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CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS NEW YORK BUSINESS® APRIL 10 - 16, 2017 | PRICE $3.00 CITY MOVES TO CLOSE PAY GAP P.7 Are yellow cabs running out of gas? P.19 PROPERTY TAX HOME PUSHBACK P.20 BOX OFFICE The lm and TV production boom has New VOL. XXXIII, NO. 15 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM Yorkers such as Bill Connolly clamoring to rent their apartment for shoots. But not every neighbor is eager for a close-up PAGE 16 NEWSPAPER P001_CN_20170410.indd 1 4/7/17 7:05 PM APRIL 10 - 16, 2017 CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS FROM THE NEWSROOM | JEREMY SMERD | EDITOR IN THIS ISSUE Make room for working moms 4 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 5 POLITICS HAVE YOU EVER HAD ONE OF THOSE MORNINGS when you 6 BUDGET asked yourself: Why did I even bother leaving the house? Health tech 7 COMPLIANCE CEO explains Thursday was one such morning for my wife, Jocy, when why people nothing seemed to be going right. In her case, though, the 8 HEALTH CARE love his app question was not merely an expression of frustration but of 9 ASKED & ANSWERED something far more literal. 10 WHO OWNS THE BLOCK Permit me to explain. Our nearly 6-month-old son, 11 REAL ESTATE Judah, has started day care in Downtown Brooklyn now 12 VIEWPOINTS that Jocy’s clerkship in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Ap- peals in Manhattan is underway. On Thursdays, Judah is 14 THE LIST scheduled to be picked up by 3 p.m. Because Jocy had an I thought, because FEATURES 11 a.m. doctor’s appointment that day, she’d planned to I had to pump, I 16 SPACE ODYSSEY work from a coffee shop rather than schlep into Manhat- “ 19 MEDALLION MARKET tan and lose valuable time. had to be either at 20 PROPERTY TAX FLAP But there was a catch: She needed a place to express work or at home. her breast milk. If she didn’t go to her office, where would I couldn’t just be out she pump? A Starbucks restroom? “I thought I could find a bathroom or some dark corner,” she later told me. “But I like everyone else didn’t want to do that.” The idea of having to plan her day around this task stirred a sense of dread as Jocy thought about the work she wouldn’t get done. Fortunately, after my wife dropped off Judah, a friend suggested Jocy find a lactation room. P. 19 “I love our BK borough pres,” read a text Jocy sent me. She had found a private 24 GOTHAM GIGS lactation room at Brooklyn Borough Hall and was sitting in a cozy chair filling baby bottles. Literature extolling the virtues of breast milk surrounded her. Problem 25 SNAPS solved. “I guess I thought, because I had to pump, I had to be either at work or at 26 FOR THE RECORD home,” she later told me. “I couldn’t just be out like everyone else.” 27 PHOTO FINISH Now she knows she can, thanks to Brooklyn politicians like Borough President CORRECTION Eric Adams, who two years ago followed the lead of Bedford-Stuyvesant Council- The Cathedral of St. John the Divine sold 99-year man Robert Cornegy Jr. and Fort Greene Assemblyman Walter Mosley and opened ground leases for abutting land at West 110th a lactation room. Last year Mayor Bill de Blasio expanded the initiative by signing Street and Columbus Avenue. The sale was mischaracterized in “A deal that’s heaven sent,” legislation requiring certain city agencies to open lactation rooms in buildings that published April 3. serve the public. Today even 1 Police Plaza has one. Many employers, including mine, already have private areas for breastfeeding moms. And the app Moms Pump Here tells users about nearby businesses that ac- commodate nursing mothers, though there aren’t enough. The relief Jocy felt was not simply physical. As she told me, moms feel pressure to go back to work and to give babies the unrivaled nutrients of breast milk. The message of a lactation room is: We want you to work, we want you to breastfeed and we’re here to help. ON THE COVER PHOTO: BUCK ENNIS APPLY NOW DIGITAL DISPATCHES DOES YOUR COMPANY Go to CrainsNewYork.com HAVE WHAT IT TAKES? MEET On April 5 Crain’s If you think your organization celebrated this year’s > is a cut above the rest, class of 40 rising stars apply to be on our 10th annual under age 40 at event Best Places to Work list space Apella. Honorees recognizing the top 100 included Mic co-founder Chris employers in New York City. Altchek and New York Media CEO Pam Wasserstein (pictured). REGISTRATION Find out who else made the list at IS OPEN CrainsNewYork.com/40under40. To participate, go to: NOMINATE Each year we highlight the CrainsNewYork.com/bestplaces 50 fastest-growing companies in the metro area. Selected firms will be ranked Vol. XXXIII, No. 15, April 10, 2017—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for double by revenue growth from 2013 to 2016. issues the weeks of June 26, July 10, July 24, Aug. 7, Aug. 21 and Dec. 18, by Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third Ave., If you know a publicly traded or privately New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address held company with revenue greater than changes to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit, MI 48207-2912. For subscriber service: Call (877) 824-9379. Fax (313) 446-6777. $3.00 a copy, $99.95 one year, $179.95 two years. $10 million, let us know: Nominations (GST No. 13676-0444-RT) ©Entire contents copyright 2017 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. open online April 17. In the meantime, visit CrainsNewYork.com/fast50faq for more information. BUCK ENNIS 2 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | APRIL 10, 2017 P002_CN_20170410.indd 2 4/7/17 7:06 PM WHAT’S NEW APRIL 10, 2017 AGENDATo reach Trump, city business leaders need tunnel vision t is a good sign for the city’s business leaders that they could meet with President Donald Trump last week, as well as with senior members of his administration. But the question is whether they can turn that access into action. Some pessimism is justified. IThe meeting with Trump was not exactly a freewheeling exchange of ideas (see “Business execs head to D.C.,” page 5). The president did most of the talking, took only two questions and said little that seemed respon- sive to the business leaders’ agenda. He acknowledged that they want the federal government to preserve the personal income-tax deduction for state and local taxes, in addition to the deductibility of business debt. The president surely raised the spirits of bankers by assuring that he would eviscerate Dodd-Frank and other regulations they dislike. He down- played a concern raised by fellow real estate developer Jerry Speyer about STATE VISIT: Business execs should be commended for pressing the president Congress scaling back or eliminating programs beneficial to New York, on the city’s needs. But last week’s meeting should not be the only one. saying, “I am watching over everybody, Jerry. You’re in good hands, OK?” So the first challenge for New York City businesses is to get the pres- demonstrated last week, when rail problems at Penn Station disrupted ident to focus on what is important to them. Of course, every interest hundreds of thousands of commutes for several days. group in the nation, Trump’s staff and even But those delays would be child’s play members of his family are consumed by To ensure that Trump hears us, local compared with the effects of an unplanned that very task. It is a difficult one, to say the shutdown of one of the two century-old rail least. Some people have even been angling executives should book more D.C. tunnels under the Hudson River. To bring to book appearances on Fox News, hoping visits. Calling Fox wouldn’t hurt either those passages into a state of good repair, a that Trump will catch their message and new tunnel must first be built. The project respond. Scientific, it is not. to do that, called Gateway, requires at least And what should New York businesses’ top federal priority be? Other $10 billion in federal funding. That’s 1% of the $1 trillion infrastructure than to beat back congressional initiatives that would strangle funding program Trump has vaguely proposed. But his preliminary budget would streams on which our hospitals and other entities rely, we suggest infra- cut Gateway’s funding stream. He might not have realized that. To make structure. Breakdowns of transportation systems because of age, severe sure he does, city leaders should book more D.C. visits and even tweet weather or terrorism pose a constant threat to our economy, as was @RealDonaldTrump. Calling Fox wouldn’t hurt either. — THE EDITORS FINE PRINT Of the five neighborhoods where New Yorkers have made the most complaints about used-car dealerships since July, four were in Brooklyn. Like the fifth, Ridgewood, Queens, the neighborhoods are areas where locals have had limited access to banks. In a news release, the City Council last week unveiled legislation to “combat predatory sales and financing practices in the used-car industry.” BY GERALD SCHIFMAN STATS THE CITY’S ROADS HAVE GOTTEN WORSE, and their 25 WORDS OR LESS SHODDY STREETS condition varies widely across the boroughs.