Blame shoplifting scourge, blasé lawmakers for worst case of storefront vacancies since COVID

Vacant storefronts are both a sign and a cause of economic distress — and they’ve nearly doubled in the city since the pandemic.

Per the city Department of Finance, more than 11% of Big Apple storefronts now sit empty, discouraging nearby commerce and attracting disorder.

“They are creating havoc because there is homeless, garbage, and the business next door hurts,” City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, whose Upper West Side district has been hit hard by the vacancies, told The Post.

But her fellow progressives seem pretty clueless about their own responsibility here.

It’s hard to keep a retail shop running when city and state lawmakers micromanage what you have to pay workers and how you can schedule shifts, and even mandate benefits.

Not to mention the high taxes they impose and the get-out-of-jail-free cards they issue to even chronic shoplifters.