Monday, June 30, 2014

Council calls for more manufacturing support

From the Queens Chronicle:

The battle to maintain manufacturing and industrial space has raged on for years on the hyperlocal level in many Queens neighborhoods and areas citywide.

Now, the City Council is requesting Mayor de Blasio to take significant action to ensure the survival of the city’s 21 industrial business zones.

Resolution 228, introduced on May 14 and discussed at a June 19 hearing jointly held by the committees on Economic Development and Small Business, calls on de Blasio to revitalize the defunct Mayor’s Office of Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses

Co-sponsored by 12 city lawmakers, including Queens Councilmen Antonio Reynoso (D-Brooklyn, Queens), Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton) and Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria), the resolution is not legislation. Instead, it is a formal request for the city’s executive branch to take action on the issue.

...the Council is calling for the former industrial business oversight agency to be revamped in order to “grant the manufacturing sector a strong voice in city government,” as per its resolution.

Councilman Dan Garodnick (D-Manhattan), chairman of the Council’s Economic Development Committee, discussed at last week’s hearing how critical it is that the city doesn’t “simply develop away our manufacturing zones.”

“While manufacturing saw considerable decline over the last few decades, we are happy to see some growth again in the last few years,” Garodnick said. “And it’s important that the city be present to support that growth. The city needs to prioritize protecting industrial space.”

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We can only hope these IBZs consider "expulsive zoning" - the practice in the 60's that allowed M31 districts right next to residential...

Anonymous said...

Have any new manufacturing companies (employing more than 50) come to Queens without some serious subsidies to offset the taxes and other higher expenses that make Queens so uncompetitive?

The job creation disadvantage in Queens is baked into the cake.

Anonymous said...

This is the Obama plan, Chaos in the short run, and DemoRat voters in the long run.
As I type this 4 Greyhound buses a day packed with "full units" (meaning complete illegal immigrant family’s with papers and loads of kids) are headed from Lerado Texas to NYC. They have government issued "lay off" papers, obama-phones and vouchers to put kids in school and pack in with relatives.
This country is going to implode!

Anonymous said...

This is a lost cause. Manufacturing has moved overseas. Why pay a US worker dollars when you can buy a Chinese peasant for pennies?