Crains New York - July 8, 2013 - (Page 10)

OPINION The city’s untapped potential T ourism has been a growth industry in New York City for years, and is now a key sector in a local economy desperate for more middle-class jobs. The 52 million visitors and more than 90,000 available hotel rooms last year were all-time bests. Outof-towners fill seemingly every square foot of Times Square and endure long waits for the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. The new mayor and borough presidents who take office next year might wonder how much higher the numbers can go. Actually, a lot higher. There’s quite a bit of the city outside of Manhattan that tourists rarely see, yet has great potential. Staten Island, for example, is easily accessible via the free ferry, which annually shuttles 21 million passengers to and from lower Manhattan. Unfortunately, a huge number of travelers don’t bother to get off the boat when it reaches St. George. But more will when they can walk to the giant Ferris wheel planned for the area. Once visitors are on the ground, they may find their way to nearby cultural institutions. And before long, they’ll be hungry, presenting an opportunity for restaurants. Speaking of which, dozens of ethnic eateries tucked into the enclaves of Queens are waiting to be discovered by visitors seeking an authentic New York experience. Tourism remains incipient in the borough, despite recent CRAIN’S ONLINE POLL promotional efforts by the city’s official tourism arm, NYC & Company, and the Queens Tourism Council. One major challenge is to persuade some of the 700,000 annual attendees of the U.S. Open to dine outside the Flushing tennis complex. That, like so much else in tourism, is a matter of marketing and infrastructure. Show people something special and give them a way to get there, and they will go. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz relentlessly promotes his borough, and with help from the tourismboosting Bloomberg administration and the private sector, institutions like the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (725,000 annual visitors) have flourished. And Coney Island, which is getting the city-subsidized makeover that its internationally known brand justifies, is on its way to a return to glory. Finally, there is the Bronx, home of Yankee Stadium, the Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Garden. While millions of people flock to these venues, there is little spillover to the rest of the borough. Somehow, its reputation for violence and disarray has long outlasted the violence and disarray itself. Fixing that should be on the bucket list, too. More can be done to lure visitors beyond Manhattan COMMENTS NY’s hire authority newscom BACKGROUND CHECKS WAS MAYOR BLOOMBERG RIGHT THAT POLICE DON’T STOP ENOUGH MINORITIES? Yes. Stop-and-frisk should be proportional to the crime rates for different races. No. Murder rates don’t justify race-based stops. And 90% of people stopped are not arrested or given a summons. Date of poll: July 1 257 votes 54% Yes 46% No FOR THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS: Go to www.crainsnewyork.com/poll to have your say. 10 | Crain’s New York Business | July 8, 2013 Your article on the boom in the background-check industry, where companies provide criminal background information to prospective employers for a fee (“Background-check industry under scrutiny as profits soar,” Crain’s, June 24), omits that it is illegal in New York state to deny someone employment solely on the basis of a prior conviction. Such a denial is unlawful unless there is a “direct relationship” between the conviction and the employment sought, or the hiring creates an “unreasonable risk” to property or public safety. In making that determination, the employer must balance the nature and seriousness of the applicant’s past crime against, among other things, his record of rehabilitation and age at the time of the crime, whether the crime has any bearing on the job being filled, and the “the public policy” of New York to “encourage the employment of persons previously convicted of criminal offenses.” The risk for employers who use commercially available background checks in hiring goes far beyond getting sued when they act on “bad information,” a phenomenon your article describes. It includes making the mere fact of a previous conviction a disqualifier for employment. —andrew g. celli jr. Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady sally friedman Legal Action Center The writers are lawyers. A FASHIONABLE DISTRICT In reporting on Under Armour’s decision to lease space in the Starrett-Lehigh Building, Crain’s noted the company “was uninterested in being located in the garment center or the collection of indistinct office buildings in direct proximity of the transit hub” (“Starrett-Lehigh moves in from the fringe,” June 18). The idea that a company would not want to come to the garment district is puzzling. Today’s garment district sits in the middle of three of the nation’s busiest transit hubs. Its 25 hotels—up from seven less than 10 years ago—are drawing new restaurants, bars and lounges at an incredible pace. Its architecture, characterized by fabulous loft spaces and classic Art Deco buildings, is authentic New York. And asking rents are well below nearby neighborhoods like Chelsea and the meatpacking district. With more than 100 tech firms and startups now calling the garment district home, and a diverse array of tenants moving in every day, it’s no wonder that brokers are hailing it as New York City’s next hot neighborhood. —barbara blair randall President, Fashion Center BID CRAIN’S WELCOMES SUBMISSIONS to its opinion pages. Send letters to letters@crainsnewyork.com. Send columns of 475 words or fewer to opinion@crainsnewyork.com. Please include the writer’s name, company, address and telephone number. CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS editor in chief Rance Crain publisher, vp Jill R. Kaplan EDITORIAL editor Glenn Coleman managing editor Jeremy Smerd deputy managing editors Valerie Block, Erik Ipsen assistant managing editor Erik Engquist senior producer, news Elisabeth Butler Cordova news producer Amanda Fung contributing editor Elaine Pofeldt columnists Greg David, Steve Hindy, Alair Townsend crain’s health pulse editor Barbara Benson senior reporters Theresa Agovino, Aaron Elstein, Lisa Fickenscher, Matthew Flamm reporters Chris Bragg, Matt Chaban, Daniel Geiger, Andrew J. Hawkins, Annie Karni, Adrianne Pasquarelli web reporters/producers Ken M. 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Masura (313-446-6097) director of audience & content partnership development Michael O’Connor senior marketing manager Catherine Schutten director of conferences & events Courtney Williams reprint sales manager Lauren Melesio production and pre-press director Simone Pryce advertising production manager Suzanne Fleischman Wies TO SUBSCRIBE: For print and digital subscriptions or customer service, e-mail customerservice@crainsnewyork.com or call 877-824-9379 (in the U.S. and Canada) or 313-446-0450 (all other locations). $3.00 a copy for the print edition; or $99.95 one year, $179.95 two years, for print subscriptions with digital access. www.crainsnewyork.com/subscribe TO ADVERTISE: Contact Nancy Adler at nadler@crainsnewyork.com or call 212-210-0278. www.crainsnewyork.com/advertise FOR INFORMATION ON OUR EVENTS: Contact Courtney Williams at cwilliams@crainsnewyork.com or 212-210-0257. www.crainsnewyork.com/events TO CONTACT THE NEWSROOM: 711 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017-4036 editorial phone: 212.210.0277 fax 212.210.0799 Entire contents ©copyright 2013 Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. ®CityBusiness is a registered trademark of MCP Inc., used under license agreement. CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. BOARD OF DIRECTORS chairman Keith E. Crain president Rance Crain treasurer Mary Kay Crain Cindi Crain executive vp, operations William Morrow senior vp, group publisher Gloria Scoby vp/production, manufacturing David Kamis chief information officer Paul Dalpiaz founder G.D. Crain Jr. (1885-1973) chairman Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. (1911-1996) secretary Merrilee Crain (1942-2012) http://www.crainsnewyork.com/subscribe http://www.crainsnewyork.com/advertise http://www.crainsnewyork.com/events http://www.crainsnewyork.com/poll

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - July 8, 2013

Crains New York - July 8, 2013
IN THE MARKETS
BUSINESS PEOPLE
SMALL BUSINESS
INSIDER
REAL ESTATE DEALS
OPINION
GREG DAVID
NICOLE GLAROS
IN THE BOROUGHS
TOURISM REPORT
CLASSIFIEDS
FOR THE RECORD
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - July 8, 2013