Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘Gotham Stalls Out’
Steven Malanga’s article [“Gotham Stalls Out,” Opinion, July 27, 2005] is completely off the mark and is based on figures that are simply and egregiously wrong. In the past year all five boroughs experienced significant job growth and greatly reduced unemployment rates, and our economy is now outpacing the nation’s. The longing for a time when New York’s outer borough economies “contributed nearly half of job growth” is particularly puzzling considering the outer boroughs contributed more than 60% of the city’s job growth last year. It is equally unclear what the basis is for the implication that the city’s commercial real estate market is suffering. Last year, Class A commercial vacancy rates fell and property values rose in all five boroughs; construction spending throughout the city matched the record set in 2003; and the number of building permits issued in the city was the highest it has been in at least a dozen years. Any coherent examination of the city’s economy makes clear that Mayor Bloomberg’s five-borough economic development strategy is working.
ANDREW M. ALPER
President, New York City Economic Development Corporation
Manhattan
Mr. Malanga asserts that “the city’s economy is stuck in neutral” and that “New York is no longer a cauldron of economic opportunity.” But he omits that Mayor Bloomberg took office after the collapse of the internet stock bubble of the 1990s and during a national recession. New York’s economy is doing much better now than it was in 2001. In his first term, the Mayor revived the city’s economy by eliminating its $6 billion deficit, reducing unemployment, and sparking growth in the outer boroughs, especially Brooklyn. The Mayor should be lauded for helping New York get back on its feet and relieving it of its recession.
TAMIKO J. SHELL
Brooklyn
Mr. Malanga Responds
Andrew Alper’s claim that in the past year all five boroughs ‘‘experienced significant job growth” is patently absurd considering that in total the city’s job rolls grew by less than 0.3% last year. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, NYC ended 2004 with 3,541,700 jobs, compared with 3,531,700 jobs in 2003, a gain of only 10,000 jobs, or 0.28%. By contrast, national employment grew to 131,480,000 in 2004, from 129,999,000, a gain of 1.14%, which is triple the city job growth rate. Alper adds that the outer-boroughs are contributing 60% of job growth, but 60% of practically nothing is less than practically nothing. In my story, I wrote of a time in the late 1990s when the outer boroughs were contributing half of city job growth and city’s economy was expanding by some 300,000 jobs. To compare that period to last year’s feeble 10,000 job growth is meaningless.
As to Mr.Alper’s claim that construction is booming because of rising permits, this clearly is not reflected in employment in the industry. Employment in construction has fallen in every year since 2001 in New York City and through 2004 was down by 11,000 jobs, or 9%, from the peak. Preliminary numbers for the first six months of 2005 show that construction employment is running merely at the 2004 levels, which hardly suggests a robust recovery.
Right now the Bloomberg campaign is in the midst of television ads that claim the Mayor’s programs have added 62,000 jobs to all the boroughs. But the city has seen nothing like that kind of growth. Last year, in fact, was the first since the Mayor took office that the city experienced any job gains at all — small as they were. Obviously the administration is uncomfortable with a story like mine that points out just how little economic progress New York has made even as the administration makes large claims that the numbers simply don’t bear out.
STEVE MALANGA
Manhattan
‘Ground Zero Blooms’
Re: “Ground Zero Blooms With Mugwort, Mullen, Lettuce,” Hana Alberts, Page One, August 1, 2005. I am sure I won’t the first to point this out today,and certainly not the last, but I do believe that the plant you referred to was Mullein, also known as Verbascum Thapsus. It is a real beauty and can be seen growing out of roadsides and rocks all over the New York City region.
NEAL SHALAT
Manhattan
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