Push for technology sector is NYC’s second “Erie Canal moment”

New York City’s emphasis on the technology sector is an “Erie Canal moment,” according to Seth Pinsky, head of New York’s Economic Development Corporation, the Economist magazine wrote. Just 15 years after the Erie Canal opened, New York City was transformed, outpacing Baltimore, Boston and New Orleans in terms of trade. Creating an “eco-system” for technology start-ups — a network of companies and investors — will have the same effect, the magazine argued.

The growing technology world in New York City is also in so small part due to help from City Hall. Since 2002, the city has set up more than 40 projects to help the bio-tech sector and pledged $22 million in funds. It also contributed $100 million in real estate and construction loans to the tech campus on Roosevelt Island, which it was recently announced Cornell University will helm, in a partnership with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

Bloomberg’s dedication of funds for tech amounts to a challenge: “Look out, Silicon Valley,” the Economist said. Over the next 30 years the new campus will generate more than $7.5 billion in economic activity, helping to grow 600 companies and 30,000 jobs, according to figures from the city. [Economist]