Council Speaker Supports Manufacturing Jobs

Council Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito in her State of the City Speech today pledged to implement the recommendations of an important report entitled Engines of Opportunity: Reinvigorating New York City’s Manufacturing Zones for the 21st Century. The report, issues by the City Council last year, highlights the importance of New York City’s industrial and manufacturing sector as a source of quality jobs for local residents.

As the report notes, average annual wages in the manufacturing and industrial sector are nearly twice those of the retail, restaurant and hotel sectors, and “the industrial workforce in New York City is over 80% people of color and over 60% foreign-born.” Preservation and investment in the City’s industrial areas is critical for the economic growth, viability and well-being the City’s thousands of working-class and low- and moderate-income residents. ANHD applauds the Speaker and the City Council for bringing the issue of preserving our vital manufacturing jobs front and center.

The Council’s report is a good starting point for a conversation on how the city’s zoning and land use tools could better support and capitalize on the city’s industrial and manufacturing job sector. This discussion is particularly timely because many of the neighborhoods that house the city’s remaining industrial and manufacturing hubs are likely to be rezoned over the next several years. City rezonings could result in the loss of thousands of family-supporting jobs, or could serve as a catalyst to stabilize and expand the industrial job sector in our city.

The City’s current zoning regulations serve to undermine manufacturing businesses, by allowing lucrative but incompatible uses such as hotels and self-storage as of right in manufacturing zones. Furthermore we cannot continue the previous administration’s policies of rezoning these critical industrial areas to residential developments, especially high-end, luxury development. This not only eliminates quality manufacturing jobs on the land that is rezoned, it also encourages other manufacturing land owners to purposely under-utilize the industrial capacity of their land – hampering business expansion, job growth and industrial entrepreneurship.

There will be a constant temptation and pressure to rezone land currently zoned for industrial uses to allow for residential uses. But no housing provides affordability and stability for a family without a quality job. Investing in and protecting the City’s manufacturing areas creates economic development benefits that target the city’s working-class and middle- and low-income residents, especially in in low-income, minority, or immigrant neighborhoods.

ANHD, our member groups, and city-wide allies have recently launched a push for a strengthened industrial policy with a joint ANHD/Pratt Center Report calling for a commitment by the Administration and City Officials to create 50,000 jobs in the Industrial and Manufacturing sector would add much needed jobs and they types of jobs that are accessible to New York’s working- class, with lower-barriers to entry, higher average wages, and ladders to opportunity. The Mayor’s ambitious 200,000 unit Affordable Housing Plan – must be matched with an equally aggressive and progressive Equitable Jobs Plan. We cannot put in place a strong housing program that adversely impacts the quality jobs that provide stability for families.

The ANHD/Pratt Center report states that the City needs a bold jobs goal the meet the need of the working-class and comprehensive strategy that draws a series of tools and policies, including

• Stop Zoning away Quality Jobs for Luxury Residential
• Commit to No Net-Loss of Manufacturing Space
• Revive the Mayor’s Office of Industrial & Manufacturing Business
• Support our Manufacturing Businesses & Employ Local Residents through Workforce Development
• Invest in the New Industrial Development Projects