Dirk McCall de Palomá, the executive director of the Sunnyside Shines Bussiness Improvement District, led the annual report meeting on Oct. 9. Photo by Iryna Shkurhan
Oct. 15, 2024 By Iryna Shkurhan
The Sunnyside Shines Business Improvement District (BID) held its annual meeting Wednesday evening to celebrate accomplishments and share upcoming initiatives with the community.
Dozens of local residents attended the meeting on Oct. 9 inside Sunnyside Community Services on 39th Street, and approximately 150 others tuned in live on Zoom. The city’s public advocate, Jumanne Williams, and Small Business Services (SBS) commissioner, Dynishal Gross, attended and delivered remarks.
Dirk McCall de Palomá, the BID’s executive director, led the meeting and made it a priority to shout out the 20 new businesses that opened since their last annual meeting. That included Masa Madre, a new Latin American-infused bakery on 46th Street, as well as big-name chains like Chipotle and Shake Shack, which are set to open any day now.
He was also proud to share that their annual Taste of Sunnyside event, a restaurant crawl with over 60 participating restaurants, sold out the night before. Approximately 1,200 people bought tickets to the annual event.
The BID also organizes Sunnyside Restaurant Week held in February, when food businesses tend to see a downturn in traffic. There are also talks of a possible Sunnyside Night Market.
“Every single day, 365 days a year, we’re out here working to make the district a more beautiful place, a more vibrant place, a place that’s going to be absolutely on fire, in a good way,” said McCall de Palomá.
Attendees learned about the BID’s financial standing and new initiatives. Photo by Iryna Shkurhan
Over 76 BIDs across the city are responsible for beautification efforts such as graffiti removal, street cleaning, landscaping, and even holiday lighting.
In Sunnyside, McCall de Palomá shared that 20 locations are scrubbed of graffiti each month. They’ve recently had some mulching days in partnership with Big Reuse, and come November daffodil bulbs will be planted around the neighborhood in anticipation of spring.
He noted that much of their community work would be impossible without several competitive grants they’re lucky to receive each year. For the third year in a row, they received the $100K small BID support grant from SBS, which funds their marketing efforts and tree bed upgrades.
They also received another 100k from the public realm grant, which will bring a lighting program to Greenpoint Avenue with the help of the Queens Lighting Collective to encourage more visits to businesses after dark and make “Greenpoint Avenue the Avenue of the World.”
“You’re great stewards of the money and you deliver for the public with those resources. We’re just excited to be part of Sunnyside Shines all of your ambitions and all that you are accomplishing,” said Gross, the new SBS commissioner who took on the role just three weeks prior but has been with the agency for years.
She made a point to note that “hopefulness and optimism is reflective in the name” of Sunnyside Shines.
Formed in 2008, Sunnyside Shines represents the area from 38th Street to 50th Street along both the north and south sides of Queens Boulevard. It’s consistently grown with the help of city funding from grants and elected officials, who recently helped them improve their marketing with a new website and cultivate a greater social media presence.
“Our small businesses, business in general, are really the lifeblood of the community. They really make sure that things keep moving, particularly economically,” said Williams, the public advocate, recalling his time as a small business owner and when he helped get the Flatbush BID started in Brooklyn before his pivot to politics.
The city’s Public Advocate, Jumanne Williams, expressed support for Sunnyside Shines and the small businesses they lift up.Photo by Iryna Shkurhan
He denied the assumption that progressive policies are bad for businesses and noted that when businesses thrive, with the support of BIDs and local government, workers are treated better. “Government is not opposition to business by nature,” he added.
Other elected officials were recognized for supporting Sunnyside Shines over the years. U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez invested $260K into the BID recently and State Senator Gianaris, who funds street sanitation and the holiday lights partially. He has also been working to ensure the BID’s outreach efforts are in Spanish.
City Council Member Julie Won “pays for every single band, every single dance group” to support the BID’s cultural programs such as Pride, Dios de los Muertos, and weekly Thursday night performances outside in the Bliss Street Plaza.
Some other novel projects to come include replacing the plastic newspaper boxes with more aesthetically pleasing and durable metal ones. They also hope to give locals more information about who street signs are named after with wayfinding signage, such as scannable QR codes, to learn more about the person.
The meeting concluded with the election of four new board members: Monica Lucero from Bethpage Federal Credit Union, John Ferreira from JP Morgan Chase, Sim Low from Tangra and Ramesh Vig, a local property developer.
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