Michael Bailey, a Democratic candidate for New York State Assembly District 56, unveiled a three-part Neighborhood Business Preservation Plan after a May 30 candidate debate in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The plan calls for state-level support to help longtime Black, Caribbean, and immigrant-owned businesses stay in Central Brooklyn ahead of the June 23 Democratic primary.

Bailey, a lifelong Bed-Stuy resident, real estate attorney, and former construction company owner, said the plan responds to mounting commercial and residential displacement across the district. He said Bed-Stuy’s Black population dropped from roughly 75 percent in 2000 to about 40 percent in 2023, and that neighborhood businesses face the same forces pushing longtime residents out. “Residents see the displacement happening in real time,” Bailey said. “A longtime business closes, a storefront sits vacant, another family leaves the neighborhood. If we want to preserve the character of Black Brooklyn, we have to preserve the local businesses, economic opportunities and community institutions that make these neighborhoods worth staying in.”

Bailey told Caribbean Life, which first reported on the plan, that his work advising Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE), a state and city designation that unlocks procurement contracts, grants, and financing for qualifying business owners, showed him how few entrepreneurs can actually navigate the programs available to them. “Too often, support exists on paper, but small business owners do not have the time, staffing, or connections to navigate complicated government programs,” he said. “Government should be helping neighborhood businesses access opportunities, not burying them in bureaucracy.”