Friday, July 22, 2011

Free land and money for tech campus

From the NY Times:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg raised his offer on Tuesday to universities interested in setting up a school of engineering and applied sciences in New York City: along with practically free use of a swath of land, the city will contribute as much as $100 million.

Mr. Bloomberg publicly presented an invitation to universities to bid on the chance to create a campus, either on one of three city-owned properties or elsewhere in the city. Issuing the request for proposals is the latest step officials have taken to try to make New York more competitive with Silicon Valley as a hub for technology-based businesses.

City officials say the school could prompt as much as $6 billion in economic activity by creating 30,000 temporary and permanent jobs and, more important, by fostering innovations that could become big businesses. They argue that the city’s financial contribution, which would come from its capital budget over several years, would pay off in increased tax revenue and economic growth.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

The city offers to bulldoze Middle Village, Maspeth and Elmhurst to build a College campus or perhaps to allow AMD to build a chip plant where our ugly back yards are! Way to go Bloomberg - perhaps we can lure a corporate retreat to your new South Hampton golfing estate instead, no?

Anonymous said...

Uh....wasn't that a suggestion put forward recently by a Chinese Harvard grad for Willets Point?

Oh....now the full plot is coming into focus.

TDC Rockefeller will be building a Silicon Valley center in Wellington (as in Chen) Pointe....and nobody should object because it will "create jobs"....LOL!

Anonymous said...

Why not put a tech university in the already failing Sky View Parc and Sky View Center?

Both are rather empty...dont-cha think?

Anonymous said...

Why not put a tech university in the already failing Sky View Parc and Sky View Center?

You can't subject college kids to those toxic conditions.

Anonymous said...

No way that a chip fab could pass environmental muster in NYC.

Anonymous said...

As long as we don't get shafted (as usual) in the process, it is worth considering: getting a University program other than NYU is worthwhile. Also, recent study shows Cities with colleges/universities (and health care) show positive growth across the country - while everone else is dropping behind...

Anonymous said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2011/07/21/2011-07-21_willet_or_wont_it_hes_got_new_vision_for_site.html

The daily news did a recent article on the idea of moving this to Willets Point.

This idea makes WORLDS more sense than putting a campus on governor's island or Roosevelt island.

It's more accessible, creates more incentive to expand public transportation into and out of Flushing, and helps limit the amount of new housing that will go into Willets point.

If the area goes forward as just residential (which it will unless something else is put in place)overcrowding will choke off access to the city for North East Queens.

This promotes business in Queens and keeps the are from drowning under the weight of overcrowding.

Queens Crapper said...

Actually, what makes more sense is to put in the infrastructure, let the people keep their property and watch the land develop on its own.

Anonymous said...

eitheer way, once willet's point becomes re/developed i hope to march in the first anual LGBT parade around citi feild, maybe the mets can give out some free goodies too, and we can invite the trannys out of the bushes

Anonymous said...

Right on, Crapper!

LibertyBoyNYC said...

This is great news. Really. As far as chip plants razing Maspeth, please. Honestly, it would be nice to see a Maspeth/Ridgewood/glendale/Middle Village cemetery dug up and a hospital installed. Wouldn't that be nice?!!

Queens Crapper said...

Why would you need to do that when there's an empty hospital sitting at the corner of Queens and Woodhaven Blvds? Especially since we need to conserve every blade of grass we have.

Anonymous said...

Uh....students are put in far more toxic conditions in your average NYC public school bub!

Besides, Sky View Parc had undergone extensive remediation under the federal "brown field" reclamation initiative.

Get more informed before you speak.

Anonymous said...

Arthur Miller once wrote a play called The American Clock. One scene set in the 1920s or 1930s has a character talking about how General Electric just sits around and buys up companies that do anything innovative.

I have worked in IT many years and it is the same today. People say the richest people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are innovative. They are not innovative at all. They are good at spotting innovation. They see a small company innovate and they offer to buy it. If the offer is rejected, they create a competing product, and usually drive the small company out of business.

Plenty of innovation has come out of Silicon Alley. Most of the IT people I know to, including myself, went to CUNY. Back when the Jews had no money, CUNY was a top of the line school, and lots of Jews went there and came out and made successful business.

Now CUNY is raising prices, cutting classes, cutting library and computer lab hours and so on. OK, if you're a fiscal conservative fine, whatever. But don't go and tell me you're going to take my taxes and offer it to MIT to build a campus that 90% of the people paying taxes can never afford to go to.

A rich out of touch effete nasal-voiced ugly moron mayor paying off his rich Ivy League crony university president friends with our tax dollars. Spend the money on CUNY or don't spend it!

Anonymous said...

Hopefully,
between now and the end of Bum-berg's 3rd term....you voters would have consumed enough brain power building fish to wise up just enough....
not to grant Mike a 4th opportunity to ream us.

Oh....I wish I could afford to move to Manhattan!

Anonymous said...

Um, isn't Cooper Union one of the top engineering schools?