![\"\"](\"https:\/\/b4370751.smushcdn.com\/4370751\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AnnaEskamani_orlandocampaign4.jpg?lossy=2&strip=1&webp=1\")
<\/a>Democrat Anna Eskamani, who is running for Orlando mayor in 2027, called on the community to get out and support small businesses as many struggle to stay open. She called on the community to be \u201cputting our money where our values are\u201d by supporting small businesses, especially those impacted by local construction projects.<\/p>\n\u201cIf you\u2019re like me, you love supporting small businesses,\u201d Anna Eskamani said in a recent video. \u201cAnd if you\u2019re also like me you probably follow a lot of small businesses online and you\u2019ve likely noticed that things aren\u2019t looking so good for our small businesses. Many have closed here in Orlando and others are struggling to stay afloat. We also have a lot of new construction projects happening our community and that impacts the ability for small businesses to attract customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna Eskamani, who is also currently a Democratic State Representative, noted that she worked on legislation to support small businesses, especially those impacted by municipal construction projects. She said that even with different types of resources, Orlando small businesses need and rely on every day residents to survive and grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cPut the app down, go walk into a small business, don\u2019t shop online, support our local boutiques,\u201d Anna Eskamani continued. \u201cWe really need to make sure that we are putting our money where our values are. So do what you can to uplift your small businesses, especially those impacted most recently by different construction projects where, unfortunately, in our car-centric community a lot of folks tend to avoid those areas when they get that news. But it\u2019s important for us to go the extra mile, literally, to support those small businesses and make sure they stay open for years, decades, and generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her platform as a candidate for Orlando mayor, Anna Eskamani pledges to streamline the city\u2019s permitting, licensing, and inspection processes. She says the City of Orlando needs \u201cto work with small businesses more intentionally,\u201d and listen to concerns over time. The Orlando candidate is campaigning to establish a Business Disruption Assistance program to support small businesses negatively impacted by public works projects. She also wants Main Street organizations and directors to be empowered to speak up for small businesses about city services or decisions that are not working or are not adequate.<\/p>\n
These all seem like fresh approaches compared to the status quo under Mayor Buddy Dyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom food trucks, pop-ups, and family-owned restaurants and shops to artists, independent venues, salons, entrepreneurs, and tech innovators, they make our city vibrant, resilient, and full of possibility,\u201d Anna Eskamani\u2019s campaign platform states. \u201cBut too often, local businesses are left out of the conversation. Squeezed by rising costs, impacted negatively by local construction projects, buried under red tape, and overshadowed by big corporations. As Mayor, I\u2019ll ensure that Orlando is a city where small businesses are supported, celebrated, and central to our economic future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The leading candidate for Orlando mayor in 2027 says local small businesses are struggling and that municipal construction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2217,8132,558,4320,832,1127,17532,44843,1375,139,141,140,32028,6652,38545,2015],"class_list":["post-209787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-anna-eskamani","tag-buddy-dyer","tag-business","tag-candidate","tag-city-council","tag-construction","tag-democrat","tag-democratic","tag-mayor","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-projects","tag-small-business","tag-small-businesses","tag-support"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}