https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/courage-strength-optimism/how-eric-adams-can-make-nyc-great-again
The honeymoon period for Eric Adams, New York City’s newly elected mayor, is an opportunity to propose a transformational economic growth plan in his February budget. During the campaign, Adams made remarks such as “New York will no longer be anti-business” — an about-face from former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s eight-year record.
Mayor Adams’s remarks are welcome, and he has already proposed cutting red tape, cutting waste, and increasing worker training. These are good first steps, but New York is at one of its lowest economic points ever — as shown by the 9% unemployment rate. The mayor needs more specifics if he is to restore the city’s national economic leadership and create jobs.
Some of this can be achieved by being vocally pro-business. Tone matters. The upbeat mayor is a natural cheerleader who wants to be known as the “GSD mayor,” one who will “get stuff done.” Ambitious targets help amplify the message. A worthy goal would be to bring back 400,000 jobs to regain the pre-pandemic level and begin a cycle of bond rating upgrades, not downgrades.
The city lost nearly 615,000 jobs over the course of the pandemic and has brought back only 213,000 of these jobs, according to the New York City Independent Budget Office. Why the sluggish recovery? For decades, New York has been at the bottom of rankings for having the worst tax, regulatory, and business environment in the country. Businesses are leaving in record numbers for low-tax states such as Florida and Texas and taking their tax revenue and workers with them. Making all these problems more complex is that economic growth is closely linked with quality-of-life concerns such as crime and sanitation, which also need turning around.