{"id":69270,"date":"2025-12-12T21:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T21:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/69270\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T21:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T21:59:08","slug":"summons-for-popular-staten-island-deli-over-sidewalk-sign-slammed-as-lump-of-coal-nonsense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/69270\/","title":{"rendered":"Summons for popular Staten Island deli over sidewalk sign slammed as \u2018lump of coal,\u2019 \u2018nonsense\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 A popular Italian deli on Hylan Boulevard in Dongan Hills was hit with a summons over a sidewalk sign, prompting a call from Borough President Vito Fossella for city agencies to exercise discretion and goodwill toward small businesses when it comes to enforcing minor infractions.<\/p>\n

Standing before the family-operated Ariemma\u2019s Italian Deli at Hylan and Buel Avenue on Friday, Fossella referred to the summons as a \u201clump of coal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The borough president emphasized the difficulty of opening and running a small business without the added stress of a summons over what may be considered a relatively minor infraction.<\/p>\n

\"AriemmaAriemma’s Italian Deli in Dongan Hills on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. The corner shop was fined because their folding sidewalk signs were allegedly not in a proper place out front of their store.(Advance\/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel)<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment serves a role in terms of public health and public safety,\u201d Fossella said. \u201cBut there\u2019s another group of people that just see small business \u2014 as difficult as it is in this city \u2014 they see small business as a cash machine. So when they need revenue they say, \u2018well let\u2019s go bang the small business guy because they have to pay, otherwise they\u2019ll go out of business or we\u2019ll hold up their license and etc.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo my view philosophically is we need to encourage and allow small businesses to grow, to flourish and, to the extent possible, stay out of their way,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The deli, which has been open for over 70 years, was issued a summons on Dec. 5 for folding A-frame signage located on the sidewalk alongside Hylan Boulevard, according to Fossella.<\/p>\n

According to the Department of Sanitation<\/a>, signs and displays must not extend more than three feet into the sidewalk from a business.<\/p>\n

\"AriemmaBorough President Vito Fossella, right, stands beside Santo Ariemma, the co-owner of Ariemma’s Italian Deli in Dongan Hills on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. The shop was recently fined because their folding sidewalk signs were allegedly not in a proper place out front of their store.(Advance\/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever happened, I think a lack of discretion, a lack of common sense was the order of the day,\u201d said Fossella. \u201cAnd as a result, Santo (Ariemma) rightfully stood up and spoke out. And you shouldn\u2019t be afraid to speak out when the government does something wrong and in this case I think the government did something wrong. We\u2019re here to support him and small business owners like him to say don\u2019t ruin their day over nonsense, at least give them an option to say \u2018hey buddy, you know, there\u2019s a sign here, it\u2019s really not supposed to be here\u2019 or \u2018can you move it over there.\u2019 What\u2019s up? You can\u2019t consult with people like that? Is that not the norm anymore?\u201d<\/p>\n

Fossella explained that in these cases small businesses may be pressured to pay the fine, which for the deli could range from $50-$500, as opposed to contesting the matter.<\/p>\n

Ariemma, a third-generation co-owner of the business, noted that the signs had never previously posed a problem and have been posted for over 30 years. Moreover, he argued that the signage was not in the path of those passing the storefront as it is typically next to the pole in front of the deli.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, the signs are for advertisement, you know, to try to make a dollar \u2014 an honest dollar \u2014 and now for me to try to fight this ticket, I got to take a day off from work, which I\u2019m going to lose more money,\u201d Ariemma said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a bunch of nonsense for a small family business, I\u2019m over here, I work 70 hours a week some weeks and we do a lot for the community,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd to have something like this happen, it\u2019s crazy to me, to think that the neighborhood is falling apart like that \u2014 it\u2019s no good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ariemma called for residents to come together and show support for all small businesses in the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 A popular Italian deli on Hylan Boulevard in Dongan Hills was hit with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-69270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}