Third Term's a Charm?
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CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS Albany’s left turn starts with primary P. 6 | Eye-popping price tag for Hudson Yards park P. 9 | Making bank on bacon and beer P. 45 NEW YORK BUSINESS® SEPTEMBER 3 - 9, 2018 | PRICE $3.00 THIRD TERM’S A CHARM? What Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s rst eight years in office tell us about his quest for four more PAGE 13 PLUS: STATS AND THE CITY Cuomo by the numbers CUSTOM CONTENT Corporate events and holiday parties P. 19 VOL. XXXIV, NO. 36 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM NEWSPAPER P001_CN_20180903.indd 1 8/31/18 5:36 PM Slow internet costs customers. Stay up to speed with Optimum Business Essentials. Get 150 Mbps internet speed and reliable Optimum Voice, with 12 months of 10 GB Cloud Backup and Service Protection included. Optimum Business Essentials $ 95 mo./2 yrs. Plus taxes, fees & 84 equipment charges optimum.com/business/150-BundleEssentials | 866-213-3464 Off er available to new Business customers and current business video only customers. 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CN018777.indd 1 8/27/18 4:42 PM SEPTEMBER 3 - 9, 2018 CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS P. 13 IN THIS ISSUE 9 REAL ESTATE 46 FOR THE RECORD UP FRONT At $125 million per acre, new Our tally of the week’s buys, park would be city’s costliest busts and breakthroughs 4 EDITORIAL ASKED & ANSWERED PHOTO FINISH Expanding and improving 10 47 The CEO of a glass recycler Gearing up for school transit is not optional on turning trash into cash is no small feat 5 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT VIEWPOINTS A nonprot Medicaid plan for 11 Solar can succeed in NYC; the chronically ill to shut down ON THE COVER we’re clueless on Uber until we 6 POLITICS track every ride; Nycha could What businesses have riding save $10 million but won’t on the Democratic primary; de Blasio says Cuomo lacks a FEATURES positive view for the city P. 45 8 WHO OWNS THE BLOCK 13 CUOMO’S JOURNEY 45 GOTHAM GIGS NoMad is no longer a no- Eight years of promises kept, A layoff leads an event planner PHOTO: man’s-land put off or left behind to found a bacon-and-beer fest BUCK ENNIS CONFERENCE CALLOUT SEPT. 27 CRAIN’S 2018 BUSINESS BREAKFAST FORUM: GUBERNATORIAL DEBATE CANDIDATES will discuss ways to x mass transit and improve the state’s business climate. The New York Athletic Club MARC MOLINARO, 8 to 9:30 a.m. Republican candidate CrainsNewYork.com/ for governor events-BKGov2018 P. 47 Vol. XXXIV, No. 36, Sept. 3, 2018—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for double issues Jan. 1, June 25, July 9, July 23, Aug. 6, Aug. 20 and Dec. 24, by Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing ofces. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, PO Box 433279, Palm Coast, FL 32143-9681. For subscriber service: Call 877-824-9379. Fax 313-446-6777. $3.00 a copy, $99.95 one year, $179.95 two years. (GST No. 13676-0444-RT) ©Entire contents copyright 2018 AP IMAGE, BUCK ENNIS by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. SEPTEMBER 3, 2018 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 3 P003_CN_20180903.indd 3 8/31/18 5:18 PM SEPTEMBER 3, 2018 AGENDADo something PDQ about the MTA and BQX t’s a darn good thing that private companies built the subway sys- tem a century ago, with a slew of lines and hundreds of stations across four boroughs. ere’s no way the government could pull o such a feat today, when it takes decades and billions of dollars Ijust to extend the Q line three measly stops up Second Avenue. Not that things were perfect in the early 1900s, when construction was not very safe or well compensated, and a lack of coordinated planning resulted in lines with di ering track widths, too many stations in some areas and not enough in others. Despite the ine ciencies, we ended up with a transit system that makes New York one of the world’s great cities. REVAMPED PLANS for the BQX But it won’t stay one unless we maintain, improve and expand the light rail line call for a shorter transportation network. Vast sections of the city remain transit deserts, route—and a bigger budget. some by choice (northeast Queens defeated a proposed subway expansion some years ago), but most would bloom if given better ways to get around. he will crack down on their ine ciency, such as sticking 25 workers on Two developments last week brought this issue to the fore. Marc Molin- boring machines that need only nine. But his credibility with labor and aro, Republican candidate for governor, declared that the Metropolitan political he make Cuomo ideal for the task, and besides, who else can Transportation Authority should not get more funding until it reduces do it? Cuomo’s election opponents should extract this commitment from wasteful spending and must achieve a state him, and New Yorkers should hold him to it. of good repair before expanding; and Mayor Transit projects cost too much, but As for the BQX, shortening the route Bill de Blasio announced that his proposed makes sense because it avoids building a Brooklyn-Queens waterfront streetcar the network needs more than repairs costly bridge over the canal, and Sunset Park would cost more than expected and would to accommodate a growing city already has a subway line. But a transit link is terminate at the Gowanus Canal rather than essential for a Brooklyn-Queens waterfront stretch to Sunset Park. becoming a modern, work-live-play area Molinaro is wrong about holding road pricing hostage to MTA reform, with new urban industries. Buses would be cheaper but would not spur because it’s the best way to ease congestion. But he’s right that the MTA private investment or generate much tax revenue. Bus service does make shouldn’t pay several times more to extend subways than Paris and Lon- sense for connecting LaGuardia Airport to Queens subways, though, so don, which also use private contractors and union labor. Given Gov. Cuomo should improve it rather than blow $1.5 billion on an AirTrain to Andrew Cuomo’s tight alliance with the construction trades, many doubt Willets Point. Don’t build just to build; built smart. — THE EDITORS FINE PRINT On average, business founders in the metropolitan area are not quite 40 years old, according to LendingTree data. Millennials make up 40.6% of local entrepreneurs—the most of any generation. Salt Lake City, with its burgeoning tech economy and low living costs, has the youngest average age for founders in the United States: a bit under 38. BY GERALD SCHIFMAN STATS 25 WORDS OR LESS GENTRIFICATION TRACKER RENTS HAVE RISEN 31% across the city this decade, but rates varied greatly by neighborhood. Working-class AND THE CITY areas typically had the largest increases. Rent growth since 2010 in Ridgewood, There are 2 million % Queens—the lowest of any 15 neighborhood “interesting people Rent growth in Ditmas in New York and % Park, Brooklyn—the 45 highest only 78 in Number of Brooklyn neighborhoods Los Angeles” 7 among the 10 where rent grew most —Playwright Neil Simon, in a 1979 Median rent in the 10 areas with Playboy interview. The Bronx native $ the lowest increases, compared with died Aug. 26 at age 91. 2,800 $1,695 in the 10 with the highest GOOGLE MAPS, NYCEDC SOURCE: StreetEasy analysis of 88 neighborhoods with suf cient listings data 4 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | SEPTEMBER 3, 2018 P004_CN_20180903.indd 4 8/31/18 6:08 PM IN CASE YOU MISSED IT CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS president K.C. Crain senior executive vice president Chris Crain group publisher Mary Kramer EDITORIAL managing editor Brendan O’Connor Medicaid plan’s shutdown assistant managing editors Erik Engquist, Jeanhee Kim, Robin D. Schatz shows risk of serving sickest copy desk chief Telisha Bryan art director Carolyn McClain NE OF THE STATE’S LARGEST Medicaid health plans photographer Buck Ennis digital editor Gabriella Iannetta covering the chronically ill and disabled is set to shut senior reporters Joe Anuta, Aaron Elstein, down Dec. 1, leaving about 8,000 people searching Matthew Flamm, Daniel Geiger O reporters Will Bredderman, for another insurer to help them live independently. Jonathan LaMantia GuildNet, which runs a managed long-term-care plan, told data reporter Gerald Schifman its employees about the decision last month. GuildNet is the digital fellow Lizeth Beltran columnist Greg David insurance arm of the Lighthouse Guild, a nonprot that is contributors Tom Acitelli, Cara Eisenpress, focused on addressing and preventing vision loss. Cheryl S. Grant, Yoona Ha, Chris Kobiella, Miriam Kreinin Souccar e state has created a perverse incentive for insurers to to contact the newsroom: seek out members who need fewer hours of home care because the plans can capture more of the state’s monthly www.crainsnewyork.com/staff payment, said Ben Taylor, a senior sta attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group.