Dear Mr. President-elect
We are at the dawn of a promising new year, with the Electoral College confirming that the Biden Administration is set to take office on Jan. 20 and COVID-19 vaccines now being distributed to the first round of recipients.
Both of these events herald a return to some form of normalcy, but more needs to be done to restore our economy and people’s livelihoods, especially in my beloved New York City.
Mr. President-elect, please do not listen to anyone who says we must give up on America’s greatest city as we forge ahead into the 2021 recovery.
New York has been on the brink of extinction many times, if the naysayers are to be believed. I remember going through this in the 1970s, when this newspaper was emblazoned with the sentiment from one of your predecessors that the city should “drop dead.” In the early 1990s, with crime at historic levels, one of our nation’s most prominent magazines featured a cover story titled, “The Rotting of the Big Apple.”
After 9/11 and Superstorm Sandy, it was those writing obituaries for New York City who grabbed the headlines, but time and time again, they were proven wrong.
New York is strong and resilient, and we always rise from the ashes. I believe we will again, but we need your help.
Before our city became America’s first coronavirus hotspot, New York and its surrounding metropolitan area was an engine of incredible economic strength. For the fiscal year ending in March 2020, the state controller reported that the state had a GDP 29.5% higher than the national average, representing 7% of the nation’s economic output.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis’ most recent data shows the New York metropolitan area with the highest real GDP in the country. More than two million people occupied office jobs in Manhattan alone, not to mention the world-class dining, hospitality, Broadway and entertainment industries that call New York City their home.
That number is only set to grow as New York City has come to rival Silicon Valley in technology and innovation. Prior to, and even during, the pandemic, companies like Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google expanded their New York footprint, hiring more than 22,000 workers. The new Cornell Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island will continue to bring new, innovative jobs to the city, as it is expected to span 12 acres by 2037.
Record numbers of tourists, both from around the country and around the world, choose New York City as a travel destination. In 2019 alone, more than 66 million visitors came to experience the vibrancy of our city through our architecture, restaurants, theater and the unique hospitality that only New York can provide.
However, because of the pandemic, practically none of those trips were taken in 2020. This sudden drop, in what had been a consistently growing sector, has affected hundreds of thousands of jobs in those industries that rely heavily on tourism, not to mention the businesses, small and large alike, whose owners have invested everything they have into creating the one-of-akind experiences that put New York City on the map.
New York City has the potential to not only return to its pre-pandemic glory but build upon it in exciting ways, as long as the federal government partners with us.
Remember us as you forge ahead with COVID relief. We were ground zero for the pandemic and we need federal help to close massive budget holes caused by the devastation of COVID-19 and the unprecedented economic shutdown.
Please help the MTA, which is struggling with historically low ridership as offices, theaters and other activities remain closed or severely limited. Our city cannot function as America’s commercial center without a robust, reliable and safe mass transit system.
We need federal funds as we work with New York State to develop guidance to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to all our communities so we can restart our various economic engines.
Your administration can help us secure our financial future by greenlighting longstalled infrastructure projects like the urgently needed Gateway Program, which will upgrade and modernize passenger and commercial rail corridors connecting New York City to points west, as well as the LaGuardia Air Train, which is vital to the redevelopment and improvement of one of our nation’s most overcrowded airports.
These are crucial regional and national priorities, but they have been held up over the years by political posturing and shortsightedness. I believe in your vision for building back America, and in implementing that vision, I implore you to not lose sight of New York City.
Davidoff is Founding Partner of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, a New York-based law and public affairs firm, and former aide to New York Mayor John Lindsay.
This last storm reminded me of my own fragility. I am going on 74, have a bad and weakening heart, non-functioning kidneys and bad knees. I suspect the Congress will not aid Americans in this time of need unless they are directly affected. Seniors who expect aid from Congress are senile. Seniors who have family, neighbors or friends who aid them are blessed. Peter J. Peirano