Pols press mayor to protect New York manufacturing

Advocates asked for the creation of 50,000 manufacturing jobs

From left: Dan Garodnick, Brooklyn Navy Yard and Bill de Blasio
From left: Dan Garodnick, Brooklyn Navy Yard and Bill de Blasio

Elected officials, academics and community advocates asked Mayor Bill de Blasio to commit to creating 50,000 manufacturing jobs in the next 10 years.

They asked the mayor to do so by preventing the conversion of industrial areas to residential ones, as the mayor aims to build and preserve 200,000 affordable units over the next decade.

The Association for Neighborhood Housing and Development, Brooklyn’s Pratt Center and several politicians also called on the mayor to offer new services to support factories, by creating a new Office of Industrial and Manufacturing Businesses. 

“New York City needs to ensure that we are sensibly planning to protect our manufacturing zones, and keeping them free from the high pressure of development,” said Manhattan Councilman Dan Garodnick. “We need diversity in our zoning code, and that means keeping manufacturing in the mix.

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Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams also joined the group and called for protection of the city’s industrial business zones.

“Our city needs a diversified economy to ensure its long-term growth and prosperity for all, and our industrial business zones need to be strengthened, not weakened, in the pursuit of that shared goal,” Adams said. [NYO] – Claire Moses