NYC Still Ranks as a Top Business City

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nyc072806_026Despite the recession and the credit meltdown, New York City remains a global powerhouse for business opportunity, according to a report released Thursday by the Partnership for New York City and PricewaterhouseCoopers. But it warned that “second cities” from Chicago to Sydney are gaining ground-especially in areas where New York traditionally lags, including cost.

The third annual Cities of Opportunity report analyzes how 21 global cities perform as business opportunity centers, based on 58 variables in 10 indicator areas. Of the cities surveyed, New York holds the top spot in two categories-lifestyle assets and technology IQ-and ranks among the top half dozen cities in eight of the 10 categories.

According to Merrill Pond, Partnership for New York City’s director of research and policy, one of the Big Apple’s key strengths is that-along with London, Paris, and Tokyo-it has long scored high on such vital measures as economic clout and intellectual capacity.

“New York has a really strong foundation that allows it to bounce back [from crises],” Ms. Pond said.

In one of the hardest fought races covered in the report, New York narrowly beat out long-time rival Paris to rank as the No. 1 in the lifestyle assets category. In that contest, New York got a slight bump from a 3% rise in international tourism in 2009 from 2008. In contrast, the recession, which resulted in the closing of a number of art galleries and theaters in Paris, hurt that city’s tourism.

However, Paris managed to upset New York to take the top spot in the intellectual capacity category. This ranking depends primarily on a city’s share of top universities and medical schools, as well as its percentage of population with higher education. The two cities were followed in the rankings by Tokyo, London, Seoul, and Chicago.

New York also took its lumps. The city fell to 13th out of the 21 cities surveyed in the cost category. That is down from No. 9 in last year’s report, which ranked 20 cities. New York City fared particularly poorly in cost of living and cost of business occupancy.

Ms. Pond noted that New York’s status as an expensive city is not surprising. “New York’s exactly where we expected it to be,” she said.

Bad air also hurt New York, as did its carbon footprint. The report called both products of a densely developed and highly trafficked city.

In the remaining categories, New York City ranked fourth in transportation and infrastructure, third in ease of doing business and sixth in health, safety and security.

{Crains NY/Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}


1 COMMENT

  1. On elarge business is leaving the city and going to Florida. They will pay their employees who move with them 30% less, because the cost of living is so much less down there. Those who don’t want to except the pay cut will be replaced with native Floridians who are willing to earn less for the the aforementioned reason.

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