The Association of Dominican Businesses, which started in 2008, began with the intent of getting large enough so that it could attract investment bankers. But it realized that the greater benefit was so that its concerns about business matters could have a greater impact on the mayor and City Council.
“When there is a union of people there is power. We want to be acknowledged because we too have an economic influence here,” says Secretary-Treasurer Victoriano De La Cruz.
The association’s office on the corner of Cortland and Front streets is home to Thursday evening meetings. Each week members talk about their ideas and worries of some government policy, news of the local commercial market and the latest crime related to businesses in Philadelphia. The latest talk was about the grocery store clerk Felix Santos, whom they visited at the hospital after he was beaten into a coma over a parking space on May 9.
“We are hard-working people that simply want to be heard. One of the reasons we created this association was so that we can have a better relationship with the authorities,” says De La Cruz.
The association frequently patronizes fundraiser parties at El Concilio ballroom on Seventh and Fairmont Avenue that hosts political figures like State Reps. Tony Payton and Jonathan Ramos. City Council Member Maria Quiñonez from the 7th district has also attended fundraisers.
“We took the opportunity to tell our representatives that the soda tax will be outright negative, not only for bodegas but for all businesses in Philadelphia,” says De La Cruz.
On Mayor Nutter’s website he has said that the tax will combat obesity in Philadelphia and that it will be beneficial for the city in the long run. But the association of Dominican Businesses think that it’s just a tax collecting tool–one reason why the City Council rejected the tax only last week.
“There are countless of things that are health hazardous and are sold in stores, but people still buy them,” De La Cruz says, “It [the soda tax] doesn’t mean that it will help the economy, it just means that it will hurt the people in their pockets.”
With the City Council’s rejection of the soda tax vote, it temporarily alleviates the concerns of a potential hike in soda prices. But the Association of Dominican Businesses will surely have another day to bring its concerns to City Hall.
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