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OF ONE Big Policy Wins Have Given Mayor Bill De Blasio a Clear Path to Re-Election

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OF ONE Big Policy Wins Have Given Mayor Bill De Blasio a Clear Path to Re-Election CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS Dealerships hit the auction block P. 7 | Recipe for a pizza meltdown P. 10 | THE LIST: Top accounting rms P. 16 NEW YORK BUSINESS® SEPTEMBER 25 - OCTOBER 1, 2017 | PRICE $3.00 PARTY OF ONE Big policy wins have given Mayor Bill de Blasio a clear path to re-election. But many New Yorkers just don’t like him, a fact that could hurt him—and the city PAGE 18 VOL. XXXIII, NO. 39 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM NEWSPAPER P001_CN_20170925.indd 1 9/22/17 6:04 PM Kasirer is a full-service New York lobbying and Kasirer LLC 321 Broadway, 2d Floor government relations firm. We advocate on behalf New York, NY Suri Kasirer of a wide range of clients who seek local expertise 10007 Julie Greenberg in navigating the City. Omar Alvarellos T: 212 285 1800 We advance our clients’ goals—building coalitions and Taína Borrero F: 212 285 1818 consensus and influencing decision-makers in the dynamic Cynthia Dames kasirer.nyc political landscape that defines New York. Jason Goldman [email protected] Ilona Kramer And our team of professionals, whose careers intersect Peter Krokondelas at politics, policy and government, achieve victory Genevieve Michel on behalf of our clients with an unwavering commitment Chelsea Goldinger to the highest standard of ethics in the industry. Jenna Lauter Jonah Allon Jennie Frishtick Samantha Jones Saga Lisslo Fallon Parker Tracy Fletcher Kayann Imari Eleonora Nicaj Malene’ Walters Katie Wilson CN018365.indd 1 9/19/17 12:56 PM SEPTEMBER 25 - OCTOBER 1, 2017 CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS FROM THE NEWSROOM | GREG DAVID | COLUMNIST IN THIS ISSUE Backstory on de Blasio 4 AGENDA 5 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT WHEN MY BOOK, Modern New York, was published in 2012, 6 WHO OWNS THE BLOCK it told the then-not-quite-completed story of New York’s re- Indie theaters covery from the economic and scal disaster of the 1970s. 7 AUTOMOTIVE return to Manhattan Five years later the recovery is complete, the city is thriving, 8 ASKED & ANSWERED and Brooklyn and Mayor Bill de Blasio has taken New York in a dramati- 10 FOOD as upscale venues. cally di erent direction than his predecessors. 12 ENTERTAINMENT e editors of Crain’s and I agree that the best way to un- 14 VIEWPOINTS derstand where the city is today is to get to the bottom of de 16 THE LIST Blasio’s rst term. e mayor is cruising to re-election amid very little in-depth coverage of what he has achieved, what FEATURES he has not accomplished and what it means for the city— The best way to 18 THE PARADOXICAL MAYOR an unfortunate consequence of the shrinkage of serious understand where local media coverage. I began my reporting for this week’s cover story with the city is today an email to the 10 or so people I talk to all the time about is to get to the New York City. I asked them to list the ve most import- bottom of the ant areas I should pursue. I was discussing those inter- views with a friend a few weeks into the project when she mayor’s rst term looked at me and said, “Are you going to talk to anyone P. 27 who likes him?” Shortly therea er I talked to one of the PETER MALINOWSKI city’s leading tech executives about my story. “A fair account of his rst term is well-needed,” he told me. 27 GOTHAM GIGS I took those comments as my marching orders. I spoke with experts I had not 28 SNAPS consulted before. I interviewed key members of the administration, though my re- 29 FOR THE RECORD quest to speak to the mayor was politely ignored. ( e story o ers a reason why that 30 PHOTO FINISH happened.) I walked Livonia Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn, spent a morning with two neighborhood-coordination police o cers, visited the largest pre-K in Brooklyn and talked to a single mom in Corona, Queens, about whether the mayor had made her life better. A er 35 interviews over four months, the story I settled on covers crime and policing, pre-K, a ordable housing, inequality and the mayor as a politician. I le out some issues that I spent a lot of time reporting, such as homelessness, because they didn’t t the theme and there is a limit to how much anyone wants to read. I hope to write about homelessness soon. I think my columns and blog posts for the next six months will re ect what I have learned. ON THE COVER Tom Robbins, investigative reporter par excellence and my colleague at the PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, told me this kind of in-depth reporting just isn’t done anymore. is story is a small attempt to ll the void in coverage le by the turmoil in the media world. But many more such stories are needed. DIGITAL DISPATCHES Go to CrainsNewYork.com NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN RISING STARS READ Toys R Us’ bank- DO YOU KNOW AN UP-AND- ruptcy has New York COMING NEW YORKER? roots: The company > spent at least $200 CRAIN’S wants to hear from you. million on its Times To submit a nominee, go to Square store. CrainsNewYork.com/40nominate. Because of the high volume of ■ Call it Airbnb for retail. applications, a $199 service fee Thisopenspace looks to will be charged to process and turn empty storefronts into shopping expe- review submissions. riences. DEADLINE IS ■ The Trust for Governors Island issued DEC. 1 an RFP seeking food vendors who want to All nominees must be under 40 open a restaurant during the former military years old as of March 26, 2018. outpost’s six-month public seasons. ATTEND Go to CrainsNewYork.com/ Vol. XXXIII, No. 39, Sept. 25, 2017—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except events for the latest opportunities to net- for double issues the weeks of June 26, July 10, July 24, Aug. 7, Aug. 21 and Dec. 19, by Crain Communications Inc., work with New York professionals and learn 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing of ces. Postmaster: more about issues of importance to you. Send address 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. Coming up on Oct. 5: our 2017 Entertain- (GST No. 13676-0444-RT) ©Entire contents copyright 2017 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. ment Summit. GETTY IMAGES, BUCK ENNIS SEPTEMBER 25, 2017 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 3 P003_CN_20170925.indd 3 9/22/17 6:03 PM WHAT’S NEW SEPTEMBER 25, 2017 AGENDAThe mayor has a good housing plan. If only he would sell it to New Yorkers n a largely unnoticed speech last week, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen brought up something her boss, Mayor Bill de Blasio, rarely men- tions: Construction of market-rate housing has been humming along. The increase in supply, she believes, was having a positive Ieffect. “We’re beginning to see rents level off,” Glen said. When the mayor talks housing, however, his focus is entirely on the number of aordable units he aims to create or preserve—200,000 over a decade. Contrast that with his State of the City address in early 2015, when he said his administration was pursuing “every kind of housing.” “Increasing the overall supply of housing is critical to serving New York- ers at all income levels—and to assuring we can accommodate the work- BIG UNITS: Large residential projects, such as Tishman Speyer’s in Long Island City, alleviate the housing crunch. by adding supply, yet are blamed for force who will continue to grow our economy,” de Blasio declared that day. making it worse. “So we plan for the construction of 160,000 market-rate units as well.” Today he seems to regard such talk as a political liability. He has let they won’t otherwise happen and developers are being made to subsidize activists fuel the myth that new market-rate units—which they always call them in market-rate projects. e “gentriers” who essentially fund that “luxury condos”—make areas more expensive. e misconception gains are not agents of destruction. Most are middle-class New Yorkers priced currency because people mistake cause for eect: Development itself does out of neighborhoods themselves. It helps the city when they move a few not cause rents to rise. Developers build be- subway stops rather than ee to the suburbs. cause demand outstrips supply. Increasing De Blasio should counter critics with But if housing is not created for them, they units helps stabilize prices. can only bid up existing properties. e mayor tried to pacify critics earlier the facts. He will upset some folks, By making this case, the mayor would this year by pledging an additional $1.9 bil- but that’s called leadership deter City Council members from pander- lion in subsidies for low-income units, but ing to locals who fear having new neighbors protesters have persisted. De Blasio ought to and would inspire more to join him. at defeat their argument with the facts, which are on his side. He’ll upset is crucial because the council controls zoning and oen exacerbates the some folks, but that’s called leadership. housing crisis by limiting development. During a panel discussion aer What might he say? First, subsidies alone will never end the housing Glen spoke, real estate executive Seth Pinsky put his nger on the prob- crisis.
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