Jerry Out in the Cold

As EV Grieve first noticed this morning, the city has shuttered Jerry Delakas' newsstand on Astor Place. When I passed by, Jerry was standing by the stand in the falling snow.

He showed me the broken padlock he found and said, "I just got here. I thought someone broke in." Someone did. It was the city that broke Jerry's lock and put on a lock of their own so he could not open for business today.

Jerry showed up for work this morning thinking he'd make a day's pay. He said that the city did not tell him they were seizing his stand. Technically, Jerry still has 11 days to appeal the recent ruling that he pay $37,000 or vacate. Now, for those 11 days, he won't be making income.

Jerry has been fighting the city for years--after the city took away everyone's stands and gave them to Cemusa.

As Grieve summarized earlier: "He has operated the stand here for 25-plus years. However, he's not the legal license holder. He has been subleasing the newsstand from the family who held the license. Per previous published reports, it was the dying wish of the woman who held the license to allow him to operate the stand and designated him as heir."