Although it’s been nearly a year since Hurricane Sandy devastated the coastal areas of New York and New Jersey, many homes and businesses are still in the process of being rebuilt and repaired. The owners of one establishment, the iconic Sunny’s Bar in Brooklyn’s Red Hook district, are happy to put that all behind them – and will reopen for business on August 29th.
You Want to Go Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Many local businesses devastated by Hurricane Sandy sought Small Business Association (SBA) loans to rebuild and repair. Some, like Sunny’s, could not. According to a recent article in the New York Times, Sunny’s – described as a “dive with charisma and an aesthetic soul that in recent decades has drawn painters, writers and musicians” – suffered approximately $150,000 in damage. However, because the bar has been in the family so long, it did not have a lease and could not get loans from the SBA.
The Red Hook Civic Association, along with other local groups, was able to raise $100,000 to pay for new electrical boxes, a furnace, water heaters, steel beams to shore up the ground floor, new floorboards and reupholstered booths. The association still owes $50,000 to a contractor, but it is confident that it will be able to pay him soon.
Although the bar’s owner, 79-year-old Sunny Balzano, and his wife, Tone, are grateful to the community, the memories of Hurricane Sandy’s devastation will never be forgotten. Tone said it best:
[It’s like being] strapped in the Cyclone and you can’t get off. I found out what depression was. You feel frozen, numb. You can’t function. But at the same time you have to fight to get things done. It’s like having heart surgery and someone asks you to get up and run a marathon.
Sunny’s proudly reopens on August 29th, which coincidentally is also Sunny’s 79th birthday, and everyone in the neighborhood will once again be able to go to a place where everybody knows their name.
Who Can You Count on for Help?
Sunny and Tone went through what many New Yorkers and New Jerseyans are still going through. While they were fortunate enough to have the support of their community to rebuild and repair their establishment, homeowners typically have to count on their insurance companies to step up and pay for what is rightfully theirs in the first place. Unfortunately, most do not. Instead, they engage in disputing settlement amounts, improperly calculating deductibles, undervaluing claims, proposing unfair settlements, denying claims and engaging in bad faith insurance practices.
If your insurance company hasn’t treated you fairly or in good faith, contact Belluck & Fox and let one of our experienced New York insurance dispute attorneys analyze your situation, get your claim settled once and for all and determine whether you might be entitled to other compensation for bad faith insurance practices. You can count on us.