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Job Retention "…We believe that "good" manufacturing jobs combining
requisite productivity, ROI, and wages and benefits are worth
keeping and growing for several reasons. They continue to provide
an entry to the middle class for millions of non-college-educated
workers, including a disproportionate share of non-white workers.
They anchor high-end service jobs, especially in cities, and thus
provide a multiplier on community prosperity and general living
standards. They are a motor for the demand and application of new
technology, upon which living standards finally depend. And they
are essential to achieving balance, or at the least less
imbalance, in U.S. trade with the rest of the world."
Designer Survey We are also working with Firstop on developing a survey of local design and other "creative" businesses that will help us to create a Northside creative/industrial business database and information resource which would facilitate collaboration among compatible local firms, enable easy access to needed business services and consultation (legal, accounting, marketing, real estate, etc.), available workers, exhibition space, etc. Intervening in Land-Use Variance Applications The City's Greenpoint/Williamsburg Rezoning Proposal
"…the proposed action would not cause a significant…business displacement impact…. their products and services do not classify them as businesses having substantial economic value to the City or region….Current real estate data and property listings suggest that businesses displaced by the proposed action would have ample opportunity to relocate in Brooklyn, and some, within Greenpoint or Williamsburg … In 2003, the [East Williamsburgg In-Place Industrial Park] had a vacancy rate of approximately 15 percent." NAG, on the other hand, saw the City's rezoning plan as destructive of not only industrial businesses, but also the neighborhood's unique blend of industrial and creative jobs. Its MX zoning, so-called "mixed-use," removed the protections that the Special Mixed-Use areas offered industrial businesses. Many companies need to be in this neighborhood because their clients and workers are here. Morever, extensive zoning actions are shrinking industrial land throughout the city and vacancy rates along with it . In short, the zoning changes taking place in New York City placed the industrial sector into jeopardy. Strategies to Protect
Businesses We also worked with the Coalition to get the City to remove job-dense blocks from the planned rezoning are, targeting over 30 and blocks that were predominantly or significantly industrial. DCP agreed to remove 13 of them from the rezoning. Regrettably again, building owner pressure resulted in local officials successfully calling for those blocks to be added back to the rezoning area. Ultimately, one block in Greenpoint was left out of the Advocacy Within Community Board's
Rezoning Task Force On May 13, 2003, before the City had publicly presented its plan, NAG, the Economic Development Subcommittee of the CB1 Rezoning Task Force, NYIRN and GMDC hosted a business breakfast at the Brooklyn Brewery for local companies in the proposed rezoning areas. The City had not done any outreach about its proposal - and in fact, never did so - so this was the first chance business owners had had to see the potential plan. Many were upset. The City's plan was formally presented to the community at a Community Board hearing on November 16, 2004. To read more about NAG's involvement in the rezoning process, see From our testimony at a public rezoning hearing: "…When you add up the current and potential jobs these businesses represent in the aggregate and add in the ripple effect they have on other local businesses, such as bars, restaurants, and suppliers -- and then consider the well-known magnetic effect such vibrant creative enclaves have on well-educated, economically desirable "knowledge workers," the kind all cities are trying to attract -- you begin to get an idea of the tremendous economic impact of the area's "creative economy" in New York City. The inevitable, rent-raising, gentrifying effect of the city's rezoning plans for the area seriously threaten to destabilize and then disperse these interlocking creative communities, to the great detriment of the city's economy and character. Rather than acknowledging, celebrating, and planning how to nurture our local creative entrepeneurs, City Planning does not even mention them in its draft scope as being worthy of study." From the testimony of Dawn Ladd, the proprietor Aurora Lampworks , a highly successful lighting restoration, replication & custom fabrication firm: "…The mixed-use neighborhood we know, love, and work in, will be given a zoning designation that will change it into a purely residential area. Every business and every employee inside the industrial buildings will soon be gone. What kind of city council would vote to makes 4,000 good jobs and hundreds of thriving businesses disappear?" Survey of local industrial
businesses Of the approximately 236 industrial, manufacturing and artisanal businesses in the district, over 80% were in areas designated for zoning changes. Focusing on those businesses, NAG collected demographic and other data from approximately some 70 businesses. Some of the key results of the survey showed that a majority employ district residents (80%), employ fewer than 20 workers (79%), produce goods for the local markets (62 %), rent their spaces and are threatened with displacement (61%), and operate in spaces smaller than 10,000 square feet (54%). We observed that a majority of employees in the businesses we canvassed are immigrants. We used this information in our hearings testimony etc. to validate our proposals for protecting industries. The City presented no hard information about the sector to bolster its own positions on it. Mayor's Industrial Office During the summer of 2006, NAG conducted outreach for the new
Mayor's Industrial Office in the Greenpoint/Williamsburg Industrial Ombudsman area currently administered
by the East Williamsburg Valley Industrial Development Corp. (EWVIDCO).
We were contracted to collect industrial businesses' contact information
and query them about their space needs, expansion plans, etc. - information which will go into
a new city database of industrial businesses - as well as inform them
about grants and relocation money available for businesses in the
rezoned areas.
Background "Post-Industrial?" Not Really The industrial businesses that stayed in New York did so because their market and labor forces are here; they compete on the basis of proximity and quality, not price; and the city needs them. New York developers couldn't get much built without fresh-mixed concrete; its media industry constantly requires new sets; its hordes of luxury condo buyers need their custom cabinetry; and who among us wants to give up fresh bread or smoked fish? All of these are produced by local businesses. Industrial businesses actually provide about the same number of local jobs as the finance industry does. In contrast to how they are often perceived, most industrial firms are thriving and expanding. Normal business pressures aside, they are vulnerable to one thing: rising residential real estate values resulting in shrinking industrially-zoned land, through illegal residential conversions, legal use variances, and zoning changes. North Brooklyn's Greenpoint and Williamsburg communities are two of New York's most vibrant, creative communities, home to a mix of artists, artisans, light manufacturers and residents. It's the mix, diversity and synergy of uses made possible by the variety of spaces that helps fuel the creativity. But the May, 1995 zoning changes eliminated the protections that maintained the balance of spaces and uses, favoring residential development while yanking the rug out from under industrial businesses. Everyone who lives here knows that New York City needs more housing. But we also need a diverse economy, industrial capacity, and a supply of good jobs, particularly those that can provide immigrants with a ladder to the middle class - and those that, because they have to be done locally, can't be outsourced to a faraway country. One of NAG's priorities over the last few years has been defending local industrial jobs. Thousands of Good Jobs at Risk For years, this dense enclave of vibrant industrial businesses competed against the ever-more-powerful force of residential demand and development. The protections built into the SMUD were not respected. Even before the 2005 rezoning Greenpoint and Williamsburg industrial areas were "clearly the center of a profusion of use variances," according to a 2002 study by the Municipal Art Center which criticized the Bureau of Standards and Appeals (BSA)'s excessive granting of them. As residential land prices in the neighborhood skyrocketed, many owners of buildings in manufacturing-zoned areas sought permission to change the zoning of their lots, which would increase the value of their property many-fold. The BSA approved most of these applications, despite the fact that many if not most of them contained deliberate misinformation intended to give the appearance of meeting the criteria for a variance . In addition to these "legal" variances, many buildings
were illegally converted to residential; owners rented space
to people to live in their buildings, despite the fact that
they didn't meet building code, electrial, safety,
ventilation and other standards required for residential
dwellings. The city-wide affordable housing shortage and the
popularity of the district ensured a steady supply of
renters willing to put up with those conditions. |
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© 2006 Neighbors Allied for Good Growth |