manager Yvonne Reddick;Tony Subraj, vice president of Zara
Realty; and Sutphin Blvd. BID executive director Glenn Greenridge.
Queens, NY As part of a broad citywide effort led by business leaders to fight discrimination, Zara Realty is sponsoring the “Hate has No Business Here” campaign for the Sutphin Boulevard Business Improvement District in Jamaica.
The campaign, which has rolled out across 21 BIDs, recently expanded into Jamaica, which kicked off July 15th with a rally at the Civic Court Plaza on the corner of Sutphin Blvd and 89th Ave. Zara vice president Tony Subraj, surrounded by community leaders, and elected officials, expressed his commitment to the cause of letting customers know that the local business community will not tolerate hate or discrimination.
“My family emigrated from Guyana in search of a better life and we found it here in Jamaica,” said Subraj. “We are proud to sponsor this highly visible campaign to show that we stand shoulder to shoulder with other leading community, civic and business leaders to promote acceptance and unity. The strength of this community is its diversity and we share a commitment to promoting and embracing the wonderful mix of cultures we have here.”
The anti-hate campaign logo features an American flag with a heart replacing the stars, designed to express the idea that love, kindness and acceptance are patriotic.
Businesses have committed to displaying flyers carrying that message.
The idea for a cohesive campaign first originated with a wine shop owner in Myrtle Ave. BID in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, Amanda Neville.
She said, “One of the business owners in our community was targeted with hateful comments via social media. I thought it would be powerful to come together with one message, one visual to signal that we stand together, for each other.”
“The objective of the campaign is to really let people know that it is safe to do business here, and that we do not tolerate hate. This is a safe environment for both the shop owners and the customers,” said Glenn Greenidge, Sutphin Boulevard BID executive director.
To date, 21 BIDs representing thousands of business owners across Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens have displayed posters, flyers and postcards in their districts – including translations of the message into 9 languages (Arabic, Begali, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Korean, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian, Urdu).
Zara Realty serves the southeast Queens community as the owner of some 2.6 million square feet of residential space. It is one of the region’s leading providers of affordable housing.
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