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In an unusual case of a governing body offering an independent bookstore the kind of special support often given to Amazon and other large corporations, the Washington, D.C., Council has unanimously approved a real estate tax abatement for Sankofa Video Books & Café that is potentially worth more than $400,000 over 10 years, DCist reported. The abatement still has to be voted on again by the Council and then signed by the mayor, and passage is expected.
The legislation requires that more than half of the bookstore's employees live in the District, and more than 30% must live in Ward 1, stipulations that the store has said are easy to meet.
Shirikiana Gerima, co-owner of Sankofa, which was founded in 1998, commented: "I hope that the Sankofa example is a spark for protections to be put in place for small black businesses. Legacy businesses who've been here through crack, through, in some cases, the riots, through gentrification--the latest devastation, they need to be supported in really, really concrete ways."
DCist noted that "growing property values" in Pleasant Plains, where the store is located, "have left the business with a rising tax bill. This year, Sankofa owes $30,000 in property taxes, a 25% increase over the past decade, according to Gerima's testimony to the D.C. Council. That number is projected to rise to $36,000 by 2022, according to D.C.'s chief financial officer. The CFO valued the abatement at $415,346 over a 10-year period, and determined that the business could survive without it."
Last month, Gerima and supporters testified before the Council, and many signed an online petition in support of the store, which Gerima has called a community meeting place for "people who are thirsty to know about their culture and history."