NEW YORK, NY March 19, 2004 — Industry advocates say there are many myths about manufacturing in the city. The first myth is that industries have all gone to China and India. While manufacturing is no longer defined by smokestacks and soot, it's still a big player in the city's economy - one that Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he'd like to enhance. But advocates worry the mayor's efforts are being undercut by his ambitious re-zoning plans. WNYC's Amy Eddings reports.

There are two stories to tell about manufacturing in New York City. One is its decline. From its peak of over one million jobs in 1947, manufacturing employment has fallen by nearly 80 percent and lofts have replaced vacant factories. Mayor Bloomberg acknowledged this trend during his state of the city address last January. He also alluded to the other story of industry's role in diversifying the city's economy.

Bloomberg: Manufacturing will play a big part of that. Yes, we're re-making and re-using underused industrial sites for parks and housing. But we're also working to increase the number of industrial and manufacturing jobs in the Big Apple.

The mayor's initiative will be based on a study commissioned by the city's Economic Development Corporation, which surveyed 500 companies. According to people who saw a recent public presentation, EDC found the industrial sector is still a significant contributor to the city's tax revenues. It says the city is no longer hemorraghing manufacturing jobs, having stabilized at roughly 500-thousand.

The survey found that a major challenge to keeping those jobs was the high cost of the city's enforcement policies - parking tickets, sanitation fines, and the like. Another big obstacle is real estate prices.

Kirsch: We have three of the hearth baked overns that produce our delicious sourdough, rosemary olive and rustic breads. .A little plug.

Jesse Kirsch knows what real estate pressure can do to a business. He's the general manager of TriBeCa Oven, which isn't in TriBeCa anymore. The bakery was forced out, when the landlord of the manufacturing building it was leasing from decided to convert that space into apartments. TriBeCa Oven bought a building six years ago in Williamsburg a neighborhood now experiencing its own real estate boom.

Kirsch: The direction of the neighborhood has been very positive. The value of our property has gone up. The downside of that is that with more residential use, it makes it difficult, especially with a 24 hour a day operation, to be neighborhood friendly.

That can lead to manufacturers being unwelcome in a neighborhood. Jesse Kirsch says Williamsburg's residential resurgence is also making it hard to find affordable space.

Kirsch: So if we have to expand or we're going to expand, it might not be in this location. It might force us to leave this area, it might force us to leave Brooklyn, it might force us to leave New York.

Even though the EDC survey acknowledges these real estate concerns, advocates for manufacturing worry Mayor Bloomberg will do little or nothing about them. And that's because his administration has proposed ambitious residential and commercial re-zonings for manufacturing neighborhoods in Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Long Island City and the West Side. At a city council committee hearing last November, Adam Friedman, with the New York Industrial Retention Network, says jobs are on a collision course with those re-zoning efforts.

Friedman: The best example is the city re-locating printers to Long Island City, and then re-zoning Long Island City for more housing and offices. Every city, every state in this country is in a battle for jobs. And not using land use and zoning techniques to retain those jobs is like fighting a battle with one hand behind its back.

But the city's Department of City Planning believes its proposed zoning techniques support manufacturing. It wants to create mixed use or MX zones in areas of Williamsburg and Long Island City. These zones would ease restrictions on residential development, while allowing manufacturers to stay and expand, too. But the Industrial Retention Network believes the MX zones will open the floodgate on residential development and squeeze businesses out.

Richard Barth, executive director of City Planning, says that won't happen. He says manufacturers haven't fled parts of Long Island City that were re-zoned in the mid-90s to allow such as of right residential development.

Barth: And we've targeted the areas for residential, or MX, where there are not significant industrial concentrations. We've tried to be very strategic about where we're mapping these areas. At the same time, we're leaving vast areas in East Williamsburg and targeted areas in Greenpoint-Williamsburg, we're leaving those manufacturing

Barth points out the city's zoning in many manufacturing neighborhoods are frozen in the early 60s, and no longer represent what's been happening to those communities. In many instances, residents have been the ones pressuring the city to play catch up. Bill Vinicombe is chair of the land use committee of Brooklyn's Community Board Two, which successfully worked for the re-zoning last year of a neighborhood near the Manhattan Bridge, from manufacturing to residential and retail.

Vinicombe: The reason why that these uses are changing, it's not because the zoning is changing, it's because people are finding other uses for them, and the manufacturing use is really not there anymore, because the demand is down.

But Ernie Smith argues the city's land use policies have had a big role in driving manufacturers out.

Smith: What happens now is everyone abandons an area because they think it's gonna be re-zoned. There's no point in putting money in it. So it's a self fulfilling prophecy.

Smith is the president of the embroidery firm, Penn and Fletcher, in Long Island City. He keeps a photo on the wall of embroiders in Pakistan, as a reminder of who his competition is. Although the company is in a manufacturing district that is not being re-zoned, Smith says he doesn't feel any more insulated from real estate speculation.

Smith: If they were adding manufacturing space at the same rate that they're taking it away, we'd feel very protected. But because they're removing manufacturing space //, it means those people who are being pushed out have to go into the other zones and compete for space. That drives the market up and makes it harder on those who are here already.

Smith and others are urging the city to create more protected industrial spaces, like the Brooklyn Navy Yard. They want restrictions on zoning variances. And Greenpoint/Williamsburg Councilman David Yassky wants a law requirng owners of manufacturing property to contribute to a business relocation fund if they convert their property to other uses.

The Economic Development Corporation's survey recommends similar actions. It also proposes getting EDC, City Planning, and the board that grants zoning variances on the same page when it comes to industrial policies and land use goals. EDC will not say whether Mayor Bloomberg will include this in his new policy initiative. Even if he does, many manufacturing advocates are pessimistic. Ron Schiffman is a professor at the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development. He's also a former member of the City Planning Commission.

Schiffman: I think that the staff at the office of City Planning has a strong bias against manufacturing. And I think that this has actually hindered a real // cross city dialogue on the issue.

City Planning's Ricard Barth says nothing could be further from the truth. He says the agency has a big-picture strategy for promoting industry, and it's working closely with the EDC.

In a 2001 report, the Municipal Arts Society called manufacturing the city's silent sector. With New York City's economy struggling, and its residential real estate market booming, manufacturing is stuggling to find its footing, and its voice. Advocates believe the city, too, has been silent for too long .and they're waiting anxiously for Mayor Bloomberg's manufacturing initiative. Meanwhile, Ernie Smith of Penn and Fletcher has his own recommendation:

Smith: It's my feeling that if Bloomberg started out on a sewing machine instead of a computer, he would see the city differently. He wouldn't be supporting so much office space as he would realize manufacturing is a really vibrant part of the city. So maybe we can give him sewing lessons?

For WNYC, I'm Amy Eddings.

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