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Vacated Building Means the End of an Income
Guaman’s business, Broadway Shoe Repair, is on the first floor of 287 Broadway. On the morning of Nov. 29, he was given 10 minutes to evacuate, and he says he has barely been allowed inside since. So he has remained at home with his family in Richmond Hill, Queens, waiting for news and watching his savings melt away. On a Wednesday afternoon late last month, the TV played in the living room, the dog barked out back, and romantic Spanish ballads emanated from another room. Reyluis, Jr., Guaman’s 2-year-old son, yelled and chased a kitten around the living room. Still, the mood was subdued. “It’s very hard,” said Luis, speaking in Spanish. “If they kick me out, what am I going to do? Time passes and soon we won’t have money for the mortgage.” “He is the head of the house,” said Guaman’s wife, Miriam Oriana. “Everything depends on him.” The couple says they can survive for a month or two more without an income. Then they fear they will lose their home. Until recently, the family was a classic immigrant success story. They moved here from Ecuador 22 years ago, with two young sons, now grown, in search of a way out of poverty. Living for years in a rented basement apartment, Guaman worked at Continental Shoe Repair on Barclay Street. Twelve years ago, they bought the house in Queens, and their own business, Broadway Shoe Repair. “For me, it was a whole new life, being my own boss,” Guaman said. “We always tried to be responsible, always thinking of our children’s future.” Guaman hired three workers and slowly built a clientele of nearby lawyers and federal and city workers in need of heels replaced, and shoes resoled, weatherized and shined. “It took me many years to get the regular customers that I have,” Guaman said. He has looked all over Lower Manhattan for a new space where he might continue to attract his regulars, but he says there is nothing he can afford. Now, Guaman can no longer send money to his family in Ecuador, including his aging mother, who he supports, and a son he is helping through medical school. Christmas, he recalled, was meager. “As a father, it is very hard,” he said. “I feel powerless.” To make matters worse, since the store closed in November, part of the ceiling in the shop has fallen in, apparently from water damage, according to Guaman. He said construction workers from the site next door allowed him to go inside to inspect the damage but he was not given time to clean up. “Everything is ruined,” said Oriana, shaking her head angrily. “All of the machinery, all of the material for resoling shoes, was soaked with water.” Guaman and Oriana speak little English, so they have had to rely on their 17-year-old daughter Badgley Sugeydi to speak with property manager Kenneth Dubow of Century Realty. They said they have called several times but have failed to get information. (“We are very responsive,” Dubow said. “But if we don’t know, we don’t know.”) They have come to rely on their attorney, Richard Marx. The lawyer told the Trib that he has yet to pursue broader financial compensation for Guaman’s months of lost income, and had not discussed the ceiling accident with building management, though he knows about it. “When everything shakes out here, we’ll take the appropriate action,” Marx said. “I’m not a court of law, but obviously the people doing the damage here should be held responsible.” Meanwhile, Guaman doubts he can hold out much longer. Nights, he said, are the worst. “I try not to think about it,” he said. When he is not looking for a new space for his store, he spends his days waiting for news. “When I come home after school and I see my father sitting down on the couch, doing nothing…it’s hard for me,” said Badgely Sugeydi. “He was never like that.” Guaman has noticed a change in his family, as well. “I used to come home from work, and they were always happy, always content. But now,” he said. “it’s like they’ve lost the will to live.”
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