Crain's New York - April 29, 2013 - (Page 10)

OPINION This summer’s must-read T he candidates for mayor are spending a great deal of time practicing their applause lines at forums and fundraisers. Nonstop campaigning has taught them much about how to ride public sentiment but precious little about creating jobs and managing the economy. Hint: It has nothing to do with ending stop-and-frisk, mandating paid sick days or raising taxes on the 1%. Aspiring officeholders will find better answers in an eyeopening 69-page report called “NYC Jobs Blueprint” (www.NYCJobsBlueprint.org), produced by the Partnership for New York City, a civic group representing the city’s largest private employers. It’s a no-nonsense look at how to reinforce the local economy’s strengths, fix its shortcomings and shore up its vulnerabilities. For example: Between 2003 and 2010, there was no net increase in companies with 50 or more employees, despite a 9% rise in firms with one to four workers. That’s a fire-engine-red flag showing that city businesses are hitting walls as they attempt to grow. Those barriers can be lowered, the report advises, by replacing the city’s commercial rent tax with an alternative that doesn’t discourage expansion. The partnership’s report, using input from its member businesses, nonpartisan urban experts and the consultancy McKinsey & Co., identifies city sectors with good growth potential, such as technology-enabled manufacturing, as well as those with limited upsides and low productivity, such as CRAIN’S ONLINE POLL health care. Ignorance of these facts will result in bad policies and misdirected subsidies. The report also offers excellent advice on encouraging companies to work with schools to fill the enormous skills gap. Tangible connections to high-demand careers would create tremendous motivation for students otherwise destined for low-wage work or unemployment. Other points: The tech sector is growing but needs more wireless broadband to flourish. Airport infrastructure upgrades are necessary to keep pace with other leading cities. Also, the report argues, for the city to invest for its future without worsening its high tax burden, the structural budget deficit must be erased. The city is on pace to spend $2.4 billion more in fiscal 2015 than the $73.7 billion it will take in. It’s impossible to look at the report’s chart of city spending without concluding that the $17.5 billion in workers’ and retirees’ benefits is the place to start cutting. If the next administration is to build on the successes of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, it must understand the economic facts and fixes. “NYC Jobs Blueprint” should be required reading for anyone who cares about our city. ‘NYC Jobs Blueprint’ spells out economic facts and fixes COMMENTS istockphoto Hard to bear, Stearns STILL HURTING, FIVE YEARS AFTER SHOULD THE LEGAL AGE TO BUY TOBACCO IN THE CITY BE RAISED TO 21? Yes. Teens have poor judgment and too often are lured into smoking. They need protection from themselves. No. If kids at 18 are old enough to join the armed forces and die for their country, they ought to be able to buy cigarettes, too. Date of poll: April 22 258 votes 36% Yes 64% No FOR THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS: Go to www.crainsnewyork.com/poll to have your say. 10 | Crain’s New York Business | April 29, 2013 Your headline “Five years after Bear Stearns’ bust” and the accompanying article (March 11) must have seemed like willful schadenfreude to those of us who were ruined by the investment bank’s collapse. Perhaps you should do a follow-up piece on the human wreckage from that “bust.” My partner of more than 30 years was a Bear Stearns senior managing director at the time, and had nothing to do with the sleaze and machinations and inattentive pot-smoking and bridge-playing that led to the firm’s implosion. His small area of the firm had actually had what would have been their best year ever. They worked hard, and honestly. Nevertheless, we lost everything—our life savings, our home, everything that made life seem valuable and worth living. We’ve ended up in a crummy apartment in a crummy building on a crummy stretch of street, attempting to start over from scratch at the age of nearly 60. Which isn’t easy, or fun. My partner has never been able to restart his career. I realize that we’re hardly the only people ruined by Bear Stearns management’s perfidy, and so many more people across the country lost as much and in many cases far more from Wall Street’s fit of “carelessness.” But misery doesn’t really like company. One’s own household’s distress preoccupies and consumes people. Would you mind asking former CEO Jimmy Cayne how he manages to sleep at night, knowing what he did to destroy so many? —douglas k. dunn INFURIATED UNION INFURIATES READER Re your article “City’s contract offer infuriates unions” (CrainsNewYork.com): Not only are these municipal unions not appreciative of the fact that almost no city employees were laid off during the nation’s biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression, but they also actually want retroactive raises? And they don’t feel it’s right to be asked to contribute to one’s own health care even though that’s what the vast majority of employees do (84% to 94%, per the Kaiser Family Foundation’s annual report on employer health benefits)? Even though doing so would actually incentivize people to treat the causes of health issues rather than the symptoms— saving taxpayers a lot of money in the long run—because “that’s how it’s always been done” for them? If there’s anything insulting here, it’s the unions’ complete detachment from reality and total inability to see the forest for the trees of their own selfish and shortsighted demands. —michael CRAIN’S WELCOMES SUBMISSIONS to its opinion pages. Send letters to letters@crainsnewyork.com. Send columns of 475 words or fewer to opinion@crainsnewyork.com. Please include the writer’s name, company, address and telephone number. CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS editor in chief Rance Crain publisher, vp Jill R. Kaplan EDITORIAL editor Glenn Coleman managing editor Jeremy Smerd deputy managing editors Valerie Block, Erik Ipsen assistant managing editor Erik Engquist senior producer, news Elisabeth Butler Cordova news producer Amanda Fung contributing editor Elaine Pofeldt columnists Greg David, Alair Townsend crain’s health pulse editor Barbara Benson senior reporters Theresa Agovino, Aaron Elstein, Lisa Fickenscher, Matthew Flamm reporters Chris Bragg, Matt Chaban, Daniel Geiger, Andrew J. 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All rights reserved. ®CityBusiness is a registered trademark of MCP Inc., used under license agreement. CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. BOARD OF DIRECTORS chairman Keith E. Crain president Rance Crain treasurer Mary Kay Crain Cindi Crain executive vp, operations William Morrow senior vp, group publisher Gloria Scoby vp/production, manufacturing David Kamis chief information officer Paul Dalpiaz founder G.D. Crain Jr. (1885-1973) chairman Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. (1911-1996) secretary Merrilee Crain (1942-2012) http://www.NYCJobsBlueprint.org http://www.crainsnewyork.com/subscribe http://www.crainsnewyork.com/advertise http://www.crainsnewyork.com/events http://www.crainsnewyork.com/poll

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's New York - April 29, 2013

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
REAL ESTATE DEALS
SMALL BUSINESS
OPINION
GREG DAVID
REPORT: EDUCATION
THE LIST
FOR THE RECORD
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crain's New York - April 29, 2013