Order for a hearing to explore a digital marketplace pilot program. On motion of Councilors Fernandes Anderson and Arroyo, Rule 12 was invoked to include Councilor Worrell as co-sponsor.
Not also great and seek suspension of the rules and adoption of Dorking 0438. All those in favor say aye. I oppose the seven. The resolution has passed has been adopted. Mr. Clerk, please read docket 04390439. Councilor Fernando Sanderson and Councilor Arroyo offered the following order for a hearing to explore a digital marketplace pilot program. The chair recognizes counsel Fernandez Anderson. Counsel Fernandez Anderson. You have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to suspend the rules and add a counselor. Bryan. Well, Morales a co-sponsor as well. Please stand here and know Jackson counsel well is the as co-sponsor. Thank you. The post-COVID world has seen windfall profits accrue to giant corporations, while our small businesses have suffered shuttered doors, skyrocketing rents and devastating diminution of sales. Council Royal Councilor Will Ruth and myself are here today to address this disturbing economic reality and to begin the process of introducing an idea to the city wide digital marketplace that will benefit our bipoc small business owners. And this to include, of course, small business owners of lower income as well, and seek to counteract the domination of international corporates and in the realm of local commerce in our communities. Such a digital marketplace, if properly implemented and sustained, could be an integral tool to support our beloved small businesses. Last day perish due to their lack of online presence. Always problematic, but particularly devastating in the midst of a pandemic. As such, a city led intervention to create conditions of economic empowerment for our local entrepreneurs strikes me as a vital task that we should commence. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Anderson. Would anyone else like to speak on this matter? The chair recognized the chair recognizes. Counsel role, council role. You have the floor. Thank you, President Flynn. And thank you to my co-sponsors, Councilor Henderson and Councilor Arroyo. As we think of create tools to help small businesses, we know that establishing their online presence is becoming more crucial for businesses as consumers have changed their way and how they buy goods, whether it's for a house, car, a book or even groceries . It's all happening online. This is another. Creative pilot by. Council. My co-sponsors council, the Royal Castle Andersons. And I'm looking forward to that discussion. Thank you. Thank you, Council. We're all the chair recognizes council. A royal council. Royal. You have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you, Councilor Fernandez Anderson, for this. And my co-sponsor, Councilor Ralph. We know I used to know this number off the top of my head, but I think it's something like 80% plus of our small businesses in the city of Boston are immigrant people of color own small businesses, because often when you are coming to a new country, you have to make your own job. And so they are a large driver of our local economies, our local identities. And we know that when we had the question about the big box corporation stores, Walmart, Mayor Menino, one of the things I actually very much enjoyed about him was his is not allowing Wal Mart to ever really set foot in Boston because of the damage it would do to small businesses. And we know that when we look at the new sort of metric of what is doing damage to our our small businesses, it's online commerce, it's things like Amazon. So crowding out our small businesses. If there's a way for us to create an online marketplace that takes a lot of the heavy lifting off of our small businesses in terms of the creation and maintenance of a website, but allows them to compete in a similar way that only brings dollars back to our local communities. And again, it's these small businesses that are sponsoring our little leagues, are at our school, dance recitals, our schools. All the things that I go to, I always go to my small businesses. I don't go to the target in my district. I don't go to those areas because generally speaking, the money for our neighborhoods always comes from the folks who live in it and work in it. And so I look forward to finding any way we can to strengthen our local businesses and our small businesses. And I think this will be a nice step towards exploring whether or not we can do that in the online space. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, counselor. Or anyone else looking to speak on this matter. Anyone else looking to add their name? The chair recognizes counsel. Braden, counsel. Breaking of the floor. Thank you, Mr. Kim. Madam President. Mr. President, sorry about that. I really want to thank the co-sponsors for for this important bringing this issue forward. When we last June, we had a hearing about the issue of GrubHub and other platforms that were interjecting their their presence into our small businesses and acting as a middle, a middleman to and taking a huge cut on our fee from our restaurants. And again, last week, I was on a walk in our Main Streets district with Chief Segal in Idaho. And one of the issues that came up was the restaurants talking about this. This. This experience of having a very significant fee taken taken from their bottom line by the delivery services. So I think that having having this conversation about a digital marketing marketplace for our small businesses in the city is a very timely one. Thank you. Please add my name. Thank you, Counsel Bright, and please add Counsel Braden's name. But anyone else like to speak on it or the chair recognizes. Counsel me here, counsel me here, and you have the floor. You know, I'm always going to rise on everything and anything that my sister over there puts forth because it's this type of innovation that we need more of here in the city of Boston. And so I'm really encouraged by your leadership in the space, and thank you to your co-sponsors for joining you. I know I always keep talking about COVID because that's the only reference that I have that a lot of our small businesses, many who struggle with reading and writing, even in their own native language, really struggle to have access to information. And as we start thinking about creating this digital platform, really being super intentional about how we can use it in a way that's utilizing videos and audio and visuals to help the consumer being able to navigate what this could look like. And also, I think as we continue to have this conversation, is the resources that we're going to pour into to helping to support our small businesses to be able to be set up for success. So I think there's some work that we need to do on the council in terms of advocacy to ensure that we're setting up the administration for success. And I also think there's such an amazing opportunity to include some of these business owners to helping design what it could look like in terms of a user experience. So I'm really grateful for your leadership and looking forward to supporting this, and I am encouraged to what is to come if you continue to roll this out. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Here, would anyone else like to add their name? Please raise your hand. The chair recognizes Counsel Fernandez Anderson. Very quickly, thank you for that point. I'm really excited because imagine a world that it's not GrubHub, it's our own. And yes, I have to say more. So imagine a world where it's like you have this digital platform and you combine it with the back office for Main Streets. And I'm so excited because so many of you have done some of this work and looking forward to expand and also have partnered with Dole and the administration looking at the possibilities. So the conversation about merging technical assistance, coming from Main Street as the executive director and understanding, understanding this thing in and out, I think that it's very exciting. And I'm thank you so much for your support. Anyone else like to speak or add their name? Mr. Clarke, please add Councilor Bach. Please out council. Borough Council. Region Council. Meet here. Council Murphy. Councilor Edwards. Council. Clarity, please. The Chair. Joker 0439 will be first to the Committee on Small Business Professional Licensure since this hearing is focused on small business. In other aspects, it is appropriate for us to go into that committee. Mr. Clerk, please read Docket 04400440.