Single City Permit App Challenge

Government bureaucracy has consistently been a challenge for small businesses to manage. Business owners need approval from upwards of 15 city agencies in order to open or renew all their licenses and operate by the City’s guidelines. Businesses have faced fines and other penalties for arbitrary violations, errors, or delays in their applications. As NYC businesses are struggling to stay afloat after one of the hardest years in recent history, City Hall should do everything in its power to assist these locales to preserve NYC communities and the economy. 

Andrew Yang and Kathryn Garcia are both committed to cutting red tape and eliminating bureaucracy facing small businesses. Andrew Yang wholeheartedly supports Garcia’s proposal for a single City Permit and in order to make this a reality, Yang and Garcia, together, will launch the NYC App Challenge. 

Single City Permit

Starting a business is a challenging and risky endeavor: developing an idea, securing capital and bringing it to life. It also drives energy and creativity, resulting in a wonderfully diverse ecosystem of stores, restaurants, boutiques and venues that make up NYC’s culture. City government should be doing everything to support existing small businesses and encourage new entrepreneurs to launch any new endeavors in NYC. That is why Andrew supports Kathryn Garcia’s calls for a single “City Permit” for small businesses. The app would be accessible by smartphone and eliminate the need to navigate a dozen plus City agencies. This digital permit will be live and interactive, allowing an agency to immediately flag an issue with an application and a business to respond and update in real time, speeding up the process on both ends. Streamlining this process will boost New York’s economy and encourage entrepreneurs to invest in NYC.

NYC App Challenge

In order to best understand the current struggles of entrepreneurs in NYC, Yang and Garcia will convene a panel of business owners for feedback on what challenges they experience in the permitting process in June 2021, no matter which candidate receives the Democratic nomination. Based on that input, the city will launch the “NYC App Challenge” to solicit solutions that will update and streamline all major city services into a one-stop-shop NYC Business portal. Both campaigns are committed to equitable development of the tech industry in NYC. The app challenge will reflect that commitment, while prioritizing developers with meaningful employment of female, BIPOC, AAPI and Hispanic engineers and designers. The updated portal will ensure that any new or returning business will receive a response within one month of submitting an application, and allow applicants to see real time status and feedback as their materials are reviewed.

The app challenge will take place in 2022.