New York, NY –
The city is launching an ambitious plan to shore up Wall Street, and prevent a brain drain of its employees, by encouraging out-of-work financial service workers to do what Mayor Bloomberg did, and start their own companies.
BLOOMBERG: I was fired, and nobody offered me a job so I started a company. I wasn't going to sit around and do nothing or starve to death. So sometimes getting fired may be the best thing that ever happened to you.
REPORTER: The city is offering fledgling entrepreneurs cheap rent, and assistance in getting their businesses off the ground.
It is also targeting 25 companies, in places like China and Qatar, to get them to relocate here, using $30 million in federal aid for incentives.
The city expects to lose 65,000 jobs on Wall Street, because of the financial crisis.
The initiatives announced today are expected to save 12,000 jobs in five years.
Arun Venugopal is a reporter and the creator of Micropolis, WNYC’s multi-platform series examining race, sexuality, religion, street life and other issues that define New York City. He has been with the station since 2005, and has covered a wide range of stories, including the death of Sean Bell, the controversy over the Park 51 mosque and community center and Occupy Wall Street .
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