CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS NEW YORK BUSINESS® SEPTEMBER 4 - 10, 2017 | PRICE $3.00 HUDSON YARDS PRESSURES POLS TO FUND TUNNEL P. 6 HOW THE MAYOR WILL GOVERN UNTIL ELECTION DAY P. 9 The THE LIST New York’s Underground largest real estate investment trusts P. 11 VOL. XXXIII, NO. 36 WWW.CRAINSNEWYORK.COM Sound A record number of musicians are playing in the subway—not just for the money but as a platform to launch their career PAGE 13 NEWSPAPER P001_CN_20170904.indd 1 9/1/17 1:14 PM Building Owners. Time is running out... New York City is currently offering an amnesty program to waive civil and criminal penalties if there is improper gas work or appliances in your building. For more information on the program contact NYC Department of Buildings customer service (212) 393-2406 or visit gasamnesty.nyc This message is sponsored by the Plumbing Foundation City of New York. CN018318.indd 1 8/2/17 12:06 PM SEPTEMBER 4 - 10, 2017 CRAINSNEW YORK BUSINESS FROM THE NEWSROOM | JEANHEE KIM | ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR IN THIS ISSUE The child care gap 4 AGENDA 5 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT LABOR DAY is an apt name for it. By the unocial last day of A plan to 6 POLITICS summer, I’m exhausted. toll Midtown 8 ASKED & ANSWERED trafc stalled Don’t get me wrong —summer is fantastic. But all season a decade ago. 9 REAL ESTATE A new effort long for working parents like me and my husband, we have could succeed. been dropping o and picking up day campers at work- 10 VIEWPOINTS unfriendly hours. And then by mid-August camps end, with 11 THE LIST two more weeks to go (plus the two days before city public FEATURES schools open Sept. 7). Families must either go on vacation or into patchwork mode, begging for help to ensure care for 13 THE UNDERGROUND SOUND their kids. One Friday, a day aer bringing my 9-year-old to the oce, I let my usually mature 12-year-old, Chiara, The right employers P. stay home with her sister. Around 3 p.m., she called me 44 understand they NICHOLAS ZIKOS in tears. “Oma, I’m in charge, right? Please tell Jemma “ to return my slime and do what I tell her to right now!” need to be exible, (Google “slime videos” to see what today’s kids are up to.) especially the Kristin Savilia is a parent of four—three of them school last two weeks age—and the CEO of Joor, a digital wholesale fashion market place with 75 employees. “Damn camps ended on of summer Aug. 17!” she told me. Over the next week she let a senior 44 GOTHAM GIGS manager bring her child to work, did the same with one of 45 SNAPS her own children (when her husband or baby sitters were unavailable) and ensured 46 FOR THE RECORD coverage for a number of employees on vacation. e following week she took vaca- tion herself. “e right employers understand that their employees are hardwork- 47 PHOTO FINISH ing,” she said. “And they need to be exible, especially the last two weeks of summer.” CORRECTIONS For the lucky few whose employers sponsor child care centers near their work- Maintenance fees did not increase after South- bridge Tower exited the Mitchel-Lama program, place, service may continue year-round. Some companies even oer a day camp for contrary to what Gale Brewer asserted in public those two weeks. “A lot of employers are starting to understand that their employees testimony. This fact was misstated, according are more productive at work if this stressful issue is taken care of,” said a spokes- to Brewer’s testimony, in “The War Inside Trump Village,” published Aug. 21. woman for Bright Horizons Family Solutions, which oers private child care. Susan Avery earned a bachelor of science from I have it easy compared with parents who cannot nd reliable, aordable child Hunter College. Her degree was misstated in care all year long. U.S. businesses lose approximately $4.4 billion annually because “Dancing the Dream,” published Aug. 7. of employees absent as a result of child care breakdowns. In New York state, 66% of children have all available parents working. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s universal pre-K eorts provide some relief several months of the year. But the issue of child care largely has been ignored. “We haven’t addressed child care in the U.S. in any way,” said Julie Kashen, policy director for Make It Work, which in 2015 proposed a national child care subsidy. “Summer is when it hits home for the majority of families at wider income levels.” I hope there’s a solution for all families soon. ON THE COVER PHOTO: BUCK ENNIS OCT. 5 CONFERENCE CALLOUT DIGITAL DISPATCHES CRAIN’S ENTERTAINMENT SUMMIT Go to CrainsNewYork.com JOIN CRAIN’S as we bring together NOMINATE Do you know a whiz the leaders of New York’s booming kid? On Nov. 27 our 20 Under lm and TV industry, including 20 list will recognize the New > studio owner Doug Steiner, York area’s youngest business for a discussion about the future brains. Let us know who should of one of the city’s be included at CrainsNewYork fastest-growing sectors. .com/20Nominate. Meet our NY MARRIOTT past honorees at CrainsNewYork DOWNTOWN .com/20Under20. 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. READ The “great vacancy caper” [email protected] ensures that the city’s affordable-housing emergency will last forever. Vol. XXXIII, No. 36, Sept. 4, 2017—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for double READ Mayor Bill de Blasio is again trying to issues the weeks of June 26, July 10, July 24, Aug. 7, Aug. 21 and Dec. 18, by Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing ofces. Postmaster: Send address unseat Republican state senators. But that changes to: Crain’s New York Business, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit, MI 48207-2912. effort backred in 2014. Republicans used For subscriber service: Call 877-824-9379. Fax 313-446-6777. $3.00 a copy, $99.95 one year, $179.95 two years. the mayor’s involvement to rally supporters. (GST No. 13676-0444-RT) ©Entire contents copyright 2017 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. BUCK ENNIS SEPTEMBER 4, 2017 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 3 P003_CN_20170904.indd 3 9/1/17 1:37 PM WHAT’S NEW SEPTEMBER 4, 2017 AGENDATaxi regulations, like the industry, must adapt to changing times or decades the city’s taxi industry was in the driver’s seat. Yellow cabs were the only way to get a quick and personal ride anywhere in the ve boroughs. No other for-hire ve- hicle could legally make pickups that were not arranged in Fadvance. In exchange for that monopolistic position, regulators imposed strict rules on the industry, from how the cars were outtted to how long drivers could stay behind the wheel. For example, cabbies are not allowed to turn down passengers because of where they want to go in RACING THE COMPETITION: the city, and drivers must charge rates set by the Taxi and Limousine Taxis need Commission. Another standard is 12-hour shifts, which are not only gru- more exibility from the city eling but also entail driving at times when customers are scarce. The to survive the mandate, which many cabbies circumvent, is to ensure that taxis are advent of Uber. available any hour of the day, just like subways. Furthermore, hacks must pay upfront to lease cabs and then try to make that money back, drivers will have more exibility to work when they want to and for as long rather than work on commission. as they want to. In the pilot, New York City Taxi Group drivers will use an But in the past few years, Gett, Ly, Uber, Via and others have broken app to locate and lease a taxi near them, saving them the trek to a far-ung the taxi monopoly, allowing New Yorkers to get cablike service with a few garage. e change will likely lead to shorter shis and more taxis on the taps on a smartphone—and usually for less road during rush hour than at other times, money. As customers ocked to taxis’ new Cabs are part of New York’s history. but that’s as it should be. ere is no reason rivals, so did drivers, not only to try to earn for lots of cabs to be cruising around, wasting more, but also to have more control over But if they can’t keep up with their gas and pounding asphalt in a lonely quest their terms of employment. Suddenly cabs rivals, they won’t be part of its future for customers. Taxis can be hailed by an app were sitting idle for lack of drivers. now too, in theory allowing them to provide Times have changed drastically in the sucient service with fewer vehicles. industry. Regulation should change with them. e Taxi and Limousine Regulators should consider other moves that allow the industry to ex- Commission realizes this and has started to relax some of its rigid rules. periment with technology, leasing arrangements and even fares to meet Sept. 4 marks the formal launch of a pilot project that allows the industry the needs of drivers and passengers. Taxis are an integral part of New to better compete for drivers. Participants can work on commission rath- York’s history, but if precluded from keeping up with the marketplace, er than pay upfront for a daylong lease.