20110822-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 8/19/2011 6:59 PM Page 1 INSIDE NEXT WEEK 9/11 TOP STORIES 10 YEARS Coney LATER Island’s Plus: Our annual biggest ® CITY FACTS thrills still to come double issue PAGE 3 August in New York: VOL. XXVII, NO. 34 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM AUGUST 22-28, 2011 PRICE: $3.00 why it’s city’s most surprising month MICHAEL GROSS, PAGE 2 Bank of Pro soccer America is back in town—but breakup maybe not for long, unless may loom fans turn up NEIGHBORHOOD JOURNAL, Loss outlook staggers PAGE 2 investors, who say One clear winner in BofA should return Verizon vs. unions: to its regional roots Time Warner Cable BY AARON ELSTEIN NEW YORK, NEW YORK, P. 6 Shortly before the turn of the millen- nium, when Bank of America assem- bled the first nationwide banking fran- chise, it unveiled a red, white and blue logo designed to evoke the American flag and amber waves of grain. Today, the logo emphasizes only the coast-to- coast mess the country’s largest bank finds itself in. “You can boil down Bank of Amer- ica’s difficulties to this: It is the bank to America,” said Nancy Bush, a banking analyst at NAB Research. “The na- tion’s problems are its problems.” BUSINESS LIVES With the domestic economy seem- ingly grinding to a halt and housing See BANK OF AMERICA on Page 24 GOTHAM GIGS Broadway’s dialect coach P. 25 ● ANNE FISHER Reinventing the bonus plan pays off P. 25 Food push: ● MOVERS & SHAKERS Pushing Condé Nast BRAIN POWER into the digital age P. 26 promise, ● GAEL GREENE Bread & Tulips:Try pizza P. 27 The city’s medical research giants problems are investing huge sums in neuroscience INDEX Amid job growth, IN THE MARKETS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _4 BY JUDITH MESSINA an industry plagued THE INSIDER _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _8 by rogue operators VIEWPOINT _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _10 When Columbia University professor and Nobel laureate Eric Kandel was a medical student in New York OPINION _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _11 City in the 1950s, he had trouble finding a lab where he could train in neuroscience. Medical research was focused not on the brain’s secrets but on immediate problems, such as combating scourges like polio. In BY DANIEL MASSEY SMALL BUSINESS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _12 CLASSIFIEDS 1969, the Society of Neuroscience was founded, with 500 members. It currently has more than 40,000. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _20 “Now, I walk down the street and bump into one neuroscientist after another,” Dr. Kandel said. Mayor Michael Bloomberg toured a FOR THE RECORD _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _22 It has been said that the brain will be to the 21st century what the atom was to the 20th. Advances commercial kitchen in Long Island EXECUTIVE MOVES _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _25 in genomics, bioinformatics and molecular biology, as well as digital-imaging technology, computer City, Queens, last week, walking THE WEEK AHEAD _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _27 modeling and the ability to store enormous amounts of data See NEUROSCIENCE on Page 15 among workers making crabcakes, istock tuna tartare and watermelon salad. He sampled seitan, the vegan-friendly REPORT HEALTH CARE fake meat, and proclaimed food man- Hi, IQs: Meet a dozen brilliant doctors ufacturing to be one thing the Big Ap- ple is “doing right” as it climbs out of and scientists who are reshaping the the Great Recession. ELECTRONIC EDITION frontiers of brain research P. 15 That same morning in Maspeth, also in Queens but seemingly a world Largest benefits consulting firms P. 19 away,half a dozen workers stood across NEWSPAPER See FOOD on Page 23 20110822-NEWS--0002,0003-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 8/19/2011 8:05 PM Page 1 chased by the New York Police De- COMMENTARY partment, which has demonstrated Make vrooom for an openness to alternative trans- portation. Remember the Segway? The NYPD bought several of the “personal transporters,” then sold electric scooters them at auction and turned to the T3, Hot town, an upright electric three-wheeler that can hit 25 miles an hour. But the department, which de- Vespa wannabes ask city to set trend layed buying new patrol cars to save staying $11 million this year, may not be in- that goal. clined to spend those savings on elec- BY JEREMY SMERD About a quarter of those vehicles tric scooters. are gas-electric hybrids or run on al- in the city Riding an electric scooter through the ternative fuels, including com- High price streets of New York City can feel like pressed natural gas and ethanol. Last While battery technology has im- sitting in a lawn chair surrounded by month, the mayor announced that it proved in the last five years, the price ugust in New York can be surprising— Sherman tanks.At a stopped intersec- would add 50 Chevrolet Volts, 10 of electric vehicles remains relatively and I’m not talking about the stock tion, combustion engines growl. The electric Ford Transit Connect vans high.The basic Vectrix model sells for lawn chair waits silently. and 10 electric Navistar utility about $12,000. The entry-level Car- market’s recent transmogrification into A New York filled with electric trucks, bringing the electric-vehicle goScooter is considerably cheaper, at an un-amusement park ride, although, two-wheelers seems far-fetched, but count to 430. $6,250. come to think of it, that supports my it would be cleaner, quieter and zippi- Electric scooters, however, have That still may not convince con- theory. Still, I don’t like unpleasant surprises. er. Motorcycles and scooters are in- not yet caught on. Of the city’s 947 sumers who prefer less expensive,gas- A creasingly common on city streets, yet scooters, a scant three are electric. sipping scooters. I’ve never been one to flee the city in summer. I few run on batteries. Now, a market- Those came from Vectrix, a “I only use a gallon and a half of gas have never had a weekend house. Mostly I couldn’t ing consultant who helped return the New Bedford, Mass.-based a week,”said Paul Haydon,a construc- iconic Vespa to the United States tion manager and Vespa owner. That afford one, but phone, because wants to change that, and takes him about 100 miles. A even when the they’re either off he thinks city government OH, SCOOT: Oxygen World is CargoScooter, by contrast, travels 31 pitching this battery-powered time came that I on their yachts or could lead the way. transport to the NYPD. miles before running out of juice. could cover the their Gulf- Last week, Peter Lait- Durability and refueling present rent, I didn’t take streams, or laz- mon met with Bloomberg other challenges. Electric scooters that plunge. ing about at their administration officials to use lightweight materials and are In my 20s, second or third show off what he hopes will prone to breakdowns on potholed I meandered or fourth homes. be its next acquisition for streets, according to Daniel Gonza- around empty Authors the increasingly electrified lez, sales manager at Carbon Neg- Village streets on know better than fleet: the CargoScooter. ative, a scooter shop in Green- my bicycle—en- to expect to talk Lightweight and surpris- point, Brooklyn. A dearth of joying what MICHAEL to their publish- ingly peppy as it approach- charging stations is one reason seemed at the GROSS ers on summer es the 30-mile-per-hour that plug-in motorcycles do time like an urban Fridays.