Tag Archives: engines of opportunity

‘Fight’ Over Zoning Reform Should Be About Jobs, Not Industry Interests

Tuesday’s Crain’s story on the expected fight between the self-storage industry and City Hall announces industry efforts to weaken City industrial policy. The article recognizes the delay on crucial land use reforms yet improperly frames the state of current industrial policy. The City’s focus on the industrial and manufacturing sector to advance economic equity is the result of extensive research and assessment on the subject. The Mayor’s 10-Point Industrial Action Plan aims to support the creation and sustainability of good paying industrial jobs by limiting non-industrial uses through zoning reform.

The suggested “fight” is essentially the City standing up for well thought out policies that lead to the creation of more good-paying jobs in the City against the self-storage industry’s interests.

An out of control real estate market is the overarching problem for both existing and potential manufacturers looking to locate in the City. As Leah Archibald of industrial business provider organization Evergreen Exchange pointed out to Crain’s, nonindustrial uses that are permitted in industrial areas feed speculation, driving up rents and property values to the point where manufacturers are unable to compete. Jobs that leave as a result of this speculation are unlikely to come back if underlying conditions are not addressed. Competing uses like self-storage or hotels create fewer good paying jobs and drastically alter the composition of a neighborhood and further accelerate speculation.

As concluded in the Industrial Plan, limiting these competing uses through zoning mechanisms like a special permit is a sound policy tool with both local and citywide precedent. The Bridging Gowanus report, which comprehensively examined ways to move the community forward amidst speculative forces, explicitly highlights the need to restrict the capacity of competing non-industrial uses. Citywide, the City Council’s own Engines of Opportunity report on the industrial and manufacturing sector recognized the need for broad zoning reform to advance economic equity. This Administration’s Industrial Action Plan rightfully focuses on addressing competing uses as a way to create more jobs and economic opportunity for New Yorkers.

Now, over a year after the Mayor’s announcement, the Plan still provides a solid foundation for industrial policy to create economic equity. But implementation remains incomplete, to the detriment of employees, businesses, and communities citywide. Jobs are disappearing as the cost of operating an industrial business continues to rise. Delays to the full implementation of this plan – whether logistical or as a result of industry interests – do not change these realities. ANHD and industrial advocates throughout NYC will work with the Administration and the City Council to protect and grow the critical industrial jobs that serve families and their communities.

Industrial Action Plan One Year Later: What Has Moved and What Hasn’t

On the one-year anniversary of Mayor de Blasio’s unveiling of the Industrial Action Plan, various critical components of the 10-Point Vision remain unfulfilled. While aspects of the plan have moved forward, others have either seen little progress or gone a different direction than the original intent. Ultimately, the purpose of the plan is to ensure that New Yorkers can continue to tap into economic opportunity and mobility.

• Industrial advocates today sent a letter to the Administration highlighting major concerns and the urgency for advancing the full breadth of the Industrial Action Plan.
• Evergreen Exchange, North Brooklyn’s Industrial Business Service Provider, has a new video that demonstrates just why #ManufacturingMatters, not only for its strong wages, but for its crucial role in supporting local economies.
• The economic opportunity presented by the industrial and manufacturing sector was covered in the New York Times last week. In addition to reinforcing many points previously raised in the City Council’s Engines of Opportunity report, The Times reminds us that most manufacturers are small businesses, employing less than 20 workers.

As the Industrial Action Plan enters its second year, we are optimistic of opportunities to work alongside fellow advocates and with the City and the Council to develop an equity agenda that provides economic opportunities for all New Yorkers.

The promise of use group reform remains unfulfilled.

Almost one year ago, the Administration and the City Council, with the support of many of us in the economic development community, announced the Industrial Action Plan, a ten-point roadmap for strengthening the industrial and manufacturing sector, a growing source of middle-class jobs and entrepreneurial opportunity for New Yorkers in all five boroughs. One of the most significant promises out of that plan was the development of new “safeguards against the influx of tourist hotels and personal mini-storage facilities”. Unfortunately, the Administration’s publicly stated October 15^th deadline has passed, and the promise of use group reform remains unfulfilled.

The rationale behind creating these safeguards is “to preserve opportunities for industrial and manufacturing businesses” and the good paying jobs they bring to NYC. But these businesses are closing because they are being priced out of the City’s little manufacturing zoned land by non-manufacturing businesses. ANHD and the Pratt Center for Community Development, along with industrial advocates from across the city, were proud to stand with the Administration when it announced it would limit hotels and “implement restrictions on personal mini-storage and household goods storage facilities in IBZs through appropriate land use controls”. However, those land use tools have yet to be announced let alone implemented.

The jobs created by industrial and manufacturing businesses provide an opportunity for economic stability and social mobility; this has been central to the discussion of industrial policy for years. As demonstrated by the Council’s 2014 Engines of Opportunity report, jobs in this sector pay more than double in annual wages than the types of jobs that are often displacing them, such as retail, restaurants, and hotels.

Industrial use group reform can help the Administration, the Council, industrial advocates, and our communities in our shared goal of expanding the number of good quality jobs for lower skilled workers who so often struggle to achieve economic stability.

However, the Administration’s failure to fulfill this crucial commitment may be a disappointing sign for its Industrial Action Plan and for the broader realm of policies that can help ensure greater economic stability and social mobility for all New Yorkers. While the Administration has moved forward on some of its commitments, others that are essential to the City realizing the full economic benefit of this sector remain delayed. We urge the Administration to move forward on use group reform, and we look forward to continuing to work with the Administration and the Council as we work to serve and grow the jobs and business in the industrial sector.