New York City’s business districts would get a makeover under a blueprint unveiled Wednesday, with recommendations to convert office space to residential areas, make outdoor dining permanent and improve transit.
The report from a committee of business leaders including Goldman Sachs Chief Executive David Solomon and Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis CEO Mary Ann Tighe contains 40 recommendations to reimagine the city’s business districts as around-the-clock, mixed-use destinations.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams launched the “New” New York Panel seven months ago as an effort to re-engage a business community still reeling from the pandemic as their employees work from home or flee to other lower-tax locales
None of the proposals are legally binding, nor is it clear how local and state officials will achieve their goals. Still, the report lays out some clear targets: Cut Manhattan office vacancy rates to 10% by 2025 from 22% in 2022, decrease average commute times for New Yorkers to 30 minutes from 41 minutes, and reduce the unemployment rate to 3.7% by 2025 from 5.9% in October 2022.
The panel sought to balance the competing interests among office workers, commuters, residents and small businesses. While promoting the expansion of open streets and outdoor dining – which became a huge hit during the pandemic – the report also acknowledged the impact of shrinking thoroughfares on street parking, deliveries and cross-town traffic.
To manage that tension and oversee the city’s street scape, the report recommends a new Office of Public Realm at City Hall, which will also spearhead efforts to overhaul waste collection in business districts and the rat problem that comes with it.
The panel started with a focus on business districts but expanded to transit, housing and inclusiveness.
“It quickly became clear that reviving these business districts would require a much broader effort that looked beyond the borders of these neighborhoods,” the report says. “We have all finally voiced, loudly, what everyone understood to be true: commutes as we currently know them take too much time for too many people.”
The report calls for a sustainable operating budget for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, with more off-peak services and faster buses but without outsize fare increases and service cuts.
The 59-member panel was led by two former deputy mayors, Richard Buery and Dan Doctoroff. Buery served under former Mayor Bill de Blasio and Doctoroff served under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Doctoroff is also the former chief executive officer and president of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
Other prominent business leaders on the panel included Bank of America Vice Chair Jose Tavarez, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals co-founder George Yancopoulos and Tishman Speyer CEO Rob Speyer.
(c) 2022, Bloomberg · Skylar Woodhouse, Gregory Korte
Let the MTA run super express trains – move people out of the system faster – and reduce the commute time.