New York City has lost 37,000 industrial jobs since Bloomberg took office, and, if the next round of rezonings goes through, it will have surrendered 20 percent of its industrial space. So says the Daily News in a story based on the Pratt Center for Community Development‘s latest study. The City itself offered opposing statistics—they say the number is 31,000 jobs (still nothing to extoll) and 11,000 square feet of what the story calls “factory-friendly” land. Much of the rezoning was intended to create office space; instead, a lot of former industrial space has turned to residential use, especially in neighborhoods like Red Hook and Greenpoint. The less industrial land there is, the more expensive that land becomes. But the news isn’t all bad, apparently. Though we lost twice the percentage of industrial jobs than the national average, we gained 1,700 last month.
City Industries Feel Squeeze with Rezoning Attracting Developers [NY Daily News]
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