Brooklyn businesses welcome new promise: Make NYC the ‘City of Yes’
The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce hosted a meeting Wednesday for the borough’s business and civic leadership at the famed Wythe Hotel in Wiliamsburg.
Brooklyn Chamber Of Commerce President and CEO Randy Peers kicked off the event, featuring guest speaker Dan Garodnick, the Chair of the New York City Planning Commission (DCP), who presented an insightful snapshot of the City’s post-pandemic recovery meant to instill “reality check stats and a sense of hope” about the opportunities to support equitable, sustainable growth in the city.
The presentation began with familiar indicators of where the City stands today versus pre-pandemic, with weekday subway ridership down by about 35% compared to 2019, unemployment hovering around 5.7% (versus approximately 4%), and tourism in 2022 still falling short of 2019 numbers by about 10 million visitors, though trending higher in recent months.
And while office use is still only at about 40% of pre-pandemic standards, the number of office jobs in New York City have overtaken pre-COVID levels and continue to grow, with “traditionally office-based jobs” surpassing the 1.5 million mark for the first time since May of 2020.