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Economic Development
Monday, March 25th, 2002 8:30 AM
New School University
66 West 12th Street, 7th Floor
Orozco Room
MINUTES
1.
Tim Ettenheim, Associate Dean of the Milano Graduate School at New
School University, welcomed us to the Orozco Room at New School University.
2.
Bob Yaro brought our attention to the newly issued "Report
of Proceedings" from the February 7 Listening to the City Forum at
South Street Seaport.
2.1.
Arthur Fried, Director of Center for Excellence in New York City
Governance summarized the report
2.1.1.
One theme that ran through out the forum and is evident in the
proceedings is the theme of Social and Economic Justice
2.1.2.
Participants stressed that it was important to recognize all
victims of the attack, even low-wage earners and non-documented workers.
2.1.3.
The Listening the City conference is just the beginning our
efforts in gathering public input.
2.1.4.
We are planning another “mega-public forum,” Listening
to the City II, in July or September.
3.
Eva Hanhardt, of the Municipal Art Society reported on the progress
of the Imagine New York outreach project.
3.1.
Forums have begun across the five boroughs in three languages:
English, Chinese, and Spanish.
3.2.
There will be 150 forums in total, of which 40 are open to the
public. For more information, visit www.imaginenewyork.org.
4.
Steve Brigham, of AmericaSpeaks announced that they will be putting
out Requests for Proposals (RFPs) in the next week for Listening to the
City II for the following positions: Outreach coordinator, Public Relations,
Events Coordinator, and A/V.
4.1.
If anyone in the Civic Alliance knows of companies or individuals
who would be interested in these positions and would like to receive
the RFP, please email Steve Brigham. (sbrigham@americaspeaks.org)
5.
Steve Weber of RPA gave an update on the state of the Civic Alliance’s
draft Planning Framework. The Civic Alliance is preparing a draft to be
ready in time for the Regional Assembly on April 26. C.A. Working Groups
should begin preparing their chapters, which should be approximately 4000
words in length. We hope that each working group can prepare a chapter
describing their work and the recommendations they are making. These
chapters should consider cross-cutting issues that may overlap with the
work of other groups. They should also begin thinking about what
graphics, maps, charts and images they might include in these chapters.
5.1.
Alex Marshall, a journalist, is the new “Senior Editor”
at RPA and for the Civic Alliance. Alex will be on hand to edit and
help write the chapters going into the Planning Framework.
5.2.
Working Group chairs should submit an outline of their chapter,
or as much material as they have complete, by April 1. They should submit
a draft chapter by (at the latest) April 12. The earlier they submit
their chapters, the more Alex will be available to them to assist in
writing and editing. You may reach Alex Marshall by email at Alex@rpa.org.
6.
Chris Jones, Director of Economic Programs at RPA introduced today’s
topic: Economic Development. He gave a Power Point Presentation that summarized
the work and scope of the Civic Alliance working group on Economic Development.
You may view
the Power Point here.
7.
David Kallick, of the Fiscal Policy Institute spoke next. He made
the following points:
7.1.
There is a tension between downtown economic development and city-wide
development.
7.2.
Who are the people who lost their jobs in this disaster? They
were primarily:
7.2.1.
Apparel industry
7.2.2. Building Services
7.2.3. Air Transport industry
7.2.4. Retail services
7.2.5. 60% of jobs lost were low-income workers
with an average hourly wage of $11.00
7.3.
Less than half of the people who worked downtown lived downtown.
7.4.
It is important to recognize that Chinatown was a severely impacted
community.
7.5.
Taxi cab industry, apparel, graphic designers all lost business,
without necessarily going out of business, or losing their jobs.
7.6.
The impacts of this disaster were spread out among the entire
region.
7.7.
Schools are an important way to get people to live and work downtown.
He paraphrased Carl Weisbrod as saying, 'PS 231 was the most important
economic development project downtown.'
7.8.
We must perpetuate the “virtuous cycle” of good schools
leading to good housing leading to ood transportation.
7.9.
Doctoroff apparently said recently that “Lower Manhattan
is a priority; there is little we can do to turn around low-skill industries
at this time.” Kallick finds this statement disturbing, and thinks
we must make a priority of enabling upward mobility for low-skilled
workers.
7.10.
$2.7 billion federal dollars have been promised for economic development,
of which $700,000 has already been allocated.
7.11.
We can use some of this money for changing low-skilled jobs to
middle-skilled jobs, for "sectoral strategy", for publicly
subsidized jobs, and for job training.
8.
Steve Sasala, former President and CEO of Prosperity New Jersey
spoke next. He summarized a recent meeting that took place in Newark with
leaders of the Civic Alliance and important business and government leaders
of New Jersey. He made the following points:
8.1.
New Jersey’s economic success is inextricably linked to
that of New York City.
8.1.1.
At this point it is unclear whether relocations are permanent
or temporary.
8.1.2. Companies are looking to "spread
their eggs."
8.1.3. Before 9/11, there was already redundancy
of headquarters in different cities within the region.
8.1.4. Northern New Jersey has actually fared
better than NY during the recession.
8.1.5. In the 90’s, Northern New Jersey
added 20% more office space than New York did.
8.2.
Regional Collaboration is linked to the success of the entire
region.
8.2.1.
Rebuilding must occur with the full cooperation of New Jersey.
8.2.2. The role of the Port Authority must
be clarified.
8.2.3. We need to increase trans-Hudson capacity.
8.2.4. New Jersey’s transportation
is New York-centric.
8.2.5. New York must continue to be the heart
and soul of the region.
8.3.
Choices for business location are global: the Tri-state region
is competing against an international market.
8.3.1.
Intra-regional competition can be destructive. (As difficult
as we know it is to change.)
8.3.2. We should explore the potential for
a meeting of the three governors and the New York Mayor at a tri-state
regional leadership forum and proceed in the spirit of cooperation
and collaboration.
9.
Ernest Tollerson, of New York City Partnership spoke next and raised
the following points:
9.1.
NY City Partnership is at the early stage in the next phase of
their study, after an initial study of impacts released in November.
9.2. The November study said that the future
of downtown redevelopment was mixed-use, probably somewhere between
the 2nd and 3rd scenarios described in Chris Jones’ presentation.
9.3. Three committees of CEO’s and investors
have come together to discuss the following infrastructure issues: rapid
transit, telecommunications, and energy.
9.4. NYC is often lagging behind other world
competitors in the quality of its infrastructure.
9.5. Pre-9/11, Lower Manhattan was a live/work
24/7 neighborhood.
9.6. What will drive economic development in
L.M. in the future? We need to start looking at new options, new sectors.
We should not assume that what we have relied upon in the past will
drive the economy in the future.
9.7. Two sectors with strong potential for
Downtown are industries that will develop the next phase of new information
technologies, and foreign companies that need a New York location to
anchor international activities.
9.8. Bio-tech could be the next sector to grow
in NYC, and Downtown might be a good location for firms that develop
its commercial applications.
9.9. Re-authorization of TEA-21 (T-3) is important
to transportation improvements.
9.10. Our competitors are world cities like
London and cities in Asia.
9.11. I hope that an event like 9/11 will lead
the region to rethink AirTrain, which should be a one-seat ride.
9.12. We need to use public investments in
infrastructure to leverage private investment.
9.13. Lower Manhattan was a cheaper-rent district
than Midtown Manhattan. It is important for New York to have a lower-cost
Central Business District to provide a wider choice of office space.
9.14. The highest and best use of federal money
will be to leverage sectors.
10.
Questions and comments from the floor:
10.1.
Maurice Paprin, Business Labor Community Coalition:
10.1.1.
The voice of labor is missing from this discourse.
10.2.
Paul Elston, New York League of Conservation Voters:
10.2.1.
Decision makers who decide where to locate their companies look
for good places.
10.2.2. I urge you to include the need to
make Lower Manhattan a great place to live and work one of the priorities.
10.2.3. Also: energy efficiency and the possibility
for distributed generation are important to look at.
10.3.
Tollerson response: The Partnership is aware of the energy issue.
We have an interest in distributed generation and high performance buildings.
10.3.1.
Schools are an important aspect of making the location an attractive
place to locate.
10.4.
Ron Shiffman, PICCED:
10.4.1.
Where are the public statements from the Partnership or L.M.D.C.
that federal money should be used for infrastructure to leverage
private investment, instead of subsidies?
10.4.2.
Nor have there been public statements about governmental cooperative
compacts.
10.5.
Tollerson: The Partnership is working on a statement about the
subsidy and public infrastructure issue.
10.6.
Steve Sasala: for governmental cooperation, the first and best
common ground is transportation.
10.7.
Beverly Willis, R.Dot: We should consider making housing available
in Manhattan to low-wage workers so they too can have the convenience
of walking to work, instead of grueling commutes. This would ease the
burden on transportation systems as well.
10.8.
Joan Byron, PICCED: What can the Civic Alliance do to take the
public position that federal money should be going to infrastructure,
not hand-outs?
10.9.
Barry Benepe, New York Fine Arts Federation: How are people from
Long Island and Eastern New York City getting to companies that have
relocated to New Jersey?
10.10.
Bob Yaro: with extreme difficulty.
10.11.
Eva Hanhardt: I am pleased to see you are looking at different
sector analysis. From the disaster, the inter-connectedness of different
sectors became apparent. Will you be looking a sectors broadly
across the city to address this?
10.12.
Jones response: We will be looking at Downtown in the context
of the city and region, but are unlikely to have the resources to develop
sector strategies for the region as a whole.
10.13.
Joe Weisbord, Housing First! : Drawing from the earlier example
used of Ft. Collins, Colorado as place that has attracted businesses
to locate, a big factor in that is the cheapness of housing costs. Especially
for sectors that do not compensate at Wall Street salaries, the amenity
of living in Lower Manhattan is lower when the housing cost is very
high.
10.14.
Michael Bradley, Riverside South Development Corporation: How
does re-imposing the commuter tax play into this? Is it really politically
viable?
10.14.1.
Numerous people questioned that this would be a major burden
on NJ’s commuters. However, perhaps congestion pricing
on East River bridges, from which funds would be directly applied
to transportation improvements, is a better alternative.
10.15.
Jeff Zupan, RPA: Do we have any research on the types of jobs
or businesses that have relocated to Midtown versus in outer boroughs
or outside of New York City?
10.15.1.
Also: What are you assuming about the Stock Exchange?
10.15.2. Does the Civic Alliance want to
address the issues of the far West Side?
10.16.
Jones Response: There are some data and indications that the larger
firms have relocated to a larger extent than smaller ones, and
we are working on a better data base. We have not yet made any
assumptions on the Stock Exchange for any of the scenarios.
10.17.
Paul Elston: I bet there will be a great increase in tourism in
Lower Manhattan. Could that industry overwhelm the area?
11. At approximately 10:10 AM, the meeting adjourned.
View
a slide show of the meeting.
Attendance
Arthur Fried, Center for Excellence in New York City Governance
Barry Benepe, Fine Arts Federation of NY
Bernard Goetz
Bettina Damiani, Good Jobs New York
Beverly Willis, R.DOT
Bob Kull
Bonnie Harken, American Planning Association, New York
Chapter,
Bruce Rosen, NYC Department of City Planning
Carla van de Walle
Chris Jones, RPA
David Dyssegaard Kallick, Fiscal Policy Institute
David Herman,
Edward Falterman, American Society for Public Administration
Ellie King, Womens City Club
Elston, Paul, NY League of Conservation
Voters
Ernest Tollerson, New York City Partnership
Eva Handhardt, Municipal Art Society
Falterman, Ed, American Society Public Administration
Gabrielle Brainard, Kiss + Cathcart Architects
George Penesis, Konheim & Ketcham
Grace Han, Columbia University
J. Bunka,
Jan Nicholson, RPA,
Jeff Zupan, RPA,
Joan Byron, PICCED
Joe Weisbord, Housing First!
Kate Schmidt, Manhattan Borough President's Office
Katherine Brower, Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee
(PCAC) to the MTA
Kelly Robinson, Rutgers University
Laurie Beckelman, Guggenheim Museum,
Leena Shanbhag, PICCED
Leevi Kill, American Institute of
Architects, New York Chapter
Mary Davis, NOW Legal Defense Fund,
Maurice Paprin, Business Labor Community Coaltion
Michael Bradley, Riverside South Planning Corporation
Nicole Brown, NOW Legal Defense Fund
Parkinson Pino, Cultural Renewal
Paul Elston, NY League of Conservation
Voters
Paula Crespo, PICCED
Peggy Shiller,
Peter Marcuse, Columbia University,
Petra Todorovich, RPA
Rick Bell, American Institute of Architects,
New York Chapter
Rob Lane, RPA
Robert D. Yaro, RPA
Roger Herz, TIME/ To Improve Municipal
Efficiency
Ron Shiffman, PICCED
Sandy Hance,
Sandy Hornic, NYC Department of Planning
Shirley Jaffe, Alliance for Downtown
New York
Shirley Secunda
Steve Brigham, AmericaSpeaks
Steve Sasala, Prosperity New Jersey
Steve Weber, RPA
Tara Colton, Center for Excellence in New York City Governance
Tim Ettenheim, New School University
Tom Dallessio, RPA
Tova Wang, Century Foundation
Toya Williford, RPA
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