The Port Authority of NY/NJ was formed for over 60 years ago to build a cross-bay rail freight tunnel. Local pols. and community groups are trying to derail new funding efforts to build it, a $5Bil-$7Bil project[!] Rail freight cannot come directly in except via ALBANY NY, or by barge across the river- so NYC streets are flooded with TRUCKS, and $100Mil for studies and design was funded July 2005 fed Transportation Bill- [but PORT AUTH is NOT interested" in the project, the Mayor also came out against it]. One company ALONE -trucks 6,000 containers a year of Heineken from NJ docks to it NYC warehouse for distrbution. So there are prob hundreds of thousands of truck trips that can be avoided thru Manhattan to become more localized with containers sent via rail to NYC warehouses besides using BKLYN piers could also be linked to rest of the US. NJ had faster growth for yeras of Newark than JFK or LGA esp. in freight. But the 3 NYC area airports are at max. have had worst worst on-time perfomance in US for year, leading FAA to throttle/ decrease the number of departure. US airlines are nearly literally in meltdown, US-EURO gateway agreement lead to more more competition to NYC for international flights, so the new air travel in NYC is a f__ mess despite a few new shiny terminals and 1990s AirTrain/Airlink!

Are you happy about that toll and PATH fare money going to Alvin Ailey, the Brooklyn Children's Museum and the American Museum of Natural History among others?

Apartment buildings collapse in NYC. At current rate, the sewers of NY would take 500 years to replace. Billions alone needed to upgrade NYC sewage system [$680mil alone being spent soon to build emerg generators at 3 sewage plants to cover them in case of other blackouts].. Still, at the end of 2006, a report about the water supply sytem has not been released but reasonable speculation is that as it all becoming nearly 100 years old, $40 Bil in repairs are needed. Famously clear [umm used to be] NYC water is now treated and is about to all need filtering though a $1.5 bil filtration plant is in the works, just as badly the Catskill Aqueduct is leaking badly and the ___ dam is in bad shape [and the Pols and press don't like to mention it], plus the essential watershed acquisition is not - there mu$t not be much in it for the right people and. A huge new ulta-violet [UV] water treatment facility is being kicked-off.. WATER TUNNEL No 3 is 15 years and billion$ away from completion...no possible shutdown try for complete inspection of ol tunnels 1 and 2 utnil then; a collapse [MORE-> on the aging water infrastructure] could make much of NYC a ghost town and impact the NATIONAL economy for a year+ and hundreds of million in repairs!

They can't keep the lights on in NY in a heat wave. NIMBY and hugely complex regulation makes the NYC market, rich as it is, a no-go for further electrical generation development. JULY 2006 ASTORIA LIC area blacked out for 7-9 days with 10 of 41 feeder cables failed and then 4 feeder cables "mysteriously" failed in part of S.I. should be looked looked at as due to increased electricity demand from increasingly dense population fueled by packing both legal and illegal swelling population and max build-out in other areas, in with no corresponding investment in infrastructure...[see Aug 7-13 2006 Crain's N Y Business A. Michaud "Bloomberg lowballs city energy need" especially] Post JULY 2007 CON ED steampipe explsion and AUG 8 2007 rains transit meltdown, a Councilman calls for another Commission to examine infrastructure -Bloomberg says we don't need another stinkin' Commission, just send money! In 1998 Comptroller Hevesi put cost of fixing it up at $92Billion over 10 years. The telecoms system is vulnerable to interruption. Downtown is the most densely wired in the world, but different carriers 'pipes' all go through the same few physical facilities to interconnect, few companies [..'cause only their techies realized it] have spent the big bucks to have alternate links that bypass the Verizon bldg. esp. that was damaged in 9-11 [report issued 8-9-02 by special group of execs. from everything from the Fed Reserve to Goldman Sachs etc.]

... or the subways running in severe weather Just about three inches of rain in three hours halted nearly the entire NYC subway am Sept 8 2004, all it took from the remnant of Hurricane Frances. Pumps couldn't clear it up for hours as controllers switched trains away from tunnels that were flooding and shut power to some sections and discharged passengers into the tunnels. Sick passengers on several trains on several lines further delayed service. Something musta been fixed, even heavier rains [on a weekend day, though] in APR 2007 did not cause such problems. The worst thing in these interruptions is MTA-subway shows that there is next to NO distribution of critical info. to passengers and TA staff in the stations knew very little about the situation too, and gave bad advice! In my station as in many others there is NO P.A. system or displays of any kind. While traveling underground each train line engineer and conductor seems to only receive radio info about their own line, SO at worst they could discharge you to transfer to a station for transfer to lines with an emergency situation. Anyway, PATH kept running yet the Hudson Tubes [PATH] also originated 100 years ago [passenger service FEB2008]. The real problems are corruption and lack of standards - see MORE-> -BUT don't worry. Y'all come down to NYC. Lets say a hundred billion dollar$+ needed [even before 9-11-01], money we do not have and can't afford to pay debt service on. We are reaching part way towards it with record $54bil [July 2007] project to b e $73bil mid 2011 with of debt/ of debt service increasing a "10 percent" year not not all going to the Yankees but mostly necessary capital improvements.

As North America's population and economic centers shift southward and westward, New York and New England east of the Hudson find themselves increasingly cut off from the continent's trade grid because of poor rail, road and air connections...Today, even as crumbling infrastructure and a lack of investment threaten the economic health of the region, no concerted action is being undertaken by regional leaders to overcome the considerable political, financial and institutional hurdles that tend to paralyze large-scale projects in the metropolitan area." James R. Russell, "THE GREAT DIVIDE" grid magazine JAN-FEB 2001 "Could New York's power to compete be eroding even as its growth rate outstrips much of America's? [...umm, outstripping it anymore?]

Early 2003-over 20% of tech and IT jobs and companies gone from NYC besides all jobs, between APR 2001 and FEB 2003, 80,400 jobs lost [10 percent of total!] from financial sector according to US BLS figures, with corresponding decline of **'A lax collector - City lets firms slide on debt' results from a Comptrollers of audits since 2002 released 6-22-07 $23.8mil owed by high profile companies most like METS. telephone and other vendors, and various restaurant lessors on city property. Much of these particular debts were paid.** revenues, while costs have for gov't have skyrocketed. Some of the NYC elites are so pro-DEVELOPER and short sighted, typified of attitute expressed by the NY OBSERVER 11-13-2006 issue "Years from now, people will wonder why it took so long for New York to dispose with the [old dilapidated buildings] industrial past along the East River...[h]owever it's enough to marvel that it is happening at all."" NYState LOST 26,000 people in FY 2005 [even with the NYC area economic boom-ish and increasing legal and illegal imigrants] and upstate past the Hudson Valley is a economic basket case with few healthy spots. One-third of all upstate manufacturing jobs were lost since 1990 overall. Crain's NY Business [Feb 6-12 2006] says upstate has highest per capita tax burden the US[!], including real estate taxes, so much so that Eastman KODAK spent more in 2005 on DEMOLISHING buildings on its Rochester campus than any other new construction in Rochester.

Can they get enough money and get people over to justify upgrading to Stewart field as the areas 4th International airport? New Jersey is better situated now to be the active center of the Port of NY/NJ; it has the only direct rail link to the Port, and space for adjacent new clusters of first class and back office space being developed, has newer interstate road connections, and is expanding the commuter rail network. NJ also had faster growth of the airport [Newark] than JFK or LGA esp. in freight. But HALIFAX NS are capturing European trade from NYarea, the "NAFTA" corridor lines up more with Detroit, Toronto & Montreal than NY. NYC is the only major US city where a majority of freight gets in by lovely trucks [breathe it all in], as the PORT AUTH on behest or by condo-crazy developers is closing down most deepwater piers of BROOKLYN and completing regional dependence on PORT Newark and Elizabeth which are dangerously subject to closure by any accident [umm any of those d__heads heard of terrorists?] of the newest megaships in the narrow and twisting access channel. Then much-touted cruise ship plan for Brooklyn piers displaced a container ship operation. One exception to and in midst of the condo-isation of Brooklyn waterfront is keeping last shipping operation in Red Hook; Council, industry and local opposition killed NYC plan to take over piers where [ASI] American Stevedoring is based. Their lease expired 2007, but renewal signed early 2008 with the Port Authority; stopped NYC plans for the pier[s] for distribution/ lighter industry.

The Subway [original IRT section] is over *100* years old, the rest was mostly built in the 1920s and 1930s. "Missing links" were called for to be filled in the [powerless] 1929 Regional Planning Assoc. study, among the most famous, and we're still waiting. The only crossings between Manhattan going west to NJ are: 23 lanes of vehicle traffic that cross the Hudson in the G.W. bridge and (5) 2-lane tunnel tubes, plus approx 100-year old rail tunnels of 2 single track [!] tunnels to Penn Station shared by AMTRAK and NJ Transit, and 4 tracks for PATH rapid-transit in single-track tubes. Weekends and nights that PENN Station access west is only ONE track/tunnnel due to ongoing track work etc! In 2002-3, $25 million of est $100 mil 5-year program of security upgrade was done adding monitoring, adding alarms, barricades etc. and plans are to also improve access and ventilation, though the total amount of money sounds way too low. The OLD tunnels "desperately" need a safety upgrading that was estimated at $898 million.." alone - [Tunnels to PENN STATION under the NJ PALISADES have a 10-floor height in-the-rock metal spiral stairway emergency exit. + other hazards, modernizing 2-1/2 mile length estimated $900. million project alone!] YET in 2004 HUDSON-BERGEN Light Rail widened the 3/4-mile long Weehawken freight tunnel not very far north of the Penn Sta tunnels thru the same rock AND drilled a new shaft for elevators + emergency stair to a new STATION in the tunnel. Light rail service through this $150mil project started FEB 2006. NJ is also going to beat NY is adding to its rail system including proposed commuter new tunnel to link to a new 34st station with and connection to this Hudson-Bergen light rail, announced OCT 2004, before fed funding is secured, though.

9-11-2001 there were almost 3000 dead, 15 million s.f. of prime office space destroyed, transit facilities destroyed [but now are mostly reopened or rebuilt], most broadcast TV knocked off the air for a while [ok for the ~30 percent of us without cable] $40 to $60 billion in property and casualty losses with a billion dollar cleanup. The NYSE expansion and office tower plans were scrapped-announced by Chairman Grasso Nov. 8 2001, summer 2002 move is OUT, but second-backup site is to be developed. New WTC: forget about world class design. Some major firms produced designs that would have been BACKWARDS LOOKING for the 1960s! The major benefit to all schemes are proposed major rail terminal improvements which are mainly underground and not linked to the architecture [but that is also backwards thinking.] The sleekest and most innovative [or wild looking] high-rise towers in the world are among the new towers in the Persian Gulf States and Hong Kong, and China..many designed by Americans. Other 'World Cities' have renewed themselves, but new const. for 25+ years in NYC has been mainly completely private sector offices, + luxe apts, all putting a greater burden on NYCs desperately aging public infrastructure. It does look like no one took seriously pleas to turn the whole site into a memorial...we don't need a huge field for the dead, [I won't say necropolis, but..] David Childs design for WTC7 was released MAY 14 2002 and it was completed late 2005, ready for Spring 2006 occupancy, though a only *second* tenant signed on JAN 4 2005. It is almost as tall as Woolworth Bldg, but so is the grotesquely ordinary new mid-block apartment bldg. ACROSS the STREET from the WOOLWOTH bldg because it uses "air-right" from adjacent St. Peter's. But WTC 7 plays well with others, it has a gorgeous curtain wall and is a little slimmer than previously because smaller 'footprint' does not block the "view corridor" down Greenwich St.

- they have had "five years worth of planning time to conceivably try for a direct on another of our vital economic asests before the first one is rebuilt." The Mayor's, NYC's business establishment and the lower Manhattan financial community's resolve to rebuild lower Manhattan seems mixed at best. The NY Partnership members and CEOs of Merrill Lynch, Amex, and Bank or NY particularly, warned of *many* more companies ready to leave NY, telling other members in a confidential memo which is particularly critical of government, inferred the NY Governor especially [article, NY POST exclusive, Business MAR 31 2003] Mar 17 2003 "...[i]t is difficult to overstate the damage that further silence and delay in decision making [about redevelopement] will cause." "A 20 or 30-year schedule..is unacceptable."; its how long Times Sq. took to be redeveloped. Bloomberg de-emphasized office space and the NYTimes editorialized against the WTC Freedom Tower it, saying that there should not be a glut of new space. Leasing at new 7WTC started slowly. "New York will be no more an Olympic city than Havana. "[-NYTimes, Sports, 5-19-04 Harvey Araton "I.O.C. Misses an Opportunity for Change"]

The Mayor's wish list for NYC Olympics 2012 was tied to W Side Plan for a massive high-rise office land with about TWICE the sq footage of the lost WTC! BUT NYTimes kept up a barrage of articles and editorials attacking office space construction at the WTC site --they did not want downtown space in competition with THEIR huge 8th Ave-41 st HQ tower under way, with developer Bruce Ratner. In their view all the new towers uptown somehow does not mean a glut while proposed new WTC towers somehow do. T

CRAINs NY Business [Fickenschur and Flamm] Sept 4-10 2006 said financial district "5 years on" is "one of the city's most economically fragile neighborhoods" suffered loss of 50,000 jobs hurts retail and services, the same number of job losses downtown as there was just after 9-11. "81 percent of finance, insurance and real estate tenants whose buildings were damaged or destroyed on Sept. 11 have abandoned Downtown" [-NY POST 7-8-02 re: analysis on tenantwise.com]. Companies adjusted to move back in or leave. **2007JUN-Pennsylvania pitched itself as being in the just right place for back of of the NYC financial center if NYC getes nuked. YES, the GOV Rendell of Penn did say NJ mostly in the blast zone and other ares at the right distance are too expensive, so he promoted the Wall St West consortium plans to have $25mil of fiber run to the Poconos is just in the 100 mile "limit" for the synchronous data transmission.** Concentration is bad; bad news for NYC? [you heard of FLWright's Broadacre City?, apparently way ahead of its time.] SO MANY -millions of square ft converted to residential use in small and medium size old office bldgs are being converted to residential there is a great shortage of CLASS B office space and subsequent displacement of service, not-for-profits and support businesses. Post 9-11 FED-STATE-CITY govt policy of grants and other aid, rezoning for more residential was channeled to the fat cats moreso than those who really needed it. "Liberty Bonds" for example hastened the construction of apartments. Only $62Mil of $539Mil Empire State Dev. Corp WTC Grant Business Recovery Grants starting in 2002 went to retail and food operations [love ya too, Mr. Pataki]. EVEN this article noted for some many shops, new apartments above instead of offices mean LESS business. Move outs of financial companies etc means a loss of business for many smaller service vendors which do not get it from the increased number of tourists and residents [many young and or part time] despite the touted presence of the few luxe uptown shops.

Back on the Chain Gang

"..two years from now, by the city's own estimates, New York will have recovered fewer than 40% of the jobs it lost in the last recession and will still be 125,000 jobs below the job peak of three years ago."- but govt spending increasing faster than inflation [-higher in NYC than most cities] threatens even this [-Steven Malanga, "Stagflation Grips Gotham" The NYSun 1-15-04] "In 1968 when Wall Street was enjoying a similarly long-running market boom, the unemployment rate in New York fell to 3.1 percent..." "Wall Street is streamlined, though "still far from a model of efficiency." "Most of the business revolutions, like those in computer technology and biotechnology have simply passed it by." "Study Find Many Firms Cheat New York Worker's Comp System" - by up to a $billion...NYTimes 1-25-2007, see scroll box "Survey says"

The last "boom" in NYC job growth was in 2000, after taking the most of 1990s to benefit to from the growing US economy,. In Sept2002-03 there were suburban job gains; in NJ, a small gain in employment in Long Island, Ct etc. but was a LOSS of 47,000 jobs in NYC, according to the Fed Labor Dept. Const. and fast food up, OK, but big losses in Wall St [esp now thru decentralization] and manufacturing were a black mark on NYC economy. Finally, unemployment fell officially to 5.4 percent[!] Spring 2006, then AUG 2006 to 5.1%, after a long period job growth far below national average by official jobs numbers of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the overall number hides poor figures in the much of Boroughs. Fall 2005 the Mayor pointed to lower unemployment but offical figure showed job losses. He and BX Boro Presdent, for example boasted about booming BX despite the offical figures. Steve Malanga in NYSun [8-5-05] and 7-27-05 "Gotham Stalls Out" demolished politicians false crowing about the NYC economy. He said the plain fact is NYC job growth was 0.3% in 2004. ALSO despite seeming boom in CONSTRUCTION, *those* jobs FELL each year since 2001 down 9% from a peak and this year has just stablised at 2004 levels. And to answer Mayor Bloomberg, 2005 is first year was employement growth since he took office. NY up-State has some bright spots but is in bad shape-170,000 manufacturing jobs alone were lost since 1990 along with population loss in most areas. In the rest of the city, manufacturing is taking a hit, not just besides illegal conversions like 30 bldgs alone in East Williamsburg Industrial Park area [-as found by NY Industrial Retention Network]. Not all can be accomodated in newly drawn lines of shrunken manufacturing areas. A zoning-housing study issued by the Manhattan Institute called for conversion of 5 industrial-zoned areas in the boroughs to residential to meet "unfilled demand" for 600,000 new units over the next 20 years. The Audobon Partnership for Economic Development concured [July 2005] that much land for housing etc. would be available if excess industrial land is rezoned. Market rate housing in Inwood between the Harlem River and the Projects? Well, more startling developments already happened in Brooklyn. Some past numbers= 139,800 manufacturing jobs in 2002 lower by 56,100 from 1998! 148,300 "wholesale trade" jobs 2002 lower by 4,900 from 1998! Apparel manufacturing loss of 3,500 jobs in 2006 though OCTOBER. Manufacturing-distribution job loss is accelerated by" TribBeCafication in Greenpoint, Long Island City. Red Hook, the South Bronx, Sunset Park and Williamsburg."[-NYTimes, Metro 12-15-03 re new Steiner Studios at Bkln Navy Yard displacing trucking co.]

Mar 2005 the *official* rise in cost of living was 1.7 percent, highest in 23 years and 3X national average- high fuel costs are being passed on in higher prices of all types of goods and services too, but NYC higher cost of living including higher taxes passed on [BUT especially] by hyperinflated salaries of the few and property values driven by these $$$ chasing top properties and shortage of housing in all price ranges citywide. A low six-figure income a basic necessity a single to cope with housing expenses which could be several thousand dollars a month for a rental to avoid sharing cramped quarters! But like many, I would be happy with a higher five-figure salary! I do live in much more modest quarters just to have a few splurges on "stuff" and live near the subway. Rising housing costs are a big factor in the flood of ex-Manhattanites going to Brooklyn, especially among the Boroughs. Rising propery values by demand and speculation are causing significant yet "unofficial" inflation. Higher wages in NY produce little gain in living standards among the shrinking "middle class" because of rising rents and retail prices due to rising commercial rents. Taxes are higher and the great big sucking sound is from the carcass of the disapearing middle class. The official poverty level in NYC increased to above 20 percent. Queens, SI, and Brooklyn had small rises but The BRONX had steepest rise from 28.7 to 30.6 percent. ->this in the news AUG 31 2005 just a few days after pols took 'pride' citing offical NYC figures figures showed the lowest numbers of welfare/public assistance recipients in many years. Official caseload figures for end of NYC FY2008 [th4u JUN 30] show lowest no. since 1963: 341,329! [1995: 1,160,593!]. It a matter less like a matter of heart than the smell of fed fund$ early JULY 2008 to show NYC has a poverty rate appox 23%+ $26,138 instead of 18.9% rate at $20,444 family of 4 if poverty rates were calculated by feds more correctly taking into account costs of necessities beyond just food, local costs of livng and government benefit$ received. The amount of extreemt povery wouild alos be lower, but the number of working poor will be higer. NYC will use the figures to try to force Washington to hand over more in a new "poverty campaign" in conjunction with fed proposal "Measuring Amrrican Poverty Act." The BRONX is still the poorest urban county in the US and BROOKLYN was [is still?] in the top 10 poorest counties the US; there are othernew social welfare [workfare etc.] mechanisms not accounted here somehow.

They say that income among many income groups rose during the 90s. The NY Times just famously wrote that median income declined for every group except for Manhattan, but that was if the 1990 figures were adjusted up to account for inflation...Steve Malanga is writing a CITY JOURNAL article that *all* groups income rose and detailed them. I strongly disagree with his rosy view. The rise in incomes esp. at highest levels inflated commercial property values [much turnover of store leases to get market rents and attract the chains] along with flood of immigrants [nearly 1.25 million] pushed housing costs sky-high makes NYC -NOT appalachia- have highest poverty rate in US, and there is no housing construction except for the upper-middle class. Study by "Center for an Urban Future" noted above near top finds high real estate cost in part caused by the few, but billion$ in corporate tax and real estate subsidies "inhibit the development of new business and the retention of lower-margin industries."

Publications JUL 2007-Bancroft's OK sale of DOW JONES/ WSJ to NEWS CORP
Crain's NY Business Wall Street Journal	FORTUNE Barron's online	___ __
Agencies - Organizations
NYC Economic Dev. Corp. Small Business Administration NY State Tax & Finance NYC Dept. of Business Services	NYC Dept. of Finance NYC B to B Directory Alliance for Downtown NY NYBiz.com	Kaufman Foundation S.C.O.R.E. NY Bar Assoc. Disaster Recovery NYC Partnership
$1 billion in NY recovery bonds sold Oct. 1. 200_
WTC area businesses disrupted SO MUCH by construction, $5mil total /$25,000 max each Fed HUD Grants offered through LMDC to small retailers on ground floor at closed streets fi 15 days of a 30 day period retroactive to July 2007 - -original WTC Business Recovery Centers grants for pre 9-11 lower Manhattan businesses *DEADLINE was DEC 31 2002* ["9-11 Aid Found To Favor Investment Field, Not Small Businesses" Investment dealers got 27 percent of total grant dollars, admin by NYState thru Empire State Economic Development Corporation, and highest $ per employee. The NY Merc got $54 mil, but 669 small businesses of WTC received $38mil. -NYTimes, National, 9-8-03]. Downtown Retail Attraction Program: Wall St. Rising

"New York's overall business tax climate ranks 48th among the states, according to the Tax Foundation. Mr. Paterson's money grab could make New York the biggest loser when it comes to tax competitiveness."

--->Wall St. Journal MAY 1 2008. "Return of the Web Tax: New York tries to dodge the Supreme Court." "Capital of Taxes" The local tax burden, highest in US, is approx $4,000 person. "NON-Profit Sector of City Economy Is Fastest-Growing Source of Jobs" NY TIMES 5-22-02 is 3rd largest employment sector at 14% of work force these exclude member-only orgs. from unions to hospitals etc. and schools. EVEN though NY State had cut its corporate income-tax rates, ancillary business taxes, personal income tax rate, and utility tax rates Albany mandates programs which are paid by local income taxes boosting the total but making ALBANY pols look good at campaign time since NYState income tax only 29th highest in US so, NYC is highest taxed part of the country with **state+local** income taxes 5x national avg. Might as well face it, deficit coming or NOT, govt is addicted to cash: NYC sales tax is due to go down 1% [to 7.375%] at expiration of financial control board authorisation since 1974, on 7-1-2008...Mayor Bloomberg opposed roll back as mandated. This tax is split now 4% state [raised in 1974 from 3%] 4% city and .375% to the MTA [raised sometime back from .25%]! A fall 2003 NYC Citizens Budget Commission found $141 NY taxes per $1,000 in income, compared to $121 CA, $120 CT, $114 NJ, US avg $112, NH +TN $8 as lowest. Though among tops in per-capita in tax revenue NY has had about the lowest job growth - 0.3% [from Cato Institute analysis of Census Bureau data] while US avg. for same 1990-98 period was 10.7% and low-tax rate states averaged from 14.5% [Missouri] to 26% [Texas]. Alaska-[highest taxing state at time] had good growth of 15%. Most glaring problem is MEDICAID, where ONLY in NY is 25% of cost is passed to the city - now is $4 billion and rising.

Socio-Capitalism: Breathe deep, open up, continue to let them f__ us!

NYC is sooo generous: We the little people and NYC residents pay taxes, that is all we are good for as higher paid and otusiders get the breaks! Makes me remind you of the ugly face of the new New Yorker posting in the real estate blogs [typically about StuyTown and such]; they bash "bitter renters" who they say should "leave NY if they can't afford it." Like the f__ Yankees?

ICIP Industrial and Commercial Incentive Program" $409.5mil FY 2007: 25-yr property tax abatements supposed to be for construction of regular ol commerical/industrial bldgs and factories, but 90 percent went to retailers /national chains, such as Tours R US Times SQ got $2.4mil, Bloomingdale's, gas stations, MCD's and others were on the dole...you Albany buds has always extened and may continue to extend the program. New York Jobs For Justice - study - [Metro NY 5-9-2007] "At least 22 percent of companies that got tax breaks from the city in 2005 have cut their workforces.. It may be higher but who knows since 44 percent that did not report job data." Oh, 21 percent hired on these jobs for less than $25,000 per years such as from IDA [Industrial Dev Authority $212 Mil to JPMorganChase's Metrotech security guards. Oh the Mayor says city will try to do better in granting these tax incentives. In 2006, The NY STATE LEGISLATURE killed an attmept to toughen wage and REPORTING requirements and in 2008 or 09 the State legislature MIGHT let NYC tighten up on giving out all that ICIP money to MCDs and such!

REAP $8mil "last accurate figure 2004" $3,000 tax credit per employee is they move to NYC or out of downtown Manhattan to a property receiving another city benefit/ tax break -but businesses are NOT lving up to these obligations, either! NYC-State upped ante again, competing with other States and cities in amount of handout to fickle flim/tv production, 2008 are 5% NYC tax credit plus 30% NYState 'below-the-line' tax credit for production service PLUS there is new retail/service 10% discount program at 800 'vendors' for those [mostly VERY well paid, eh?] workers in the industy, shepherded thru by the Mayor's film office and HSBC Bank!

Then there are the really big fish that get private attention of Mayor and aides etc. to work out most of rezoings, hundreds of million$ in incentives, befoore it gets to public forums or other elected representatives. "The City has given more than $2-billion in tax breaks, grants and incentives to 50 corporations-mostly media and financial firms." New Goldman Sachs HQ building at Battery Park City got $640mil NYC-NYState subsidies! BESIDES bigger $1.3BIL packages for Yankees-Mets for stadium infrastructure and aid, baseball getting another "pittance" of $5mil + $15mil to VORNADO developer of new office bldg with new MLB cable channel as tenant in, Harlem -Park Av-124st. Amongst largest previously was a $183.9 million package for the New York Mercantile Exchange, which is now housed in a new bldg. at the World Financial Center. JP Morgan Chase is VERY favored .. Their will claim tax exemptions for the jobs somehow through 2014 no matter the 13,000 workers laid off 1995-2004 and cuts in space leaded. They shopped and it was announced JUN 14 2007 they got almost $240mil tax breaks and incentives for a new tower on the DBank site where dismantling stopped after deadly AUG 2007 fire and may not resume til later 2008! The subsidys are covering much of the cost of the JPMorganChase long-tem [92 year] lease of the site. SO SOMEONE, ANYONE tell ME why the F-- this site is not privatised and site sold to the highest bidder. How much friggin money is the taxpayer spending to pay these a--s who administer these deals, here and all over town?? Late APRIL 2007 NYTimes printed the "C" word - Chase threat to move to CT [Stamford] if NYC does not cough up money to keep them here,follwing in the steps of $650mil package of govt breaks Goldman Sachs got in the deal for their new building. Chase recived 'incentives' from the city to keep people here during the Koch Administration. Since a JPMorganChase merger with Chicago BankOne in 2004, it dumped more space and people. [NYPost Realty Check-Steve Cuozzo 5-3-05] says cutting 500,000 sf downtown and subleasing 1.3mil sf in midtown for as its moves its consumer banking HQ to Chicago. Just before 2003 moves were announced, Chase bought out a west-coast investment bank - Hambrecht & Quist for $1.35 billion. They make money, they know how to keep it.

There is even a permanent nearly $10 million year PROPERTY tax exemption for MADISON SQ. GARDEN since 1982 [threat that teams would leave NY did it] that onwers of MSG want to make the city continue the tax exemption even if they move to a new facility built at the coming[?- so is you know who..] Moynihan Station! what the F_! MSG was probed w search warrants Feb 2004 in labor racketeering allegations, incl. no-show jobs "arranged by the powerful stage hands union and possible bid-rigging by the electricians union.." several high-level building staff were suspended-NYPost 2-12-04.

Fall2006-Politically connected lobbyists lined up tax breaks for new bldgs and to stay in NYC. The whole functioning of the govt has been HIJACKED for them! FedEx has to move from w34 truck facility so CONDOS and or offices of the "West Side Plan" can be built -so they are getting $7.3 mil tax breaks and incentives to build new sorting facility and service center in South Bronx [132st-St Anns]. A new DIAMOND "district" bulding by developer Extell getting city tax breaks will have rents that may be lower than adjacent street-level spots it is expected they that will empty them out. Note a majority of 1.6 mil sq ft of former MACY*S and Gimbels warehouses in LIC are filling with Manhattan jewelry makers and wholesalers moved or exxpanded for very big spaces at lower prices. Merril Lynch pre-2013 lease expiration at WFC is shopping around for new HQ space, is playing the JERSEY card. They could relocate but want big concessions from NYC.

*Citicorp received "$226 million [comparable to what Citigroup paid for naming rights to the METS new stadium- in public subsidies fron New York and New Jersey over the past 18 years.." [-6-13-2007 Metro -from Good Jobs New York and New Jersey Policy Perspective]..noting the 2004 promise of jobs etc on start of new Citibank tower in LIC Queens NYC, these two groups scolded NYC - there was actually NO commitment to stay here or hire, all we got was a presss release!* The New York Stock Exchange *was* about to build a new complex with a 900 foot office tower, aided by generous city 'incentives' across from the current exchange. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. on Wall St. since 1843, the US's largest and oldest private bank founded 1818 in Philadelphia, asked the City and State for tax breaks and a land deal to keep them in NYC and to build a new bldg. at Battery Park City in parcel where an apt. bldg. was supposed to be built.-[NY Times Metro, 3-9-2000]-[I haven't heard since what happened].

In 1987, Mayor KOCH approved real esate and sales and use tax breaks for NBC [threatened to move from Manhattan! Yeah sure] lasting thru 2003, and this was extended under BLOOMBERG thru the NYC Economic Dev Corp as NBC renovates floors of 30 ROCK. Examples of Giuliani 1997 incentives...$75 million to Bear Stearns to 'stay' in NYC locating some 'back offices' to the new Metrotech in Brooklyn but now JAN 2003 Metrotech office developer received tax incentives linked to Bear Sterns staying instead of going to NJ after that lease runs out in 2004. Also there was ['97] $28.5 million to Merrill Lynch, and ING Capital [British-Dutch] in NY since 1820 asked for a package - a financial services firm threatened to move to Stamford CT. Verizon sold [Oct 2004] it 6av-42 st HQ bulding and moving execs to NJ or VA, still to have many staff there. Bear Sterns is trying to get more incentives out of NYC or it will move it's Brooklyn -Metrotech offices to NJ. Taking 'incentive' money from the City is 'frosting'. Pfizer got a package of $46 tax incentives starting 2003 in return for expansion [to some east side offices] + hiring promises but they announced closure of their Brooklyn faciltiy by 2008. NY Life Insurance is moving about a third of its staff from MadAv HQ starting JUNE 2004, to Mount Pleasant at former IBM bldgs partly or mainly in the continuing effect of "9-11" on major corporations. Phillip Morris USA div of ALTRIA [others will stay here] announced move to be complete by 2004 out of NY to Richmond VA after 101 years in NYC, saving money and new NY smoking bans pushed it over the edge. Johnson&Johnson moved Band-Aid production to BRAZIL in 2005 from N. Brunswick plant.

Tax breaks and concessions from Giuliani's time for for DISNEY, VIACOM, Citigroup, AXA and Morgan Stanley to "stay in NYC" are expiring between 2009 and 2011. The Project Director of Good Jobs NY, Ms. Damiani says several of these top-tier companies failed to meet their job growth obligations and "It would be disgraceful for firms with billions of dollars of assets to even consider revisiting the public trough.." Think about that as the Bloomberg Administration continues to favor politically connected developers with tax breaks justified upon shady promises of job increases and move-in of outside businesses. The city collects a massive amount of real estate transfer taxes says its all good. Stemming the disappearance of skilled blue collar and labor jobs which pay much higher than retail [for example] are vital to economic and social balance of the city. Job losses from policies like this should be unacceptable. To be or not to be. Michael Bloomberg or his maid. Illegal alien day labor or day trader. Broadway hoofer or squeegee man. The NYC economy is being skewed further out of whack by numerous moves, and closing of small businesses. They are forced out by their buildings sold out from under them and other that own their own property are tempted out by by property values that are much higher than the value of their businesses. It will get more ugly in this city as economic polarization is amplified. The function of government is NOT to work directly for and transfer public assets to developers! How many people and how much office space and expenses do taxpayers pay for all these dealmakers of the city?

Pataki Temple of Doom: He spent $100 million just to get to this point- Javits Ctr expansion plans were in limbo from when Pataki exited from office thru early 2008. Rising costs forced dumping the major expansion plans and any alternatives one by one, from the last "Richard Rogers" on, all officially CANCELLED JAN 31 2008 with SPITZER backing plan STILL costing $1.6Bil for repairs and a 100,000 maximum sq ft expansion. Whole roof, all the glass needs to be replaces amongst other work. The revised full [JAN 2006] expansion plans were take the Javits size of 675,000 or so square feet to to 1.1Mil sq ft in 2010 then maybe in the future to 1.3mil sq ft in a second phase was way under-estimated are about $4.8 slipped out in the press Sept 2007! Praised by some, but tougher critics said [see also "Users of Javits Center Criticize It's Expansion Plan" NYTimes 3-10-2007] only a "..second rate convention center at a $1.7 Bil price tag! said Assemblyman Brodsky [on Committee that oversees State Authorities"] and Sen Schumer of the Rogers redesigned plan. Javits is down to 19th in size in US.

It's expansion to the South was unfortunately linked to defeated NYC 2012 Olympic -JETS W. Side stadium and the West Side bid. CRAINs NY [JAN 23-29 2006] gave the centre overall a "C" besides it remoteness the most troublesome issues may be early stops to food services [besides the food in them, there is almost no place to sit down - passages are long and shiny - but desolate otherwise], escalators and heat or A/C 5[!] minutes after show closings. Somehow, THOUGH these are ALL NY STATE Agenies and AUTHORITIES, from the development organisations to the centre operators, a more feasible expansion SOUTH was taken from out from consideration to get the MTA out of the picture [see more->], first by trying to force MTA to sell it the railyard at an under-value price. JAN 2007-MTA now prefers to lease Hudson Yards, but will take LOTS of money in a purchase and sent an RFP to the final 5 development teams..there was outcry against the first lowballed sweetheart leasing deal, so SEPT 2006 MTA had "agreed" to sell the yards for development in exchange for NYC assuming most of cost of #7 subway extension. But the MTA was still responsible for 41st-10Av station, cut back to possible shell, OCT 2007 MTA said even paying for a shell of a 41st station will put its capital budget in jepoardy!

NYC [Midtown] has highest office rents in US [sometimes swapping for No 2 for that position with DC], making them ahead of all but a few other US cities in 2006 where most office rents at least stayed flat, with lots of vacancies. The Financial Times JAN 5 2007 saids world's highest office rental are in London [West], Hong Kong, Paris, London [City], then NYC [midtown]. The fall of the dollar makes midtown class A space NYC no. 10 in cost - behind DUBLIN[!], in a Cushman & Wakefield survey released mid FEB 2008. NYC had 48 of the Fortune 500 private companies HQs -Chicago no. 2, @(24), etc. as of fall 1996. NY ranks high [mostly] as a business center, when it does get a negative notice, official and business leaders fume. A most recent ranking by FORTUNE noted NYC a no.1 business city in the U.S. but it also said "New York remains among the top cities on our list for violent crimes." based on the Places Rated Almanac figures- but the next 4 cities down on the list actually had higher crime rates. In 1997 it was no. 1, last year [1999] NYC was no. 4 on this list, and it was somehow below the top 10 in 1998 FORTUNE left NYC off it's (Nov. 11 '97 issue) list of 15 Best Cities for Business "...lousy place to do business." Philadelphia WAS on the list. Cheer "No. 19! We're no. 19!" But if business needs to be here to prosper, they will be here. If they need to have layoffs or pack up and move,they will. Period. Prices are so high that a new office bldg at a strategic spot in Harlem next to the MTA-MetoNorth 125st sta is going to have a large office bldg, first such type again in Harlem since NY State sponsored office tower of [early 70s?] and NY Observer [5-7-07] notes non-profits who gotta be here are going up to Harlem taking space in the Theresa, for example. 2007Mar GE got a city hand out of $1.5mil property tax abatement and millions of dollars more worth of sales tax exemptions for it Rockefeller Ctr NBC facility upgrade they say oh they will being the MSNBC staff there from SECAUCUS NJ but NJ back when gave them tax breaks to move THERE! 2006- a year of record number of record property value increases continued through early 2007 -with a record $13.6 Bil 1st quarter of 2007 in Manhattan office building transactions. Trophy office bldgs sold for OVER $1,000 sq ft. Selling or ummm raising $3Bil, Tishman-Speyer in partnership deal, DEC 2006 got a record total price for a building with $1.8BIL sale at $1,200 sq ft. of 666 Fifth Ave [-price in 2000: $518mil, price in 1978 $80mil]. They sold 3Av "lipstick" bldg just before for top dollar. Hey, they bought Rockefeller Ctr in 2000 for $1.8bil and they just closed on paying $5.4Bil for Stuyvesant Town. The NYTimes sold their 1913 43st NYTimes bldg perhaps a but too fast post 9-11 to Speyer in 2004, so Speyer was able to easily find eager foreign investors [announced MAY 1 2007] who bought it for 3x the 2004 price -yet it was considered very good because it was 1/5 lower than midtown! FYI-NYTimes notes in report 5-29-2007 of pending Tishman-Speyer acquisition [with Lehman Bros] of the REIT Archstone-Smith of CO with 57 of its 86,000 apartments in NY area- that Jerry Speyer is a part owner of the Yankees, Chair of Fed Reserve of NY, Vice Chair of the Museum of Modern Art and a member of the CFR.

In early 2007, office rentals is escalating to average in midtown for "class A' approx $70+, "top" new Class A space around the $100 figure and the fewer A+ luxe literally top floor spaces in GM bldg and 9 W 57 and such $150+ to $190 sq.ft., with one record priced [$205 sq ft] trophy space at 9w57. NYPost Commercial Real Estate [Cuozzo] JUL31 2007 noted "first" below 42 St. $100+ sq. ft. lease signed by a hege fund [100 ParkAv]. Prices rebounded from post 9-11 dip [avg $37] at the end of 2001. In AUG. 2002 the vacancy rate in 'midtown south' was down .5% to 12%, average overall NYC vacancy rate in FQ2002 was 12.4 percent, highest since 1996[-Newmark & Co. quoted in NY Post Business 4-5-2002] going down by 1st qurter of 2007 overall to 5.4%!

Some benefitted by selling and moving, some got burned by increases and had to move away - both renters of apartments and of offices, but only landlord benefitted by new highs of rentals of retail space! Non-profits are cashing out, selling their properties like hasn't been seen -ever? Particularly cruel transactions force evictions such when as the Salvation Army sent hand-delivered eviction notices 1-16-2007 to 200 elderly women left after some months of "harrassment" [some now paying up to $1200 month!] in two rooming residences in "hot" areas [Grammercy Park, Murray Hill]. The are are selling off two buildings were DONATED to the Salvation Army NY decades ago for the purpose of this housing! This is NOT a healthy market!

NEGATIVE LEVERAGE. A record number of transactions at record prices coming faster then ever that only the bigger players are able to participate in but "..the returns on most Manhattan office towers has dopped to only 3% to 4% - the lowest levels in New York history." [CRAIN's NY Business FEB 12-18 2007] SO they are counting on rising rents..COUNTING on? They will MAKE that happen as long as it all does not go bust. Real great, real smart, huh?