Earlier this week, at the MAS panel discussion Solutions for Preserving New York’s Neighborhood Businesses, experts and New Yorkers pondered this and many other complex questions that relate to the increasing threat chain stores and banks are presenting to the survival of local business in the city. Click on the ‘play’ icon above to watch a short video summary of the program and (below) tell us what you think are the causes and solutions to this problem.

Panelists and speakers:
Introduction: Lisa Kersavage: Director of Advocacy & Policy, MAS; Moderator: Adam Friedman, Executive Director of New York Industrial Retention Network; Vicki Weiner, Director of Planning and Preservation, Pratt Center for Community Development; John Shapiro, Chair, Graduate Center for Planning and Environment, and Partner of Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates; Makalé Faber Cullen, Director of Social Ventures, Center for the Urban Environment; and Tom Cowell, Economic Development Policy Analyst, Office of the Manhattan Borough President.