by
JESSICA MADOR--RADIO WORKSHOP--
INDUSTRIAL JOBS SCRIPT 2/3/05
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N: The policy is a response to a recent survey of manufacturing businesses. business owners reported that one of their biggest problems is finding and keeping affordable real estate. To offset high rents, the mayor's policy will offer tax breaks and other incentives for industry to stay in the city. Over the next year, a newly created taskforce on industry will identify 14 so-called industrial business zones--neighborhoods where industry is in danger of being pushed out by residential development.
(sound of street)
N: On the corner of 3rd and Bond streets in Gowanus, the conflict between residential development and industry is striking. on one side of 3rd street, it's all apartment buildings-- the other side is lined with cement plants, scrap metal yards and factories. Steve Adler owns a copy machine distribution business on this corner. He says the location near Manhattan and the Brooklyn Queens Expressway helps him stay competitive--his sales force, technicians and truck drivers can reach customers quickly. Now, he's afraid he'll be pushed out by residential development.
AX: Steve Adler: I bought the property for a reason---it's on a wide street so trucks and people can get in--I bought it for a reason. these are things I took into consideration. our company was able to put our names on the paper because we liked the location and we never dreamed they'd be putting residential on this side of the street.
N: Jen Roth from the New York Industrial Retention Network says the mayor's new policy is a good first step.
AX Jen Roth: this is the first in a long time there are programs specifically set up to help the industrial sector and begin to address some of the critical issues that have been major obstacles for growth in the city.
N: But Roth says the policy doesn't go far enough for neighborhoods like Gowanus.
AX: Jen Roth: the Gowanus area doesn't have a mixed-use zoning-- but the land use is becoming mixed-use. so what the city needs now is a new type of mixed use zoning so the businesses are not constantly under pressure from residential conversion.
N: Adler's business is forty years old. He relocated to Gowanus from his original location in downtown Brooklyn three years ago. He says the city's previous office for industrial business encouraged him to sign a lease. He took out a mortgage on the property and invested in major renovations. He says he would have reconsidered moving had he known he might not be eligible for protections under the mayor's new policy.
AX Steve Adler: they supported the note that I bought the building with, the city's Industrial Development Agency. There are tax advantages for businesses to stay in New York and keep my 200 people here paying taxes to New York rather than paying taxes in new jersey so now if they turn around and debenefize us by making it residential all hell's gonna break loose because we can't function.
N: According to research by the mayor's new taskforce on industry, the city's 500,000 Industrial and manufacturing jobs represent 15% of the workforce. The jobs typically pay at least 10,000 dollars more a year than service jobs and are more likely to provide medical benefits. Adler says he hopes his business will be able to stay. He says keeping residential and industrial areas apart just makes sense.
AX Steve Adler: We're talking about people who will be moving in, tolerating a factory right next to them and that's a danger, just a plain danger. would you want to be here with a baby carriage and watch a truck come flying down the end of the block?
N: Adler is just one of the thousands of business owners who will be closely watching what happens with the city's new policy. The mayor's task force on industry will be working over the next year to designate the boundaries of the special industrial business zones.
Jess Mador, Columbia Radio News.