CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS Where the homeless are headed P. 9 | The list: Top women-owned businesses P. 14 | Restaurants’ no-tipping alternative P. 20 NEW YORK BUSINESS® MARCH 6 - 12, 2017 | PRICE $3.00 STILL LIFE Ten years after a little law took the shackles off the booze business, companies such as Brooklyn’s Van Brunt Stillhouse are booming PAGE 16 VOL. XXXIII, NO. 10 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM NEWSPAPER P001_CN_20170306.indd 1 3/3/2017 5:47:40 PM 20 YEARS ISN’T A TREND. IT’S A TRADITION. CBRE’s 20-year, unbroken legacy of leadership in Manhattan deal-making continues. With 28 of the top 50 lease transactions in 2016, including eight of the top 10, our performance underscores a commitment to doing what we do best: consistently delivering powerful results for every client we serve. CN018183.indd 1 3/1/17 5:05 PM MARCH 6 - 12, 2017 CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS FROM THE NEWSROOM | JEREMY SMERD | EDITOR IN THIS ISSUE The psychology of poverty 4 AGENDA 5 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ONE OF THE BEST-KEPT SECRETS in my Bed-Stuy neigh- 6 WHO OWNS THE BLOCK borhood is a Super Foodtown that is the size of a suburban Depressed 8 ASKED & ANSWERED Democrats supermarket and features free underground parking that could be bad 9 POLITICS for the city’s makes schlepping groceries a cinch. But the market never economy sees the cheek-to-jowl crowds that beset Brooklyn’s Fairway, 10 VIEWPOINTS Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods locations. 14 THE LIST Colvin Grannum, CEO of the Bedford Stuyvesant Res- FEATURES toration Corp., shuddered as I shared that observation with him at our office last week. Grannum has spent decades -de 16 BOTTOMS UP veloping the 300,000-square-foot plaza along Fulton Street, 20 THE NO-TIPPING POINT with the goal of making it a neighborhood destination clamoring with customers. Today it is the home of many People don’t see key businesses that otherwise would not be in the neigh- themselves making P. 24 Lior Lev Sercarz borhood. Along with Foodtown, the plaza features several “ more money and major banks (which are indeed often crowded), a post office, an Applebee’s and other enterprises. moving up the My comment reminded him that his effort to bring in economic ladder services that residents in wealthier neighborhoods take for granted has not always been met with open arms by Bed- Stuy’s longtime locals. “This is too nice for the community,” 24 GOTHAM GIGS Grannum recalled as being people’s reaction when the supermarket first opened. “That is painful to hear.” 25 SNAPS Grannum got similar feedback more recently, when he pushed to bring Citi Bike 26 FOR THE RECORD to the neighborhood. “We thought this was great,” he said. After all, bike-sharing 27 PHOTO FINISH can be cheaper than the subway, would help locals get around and could address the CORRECTION high rates of hypertension and diabetes in the neighborhood. But locals generally Rockefeller Group is both a landlord and a landlord saw it as a service for the gentrifiers—like me—who are rapidly moving in. representative for 1221 Sixth Ave. “The list,” pub- That same distrust colors residents’ views of the mayor’s affordable-housing lished Feb. 27, omitted these facts for two leases. plan. Supporters such as Grannum know that poor people in neighborhoods with mixed incomes fare better because schools and services tend to be superior. That’s why he agrees that affordable housing should be available to a range of incomes and that the mayor’s plan strikes the right balance. But that’s not how critics of the plan, including many in my community, see it. They want more focus on the poorest New Yorkers and view housing for folks making $60,000 per year as unattainable for them, a perception that suggests many low-income New Yorkers see themselves entrenched in poverty. In their eyes, af- ON THE COVER fordable housing is not a way to move up but a wedge to force them out. PHOTO: BUCK ENNIS “People don’t see themselves making more money,” Grannum said. “They don’t see it as housing for them as they move up the economic ladder.” DIGITAL DISPATCHES Go to CrainsNewYork.com CONFERENCE CALLOUT MARCH 21 READ The de Blasio administration JIMMY VAN ARTS & CULTURE > BRAMER backed a pair of City BREAKFAST Council bills that JOIN CRAIN’S and Jimmy Van would impose new Bramer, city councilman and requirements on the Cultural Affairs committee fast-food industry. But chairman, as well as others were said to need further refinement. others for a discussion of One bill that was supported would require funding strategies for arts and eateries to give workers advance notice of culture organizations. their schedule. CON EDISON ■ NBCUniversal invested $500 million in 4 IRVING PLACE Snap Inc. as part of the social media compa- 8 to 10:30 a.m. ny’s IPO March 2. The media giant has been [email protected] pouring money into digital companies over the past two years. It invested $400 million in BuzzFeed and $200 million in Vox. Vol. XXXIII, No. 10, March 6, 2017—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for double issues the weeks of June 26, July 10, July 24, Aug. 7, Aug. 21 and Dec. 18, by Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third ■ New York will launch a rebate of up to Ave., New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send $2,000 for zero-emission and plug-in electric 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. hybrid cars on April 1. The incentive, which (GST No. 13676-0444-RT) ©Entire contents copyright 2017 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. will make electric vehicles more price- competitive with regular cars, is part of the state’s effort to reduce carbon emissions. AP IMAGES, BUCK ENNIS MARCH 6, 2017 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 3 P003_CN_20170306.indd 3 3/3/17 6:08 PM WHAT’S NEW MARCH 6, 2017 AGENDAHere’s a tip for the city: Let Uber decide how to run its business ity regulators have had their hands full with the for-hire- vehicle industry for several years. The advent of Uber and its rivals has upended taxis’ finances, lured tens of thousands of New Yorkers to try driving for a living, curbed subway and Cbus ridership, and added traffic to the most congested parts of the city. We don’t envy the Taxi & Limousine Commission’s impossible job of trying to keep all the riders, drivers, fleet owners, startup companies and tech entrepreneurs happy. But at least one of the agency’s decisions is easy: It should refrain from forcing Uber to add a tipping option to its app. TIPPED OFF: Uber doesn’t offer a Some Uber drivers have formed a unionlike group and petitioned the tipping option, and riders are commission to tinker with the company’s software. They want passengers fine with that. to be presented with a choice to add a gratuity at the end of each ride (via their smartphone), as taxi customers are when they pay by credit card. Such a mandate would be an unjustified government intrusion into a busi- It is acceptable for the TLC to include a tipping option for yellow cabs ness’s operations. because the agency also sets fares and limits medallion lease rates. A restau- We understand the argument for a level playing field. But the field can- rant that bans tips can raise its prices to compensate, but a taxi cannot. not be perfectly flat. If there were one set of rules for every segment of the If Uber drivers want what taxi drivers have, they should vote with their industry—including taxis, black cars and feet and drive taxis instead. Indeed, the taxi livery cars—there really would be only one If Uber drivers don’t like the industry would welcome them. Drivers also segment, and it would be a quasi-govern- could migrate to an Uber competitor that mental operation. company’s no-tipping policy, they are has tipping in its app. Of course, Uber com- By demanding a tipping option, Uber free to work for a competitor mands 73% of the on-demand ride market, drivers are attempting to cherry-pick one so there could be a trade-off of having fewer perceived benefit of taxi drivers without customers. Decisions, decisions. having to meet any of their other obligations, such as granting every ride App developers also have choices. They compete for drivers and riders, request encountered within the five boroughs, working eight-hour shifts, and if they fail on either count, they quickly lose market share. Uber has installing a partition, using a fare box and displaying a medallion on their said its customers prefer that tipping is not expected. Such calls should be vehicle that costs about $600,000. made by drivers and companies, not regulators. — THE EDITORS FINE PRINT Mayor Bill de Blasio is proposing a 2.5% surcharge on residential sales exceeding $2 million—which he says would raise more than $330 million and be used to fund rent subsidies for about 25,000 low- income senior citizens. From 2014 through 2016, only 8% of city residential sales were above $2 million, and 47% were of homes costing $500,000 or less.