Crains New York - April 15, 2013 - (Page 11)

STEVE HINDY Give green light to speed cameras I magine if the New York City firefighters’ union suddenly came out against sprinklers in buildings because they resulted in a loss of jobs for firefighters. Imagine if the firefighters insisted that only they should put out fires, not mechanical sprinklers. I cannot help but think of this analogy when confronted by the New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association’s opposition to a speed-camera pilot program for the city. The Neighborhood Speeds for Neighborhood Streets Act (A.4327),which would install speed cameras in 40 locations near schools, has the support of the majority of the city’s delegation in the state Assembly as well as the City Council.It is a prime initiative of the Bloomberg administration. It is being blocked by state Sens. Marty Golden and Simcha Felder, both from Brooklyn, and Senate Co-President Dean Skelos from Long Island. Last year, 274 people died in New York City traffic crashes. The most frequent cause of traffic deaths was drivers violating the speed limit. Yet in 2012, the Police Department issued four times as many tickets for illegally tinted windows as for speeding. In only 10 of the city’s 74 police precincts was more than one speeding ticket issued per day. I have yet to read that tinted windows caused a casualty on city streets. The only regular NYPD speed trap that I am aware of is on the Belt Parkway, before or after the Verrazano Bridge. This well-known trap seems to have conditioned drivers to obey the limit. Every now and then, you see some knucklehead buzzing by at 70-plus miles per hour. Inevitably, he gets nabbed. Enforcement works. But does anyone believe the city is going to hire more traffic cops? Explaining his opposition, Mr. Golden, a Republican and former police officer, told Michael Powell of Forget Penney; look at Macy’s success W hen the desperate directors of J.C. Penney fired their chief executive this month, they admitted that their effort to reinvent the department store had failed miserably. They had hired Ron Johnson away from Apple, where he had made the i-maker’s stores the envy of all, and told him to do the same for Penney. Instead, he alienated the chain’s customers, its sales declined by a quarter last year to $13 billion, and it lost almost $1 billion. This does not mean the department store is dead. Here in New York, Terry Lundgren has proved that with Macy’s. It is probably the most underreported business story of the past few years. Let’s start with the history. Mr. Lundgren was named CEO of what was then known as Federated Department Stores in 2003. Two years later, he pulled off a merger with May Department Stores, creating a retailer that spanned the country. He then navigated one of the trickiest transformations in retailing: changing the venerated regional chains he now owned,such as the famous Marshall Field’s of Chicago, into one brand—Macy’s. It wasn’t easy to overcome the nostalgia that surrounded those GREG DAVID names, but he did it with care and a fair amount of humility (something Mr. Johnson lacked). His customers are at the upper end of the middle market, although his Bloomingdale’s unit aims for the lower end of the luxury market. The New York Times that cameras were intrusive.He would prefer more speed humps, flashing yellow lights and stop signs. There are speed humps on my block in Brooklyn. Speeding cars seem to delight in slaloming over these moguls, racing to the next corner even when the stoplight is red. Mr. Felder’s top priority in Albany was to get the state and city to pay for the busing of yeshiva students after 4 p.m. His district is dominated by Orthodox Jewish voters whose children attend yeshiva. Messrs. Felder and Golden got that legislation approved, despite opposition from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov.Andrew Cuomo.It will cost the city $5.6 million this year. Mr. Powell reported that in the past three years, nearly 60 pedestrians have died in traffic accidents in the districts of these two senators. Transportation Alternatives safety advocates monitored traffic in Canarsie, Brooklyn, with a radar gun for eight hours recently. They clocked 194 drivers exceeding the speed limit by at least 10 mph— more than the 163 speeding tickets issued in that precinct last year. It’s hard to imagine New York City without sprinkler systems, and someday, when traffic deaths approach zero, we’ll wonder how we ever lived without speed cameras. Steve Hindy, co-founder and president of Brooklyn Brewery, writes a monthly opinion column for Crain’s New York Business. His strategy is now the conventional wisdom of retailing experts: Carry as much exclusive merchandise as possible and compete very aggressively on price. His twist has been that despite the commitment to a national brand, local managers are given flexibility to adjust their offerings as needed. The numbers are impressive. Sales at Macy’s rose to $26.7 billion for the fiscal year ended Feb. 2, a 17% increase in the past four years, which included the Great Recession. Profits have quadrupled in that time, to $1.3 billion. Macy’s stock traded last week at about $45 a share, its highest level in four years, almost eight times where it stood in October 2009 and pennies from its all-time high in 2007. This has all been done pretty much out of the spotlight. I couldn’t find a single good corporatestrategy piece on the company in the leading sources of business news, although Bloomberg last week used Macy’s as the counterpoint in its story of all that went wrong at Penney. Mr. Lundgren has assumed a more important role in New York business circles in recent years; he’s now co-chairman of the Partnership for New York City. Politicians take business leaders seriously only when they are very successful. With the difficulties faced by the city’s previous über-CEO, JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, recognition of Mr. Lundgren’s accomplishments couldn’t come at a better time. Bringing clients to the next level Industries served: Financial Services . Manufacturing & Distribution . Technology . Retail . Construction . Architecture & Engineering Real Estate . Healthcare . Transportation & Shipping 488 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022 50 Jericho Quadrangle, Jericho, NY 11753 www.grassicpas.com April 15, 2013 | Crain’s New York Business | 11 http://www.mogil.com http://www.mogil.com http://crainsnewyork.com http://www.grassicpas.com http://www.grassicpas.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - April 15, 2013

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
CORPORATE LADDER
OPINION
STEVE HINDY
GREG DAVID
REAL ESTATE DEALS
REPORT: SMALL BUSINESS
THE LISTS
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - April 15, 2013