For the last 24 years, newsstand vendor Jerry Delakas has happily presided over a stand in Cooper Square. "I've spent more time on this corner than any corner on Earth. It's like a second home," Delakas, 62, told the News. But now, the city is trying to evict him from his beloved kiosk at Astor Place and Lafayette Street.
The city is removing him because Delakas is not the legal license holder of the stand...even though it was the dying wish of that license holder that he continue on. Delakas starting working at the newsstand in 1987, for license holder and friend Katherine Ashley. He paid Ashley $75 a week to run the stand and collect the profits. When she died in 2006, she wrote in her will: "It is my wish that [Delakas] continue in his capacity of day-to-day operator of that newsstand after my demise and, if possible, to succeed me as franchisee."
After her death, the license transferred to her husband, Sheldon, who died last year. His estate applied for a renewal notice, which the city denied because no one in the family planned to operate it as their "principal employment." The city has repeatedly denied further requests to transfer the license to Delakas. Everyone involved in the proceedings agrees that Delakas deserves to stay: "Who but the person who devoted a significant portion of his life to building up this business is more deserving of this license?" said Delakas' lawyer. "It'd be a New York tragedy if he didn't get it," said the Ashley estate's lawyer. "Jerry's here rain, snow, sleet, blistering heat. We think the world of him," said regular customer Larry Schulz. "He's just a real important part of our community."
