CRAINS 20160509-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 5/6/2016 7:24 PM Page 1 Fairway’s future P.5 | Banking on the Tonys P. 9 | Breaking up the old boys’ club P. 13 ® MAY 9-15, 2016 | PRICE $3.00 NEW YORK BUSINESS HUNG OUT TO DRY Why cleaners are still using a toxic chemical decades after it was deemed to be potentially lethal PAGE 16 VOL. XXXII, NO. 19 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM 0 71486 01068 5 19 NEWSPAPER 20160509-NEWS--0002-NAT-CCI-CN_-- 5/6/2016 7:16 PM Page 1 MAYCRAINS 9-15, 2016 FROM THE NEWSROOM | JEREMY SMERD Puerto Rico in the Bronx IN THIS ISSUE 3 AGENDA PUERTO RICO’S DEFAULT ON a $422 million debt payment last 4 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT week drew the typical recriminations and vows of 5 FOOD solidarity from the island of Manhattan, making me feel 8 REAL ESTATE The decade- rather cynical about politicians here who sound off on long boom in 9 SPOTLIGHT Chelsea may policies over which they have no control. Their voices finally be over 10 WHO OWNS THE BLOCK would be better used serving the Hispanic communities 12 they have been elected to represent. CONFERENCE COVERAGE Mayor Bill de Blasio urged New Yorkers to pester House 13 VIEWPOINTS Speaker Paul Ryan. “Congress 15 THE LIST must take action and allow Puerto Rico to restructure After living in the their debt in a way that strengthens its health system FEATURES and does not jeopardize workers’ wages,” he bellowed “Bronx for nearly six 16 STAIN ON THE INDUSTRY in a statement. years, Carmen 20 TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who was Borges got a whiff of 24 GOTHAM GIGS born in Puerto Rico, called the situation “a humanitarian crisis”—the same phrase used by the island’s governor. the poverty she The real crisis of consequence to New York is a thought she had Nuyorican one. Hispanics are the largest demographic in escaped the city behind whites, but more than 25% of them live in poverty, surpassed (recently) only by Asians, according to the city’s Center for Economic Opportunity. The crisis in Puerto Rico does not appear to have sent New York a wave of P. 24 economic migrants. Those leaving the island as a result of the crisis are more PHILIP CASTALDI likely to go to Miami, according to journalist Eddie Borges, who is working on a book proposal about the poverty endemic to Hispanics living in the Bronx. 25 SNAPS Borges last week offered me his own insight into the dilemma. His mother 26 FOR THE RECORD came to New York from Puerto Rico in 1942. “After living in the Bronx for nearly 27 PHOTO FINISH six years, Carmen Borges got a whiff of the poverty she thought she had escaped and left behind on the island of enchantment,” he writes. “It had followed her to the mainland and taken root like the cilantro my mom used to make sofrito.” So they moved to Queens, where Eddie (named, like his brother, Robert, after a Kennedy) took advantage of public-school programs for gifted students. Now he’s back in the Bronx, and living there has jolted him. His solution to the poverty concentrated in housing projects is to create the kind of conditions Borges experienced in Queens, where New Yorkers of various classes and backgrounds benefited from being in the same school district. It may be too bold ON THE COVER a solution for any politician to utter, but New York, he says, should do what PHOTO: BUCK ENNIS Chicago did to the Cabrini Green housing projects: tear them down. “The Bronx as we know it,” he writes, “is unsalvageable.” DIGITAL DISPATCHES Applications are open! DEADLINE MAY 23 Go to CrainsNewYork.com READ CRAIN’S FASTEST Amazon will bring its free same-day GROWING COMPANIES delivery service to the Bronx. The decision fol- lowed criticism from Borough President Each year, Crain’s recognizes the Ruben Diaz Jr. that minority communities are New York area companies left out of the company’s service. Meanwhile, with the highest three-year the tech giant said it will acquire as much as revenue growth rate. a 30% stake in Purchase, NY-based Atlas Air Public and private companies Worldwide Holdings in an effort to build its with at least $10 million transport and delivery network. in revenue are eligible. ■ Pregnant women can’t be kept SHOW EVERYONE HOW out of New York City bars or FAST YOU REALLY ARE refused alcoholic drinks just > CrainsNewYork.com/ because they’re expecting, ApplyFast50 under new city guidelines. LISTEN to a discussion of Vol. XXXII, No. 19, May 9, 2016—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for double issues Broadway during the year of the weeks of June 27, July 11, July 25, Aug. 8, Aug. 22 and Dec. 19, by Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes Hamilton, New York politics and to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, MI 48207-2912. dry cleaning. Special guest Kam Saifi, CEO of For subscriber service: Call (877) 824-9379. Fax (313) 446-6777. $3.00 a copy, $99.95 one year, $179.95 two years. (GST Next Cleaners, talks about changes that could No. 13676-0444-RT) make the industry greener but more BUCK ENNIS ©Entire contents copyright 2016 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. expensive. CrainsNewYork.com/podcast 2 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MAY 9, 2016 P003_CN_20160509.qxp 5/6/2016 7:35 PM Page 1 AGENDAWHAT’S NEW MAY 9, 2016 Candidates need to show the world what New York values really mean nd then there were two. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have emerged as the all-but-certain Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, with Trump’s competition abandoning the Arace and the delegate math rendering Sen. Bernie Sanders a virtually hopeless long shot to catch Clinton. As it happens, both Clinton and Trump are New Yorkers. Unfortunately, their adherence to New York values has been spotty. MEASURING UP: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, both New Yorkers, have not But there are six more months for them to shape up. always lived up to our ideals. But there’s still time. One of our favorite New York values is honesty. New Yorkers are known to speak their minds. Candidates for office rarely do so, even gerous path of xenophobia and even violence. in New York, for fear of offending voters or donors. But Trump has Which brings us to the New York values of diversity and inclusion. shown bluntness on the stump to be an asset. People appreciated it The city is famous as a melting pot and a gateway to America. As a haven when he explained how his contributions to politicians bought some for immigrants and the safest big city in the U.S., it disproves Trump’s measure of fealty. Unfortunately, his honesty overall has been more slanderous characterization of Mexicans as killers and rapists, and perception than reality. Fact-checkers Muslims as terrorists. have documented that only 9% of what New Yorkers work hard and speak their New York initially became a great city he says is true or mostly true. minds. We know how to rally people because of trade, which Trump threatens to Meanwhile, polls show Clinton is wide- to a cause, and we appreciate the choke off with high tariffs—a heavy-handed ly perceived as dishonest, probably tool universally rejected by economists and because she avoids giving forthright the benefits of diversity frowned on by the business community. answers that she believes will hurt her— Trade creates far more jobs than it destroys; not realizing that the lack of candor is more damaging. technology, more than overseas competition, is responsible for the long- New Yorkers also value leadership. Often that means adopting term decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs. The eminently knowledgeable unpopular positions and bringing constituents around to them. We Clinton understands this, but hesitates to deliver the message with don’t see much of that from Clinton, whose every statement and straight talk. stance seems to be first tested for safety and resonance by internal It’s a rarity that the presumptive Democratic and Republican presi- polls and focus groups. Trump, meanwhile, has been putting his lead- dential nominees are both from New York. We hope the two candidates ership skills to odious use, encouraging his followers down the dan- will represent what’s best about us. – THE EDITORS FINE PRINT A report last week proclaimed that Brooklyn is in the midst of a job boom in architecture (up 90%) and graphic design (up 94%). But that growth has something to do with its tiny base. The number of jobs at its architecture and design firms came to 1,954 in 2014, the last year for which numbers are available. The total in Manhattan was 24,045. Citywide it was 27,037. BY GERALD SCHIFMAN STATS 25 WORDS OR LESS GREAT WHITE WAY, INDEED DIVERSITY TOOK A BACKSEAT on Broadway during its 2014-2015 season, although I’d much rather Lin-Manuel Miranda’s acclaimed Hamilton, which moved to the Great White Way AND THE CITY “ this season from the off-Broadway Public Theater, has bucked the trend. get pulled over Portion of Broadway actors in the 2014-2015 season who were white, up 3 percentage by a white officer 78% points from the previous season than a black Portion of Broadway actors who were officer in New African-American, down from 21% in 9% 2013-2014 York City, based on Share of traditionally white roles cast my experience to minority actors, down 1 percentage 10% point from the prior season —Glenn Martin, an African-American advocate for criminal-justice reform, African-American actors’ share of citing his numerous traffic stops by Public Theater roles in 2014-2015, the the NYPD.