new york city Archives

The End of New York City

28 December 20189 April 2009 by kazys

Today I was think ing about the New York City economy so and how it’s a mystery to me that it hasn’t tanked much further. I went over to Wikipedia to look at this article on New York City’s economy and found the following table, which I am lifting in its entirety.

Of course there are other people who work in the city, in fields like advertising, marketing, law, consulting, architecture, and design. In other words, fields that service companies like those listed below.

Companies in green are in finance, companies in yellow are in entertainment. Many, if not most, face insolvency.

*The Top 25 Fortune* 500 Companies in New York City**
rank in:			corporation	Headquarters (New York, NY)	Fortune 500 industry group	2007 Revenues ($ million)	Stock price 2008
NYC	NYS	US	corporation	Headquarters (New York, NY)	Fortune 500 industry group	2007 Revenues ($ million)	Stock price 2008
1	1	8	Citigroup	399 Park Ave. 10043	Commercial Banks	$159,229	–77.2%
2	2	12	J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.	270 Park Ave. 10017	Commercial Banks	116,353	–27.8%
3	3	13	American International Group	70 Pine St. 10270	Insurance: Property and Casualty (stock)	110,064	–97.3%
4	5	17	Verizon Communications	140 West St. 10007	Telecommunications	98,786	–22.0%
5	6	20	Goldman Sachs Group	85 Broad St. 10004	Securities	93,775	–60.8%
6	7	21	Morgan Stanley	1585 Broadway 10036	Securities	87,968	–69.8%
7	8	30	Merrill Lynch	4 World Financial Center 10080	Securities	87,879	–78.3%
8	9	37	Lehman Brothers Holdings	745 Seventh Ave. 10019	Securities	64,217
9	10	43	MetLife	200 Park Ave. 10166	Insurance: Life, Health (stock)	59,003	–43.4%
10	11	47	Pfizer	235 E. 42nd St. 10017	Pharmaceuticals	53,150	–22.1%
11	12	49	Time Warner	1 Time Warner Center 10019	Entertainment	48,418	–39.1%
12	14	75	American Express	200 Vesey St. 10285	Diversified Financials	46,615	–64.3%
13	15	77	Hess Corporation	1185 Sixth Ave. 10036	Petroleum Refining	39,474	–46.8%
14	16	80	Alcoa	390 Park Ave. 10022	Metals	32,316	–69.2%
15	17	82	New York Life Insurance	51 Madison Ave. 10010	Insurance: Life, Health (mutual)	31,924
16	18	84	News Corporation	1211 Sixth Ave. 10036	Entertainment	30,748	–55.6%
17	19	86	TIAA-CREF	730 Third Ave. 10017	Insurance: Life, Health (mutual)	29,280
18	20	125	Bristol-Myers Squibb	345 Park Ave. 10154	Pharmaceuticals	28,655	–12.3%
19	21	139	Loews Corporation	667 Madison Ave. 10021	Insurance: Property and Casualty (stock)	27,526	–43.9%
20	22	156	Bear Stearns	383 Madison Ave. 10179	Securities	19,977
21	24	172	Bank of New York Mellon Corporation	1 Wall Street 10286	Commercial Banks	17,920	–41.9%
22	25	181	CBS	51 W. 52nd St. 10019	Entertainment	16,151	–69.2%
23	26	182	L-3 Communications	600 Third Ave. 10016	Aerospace and Defense	15,985	–30.4%
24	27	186	Colgate-Palmolive	300 Park Ave. 10022	Household and Personal Products	14,798	–12.1%
25	29	191	Viacom	1515 Broadway 10036	Entertainment	14,073	–54.3%
NYC = New York City; NYS = New York State; US = United States
All data except stock price changes are for either the calendar year ending on December 31, 2007 or the company’s fiscal year ending before February 1, 2008.
Stock price changes are for the calendar year 2008. Declines of over 50% are in boldface. Over the same period (December 31, 2007 to December 31, 2008), the 30-stock Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by 33.8% and the Standard & Poor’s index of 500 leading stocks declined by 38.5%. By the end of 2008, the stocks of Bear Stearns (acquired by JPMorgan Chase) and Lehman Brothers (in dissolution) were no longer being traded.
Sources: Fortune 500 website and Fortune, May 5, 2008 (Volume 157, number 9), pages F-1 to F-10, F-28, F-34, and F-40 to F-41. Stock price change between December 31, 2007 and December 31, 2008 from "Year–End Review: Markets and Finance 2008", The Wall Street Journal, Friday, January 2, 2009 (Volume CCLIII, number 1), pages R-15 to R-18.

Reality Check: Infrastructure Funding for NYC

16 February 2009 by kazys

The Daily News: "New York Gets Big Slice of … Stimulus Package …"

What’s known is this: New York is getting more money for Medicaid relief ($12.6 billion), mass transit ($1.3 billion) and home weatherization ($403 million) than any other state. Other categories may well break New York’s way, once funding formulas are set.
"We have come of age," exulted former Mayor Ed Koch, who remembers a time not too long ago when New York’s delegation was routinely steamrolled, mostly by powerful Southern Democrats who saw New York as Sin City.

I have nothing against Medicaid relief, but this is hardly infrastructural spending in the traditional sense. Meanwhile the shovel-ready Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel (adding two new, much-needed tracks under the Hudson River) is estimated to cost over $7 billion to complete while the Second Avenue subway will be over $17 bililon. The Trans-Hudson Express is to be completed by 2017 while the Second Avenue subway will take a few more years.

Given such lengthy timeframes and the immediacy of the crisis, is it political expediency that is driving Obama’s flight from traditional infrastructure.

This is but a small window into the way spending is being allocated in the stimulus plan. More here if you missed it.

duck!

28 December 201814 January 2008 by kazys

Whenever I walk from to Sunrise Mart for lunch, I make it a point to avoid the construction site on Spring and Varick.

After all, anything by Donald Trump and Bovis Lend Lease can’t be good. In terms of quality or safety, New York’s construction is little better than Los Angeles’s, even if the buildings appear to be made of real materials such as steel instead of wood.

So, it is that a scant three days after I told my friend Mimi that we were not, under any circumstances, walking under the scaffolding at that site she sends me this item: Worker is Killed in Accident at Trump Soho Tower. Another outrage from the man who put "You’re Fired!" on national television. Of course the global élite that will inhabit this structure one day will be to uninformed to notice, but just think of the quality of construction in the building. Nice place to live.

how the city works

28 December 201812 December 2007 by kazys

Via archinect comes this New York Times article on how the United Parcel Service eliminates left-hand turns to save money by cutting on gas expenses and time on the road (here is another article on the topic). Compare it with the following Associated Press article from last year on the strange co-existence of parking tickets and delivery trucks.

The world of logistics is much more intricate than we may think. Understanding it better is crucial for the coming century of networked architecture and networked urbanism.