Heller, director of the Hub Third Ave. Merchants, the local business improvement group.
Although the construction has long blocked sidewalks and street crossings, the result will be well worth the wait, said Heller. But news merchants say otherwise.
There has always been an uneasy alliance between the TA and newsstand operators, said Robert Guiliani, who has run his stand in the Hub for 50 years. The operators usually build their stands under the stairs of elevated train lines or at the entrances to underground tracks. Whenever an el is buried, or a subway needs roof repair, newsstand operators all along the line get bumped.
"Having your stand moved is a hardship," said Robert Bookman, counsel to the New York City Newsstand Operaters Association. "But it's one of the risks of having a business on the sidewalk."
Running a newsstand has traditionally been a good way to earn a modest living. You bought a wooden shack, got a license from the city, and staked out your turf. Otero, for one, says he makes about 8 cents on every newspaper he sells.
"Newsstands are so appealing because there's no rent, so you get to keep your profits," said Bookman.
Newsstand licenses cost about $1,200 every other year. Compare that to the $1,200 a month that Otero paid to rent his little storefront.
Although Otero's experience was a nightmare, some newsstand operators have been luckier. Rafael Munoz, who runs a shack on the corner of Jackson and Westchester Avenues, said his cousin's shack at Southern Boulevard and 163rd St. was moved and replaced quickly, and he lost very little business.
Occasionally, newsstand operators can negotiate to avoid a move. In one case, Bookman said, a subway elevator crew insisted that a newsstand be moved during repairs, but the newsstand owner appealed to the city Department of Consumer Affairs, winning the right to stay.
In another case, a construction crew wanted to oust an operator with a booth on a street island to make room for the construction office. Here too, the operator appealed, and won, Bookman said.
As construction at the 149th and Third Ave. station continues, Guiliani is becoming nervous. "They were supposed to move me in January," he said. "Then it was April. I'm still waiting."
Guiliani said he was promised only one lost work day as his shack was moved "up the block, toward the hot dog stand." His concern is whether he'll be able to move back to his current spot after construction is done.
"There used to be 11 or 13 newsstands on these corners," he said, adding that the number faded to only two as newspaper sales dropped and the elevated tracks were buried, destroying the staircases that housed several stands.
Even if newsstand operators can survive the shuffles, a new peril awaits them in coming years. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has proposed buying all the city's newsstands and renting them to the highest bidders.
"It's a disaster story," said Bookman. "Mr. Otero and a lot of people like him may very well be out of business."