THOMPSON DELIVERS KEYNOTE SPEECH AT NEW YORK BUILDING CONGRESS

New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. delivers the keynote address on New York City’s fiscal outlook and the impact of the construction industry on the City at a New York Building Congress forum on Thursday, January 25, 2007.

Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. delivered the following remarks at the New York Building Congress on January 25, 2007:

Good afternoon. Thank you, Dominick for that kind introduction.  It is an honor to join all of you here at your annual meeting. 

The New York Building Congress is one of the premier organizations in the building industry.  Your members have in so many ways shaped our City and its history. 

When your organization was founded in 1921, it was a much different New York.  Less than 6 million people called it home.  Our subway system was only 17 years old.  And, the tallest building, the Woolworth Building, stood at less than 60 stories above ground. 

In the years that have passed, our City has expanded beyond even the greatest expectations of previous generations.  New York’s buildings have soared to greater heights and stretched the boundaries of what is possible.  Behind every building, every bridge and every structure are your countless hours of labor and your great creativity. 

And as we gather here today, we should all take pride in knowing that both our spirit as a City and our economy are in terrific shape. 

My office announced last week that during the second half of 2006, New York City’s economy outpaced the nation’s growth.  And, these prosperous times are in large part due to your industry and your work. 

As your Bedrock of the Economy report illustrates, the building industry represents about 25 percent of the Gross City Product.  Construction work alone accounts for more than $27 billion dollars of economic activity and your industry as a whole employs hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers. 

Your sector represents jobs, it represents economic activity, advancement opportunities for all people and in many ways, the future of New York. 

These are exciting times for all of us.  We are at the beginning of a historic construction boom.  Everywhere we look it seems as if there is a new project on the horizon.  Everyday when we read the paper, it seems as if a new development is being announced. 

Whether it is well known projects like the stadiums, subway lines and the expansion of the Javits Center, or simply new residential buildings that soar into the sky, our development continues to reach new heights of human achievement. It is such an exciting time to be a New Yorker and watch all the great possibilities and plans come to life.   

However, in this excitement, we must remember that it isn’t just enough to build.  We must build responsibly.  We need to pursue thoughtful planning.  Thoughtful planning leads to smart growth.  And smart growth is the best growth. 

So what is smart growth?  It is remembering that our success as a City is not judged just by the height of our skyscrapers but by the way we provide for our people.  It’s the idea that economic development can and should be pursued in a way that takes into account “the big picture” and all of our City’s needs.

We are at a critical point because our needs are growing rapidly.  Because of who we are and all the opportunities our City offers, people from all over the world want to come and be a part of it.  Right now, we are at near record population. 

And demographers predict another one million people by 2030.  But, how will this growth strain our resources and infrastructure?  What will the needs of our communities be in five years, ten years, twenty years, and how can we anticipate them now?

Together, we must answer these questions and accommodate the new New Yorkers. 

To me, the answer is clear: we must build with purpose. 

We need to make sure that companies can find what they need in New York, because if they can’t, we know they will take their business elsewhere.

We must build to take steps to ensure that we stay one step ahead of the demands on our resources.  In order to do so, we need to keep developing our infrastructure – the network of housing, schools and public facilities that are the building blocks of urban environment.

This will lead to us to economic growth which means more jobs, more opportunities, more housing and more resources. A vibrant economy means a robust City budget, which in turn allows for a greater capital commitment to our infrastructure. 

In order to achieve all this we need you.  We need your innovation, new ideas and new approaches to meet the challenges that come with new times. 

We need your creativity to make it possible for the new New Yorkers to call our City home. 

We need your experience and thoughtful planning to fit our complex infrastructure into the compact 321 square miles that make up New York City. 

Smart growth utilizes all of your industry’s talents.  The demands are enormous.  So we must begin by developing our fundamental infrastructure.  We need to make sure that roads, bridges, tunnels and all methods of transportation are maintained and modernized because a City cannot function without a sound transportation system. 

All of us here who have tried to squeeze into an already overcrowded subway car during rush hour know that we need more transportation options.  We need to do more than maintain the status quo.    

This is why the creation of a 2nd Avenue subway line, the plan to extend the Long Island Railroad Station, the extension of the 7 train and similar initiatives are sorely needed.  We need to increase transit capacity to give underserved areas access and lesson the burdens on the densest parts of New York.      

Another aspect of smart growth is addressing the strains on our energy resources.  Too often, electricity is taken for granted.  The 2006 blackout in Astoria was a wake up call. We learned then that our power grid is not monitored as thoroughly as we have been led to believe.

The residents of Astoria were left to live in the dark without anyone even realizing the extent of the problem. We need to act now to ensure that our City can grow tomorrow.

As one of your reports illustrates, we could fall substantially below state criteria for New York State in five to ten years.  I know that many of you are involved in the creation of infrastructure that creates power and we need to build more while working to improve our City’s energy design and capacity. 

In our increasingly technology driven world, we must be committed to giving New York the energy sources that it needs. 

I support efforts to develop new transmission lines, create more generation in the City, create a more workable process for citing new power plants and search for alternative energies, everything from solar power to wind power. 

And this is just the start.  As has often been said, energy is literally the fuel for our growth so let’s act now to ensure that our future evolves into everything we want.       

With all this talk about investing today to create better tomorrows, it is important that we invest in the most important resources that will shape our future: our children.   

They are tomorrow’s teachers, engineers, architects, contractors and so much more.  They are tomorrow’s leaders.  So where we are going as a City is directly impacted by the education we give our kids today. 

Looking at New York City’s capital commitment plan from Fiscal Years 2007-2010, I am so pleased to inform you that nearly $11 billion dollars will go to improve our school system, significantly more than the last plan. 

This money will modernize current schools as well as construct new facilities to meet growing demand so that our children receive the best education that we can give them. 

Smart growth helps relieve the burden off of desperately overcrowded schools and equips us with enough classrooms to give our children the first-rate education they deserve. 

But beyond education, what kind of future are we giving them? When our young people grow up, will they even be able to afford to live in our City?  Will they be able to support their families in a City where prices seem to be constantly rising? 

Right now, we have an affordable housing crisis that is only getting worse. We cannot let the development of housing for all income levels fall by the wayside.

As a starting point, we need to re-examine what we mean by the term “affordable housing.” Historically, it has meant housing that is affordable to low- and moderate-income families. But in a City where so many working families – many with middle incomes -- are struggling to make ends meet, we need to expand our sense of what constitutes “affordable housing.”

After all, 29 percent of New Yorkers who rent pay more than half their monthly income to put a roof over their head. Prices here are 9.9 percent higher than the rest of the country. 

Quite simply, the need for affordable housing in New York has reached crisis proportions, and we need to do everything we can to preserve the stock we have and develop new resources.

We cannot afford to price out New York’s hard working families: the fireman, police officers, teachers and construction workers, many of whom work for you. Their talents, cultures, ideas and energies are what helps make this City great. 

So it is essential that we invest in a mix of housing types and costs.  One way we can do this is for government to invest directly in creating the kind of housing we really need.

As Comptroller for the City of New York, I serve as a trustee to four of the five City pension funds and chief investment advisor to all five funds. The funds oversee more than $100 billion in assets, making us one of the largest institutional investors in the nation.

One of my primary jobs is to guide how these dollars are invested.  And I think it is only right that New Yorkers should help their retirement funds grow by helping New York grow.  That way, as our communities benefit, so does our pension system.   

Through the pension funds, we are investing in programs that provide construction loans for affordable housing, mixed-use and commercial properties in low-, moderate-, and middle-income neighborhoods throughout New York City.  On my watch, we are investing in New York City at unprecedented levels.   

All in all, since I took office in 2002, we have invested in the creation or rehabilitation of a total of more than 24,000 units of affordable housing.  I am proud of what we have accomplished so far. But I recognize that even with what we have done, even with Mayor Bloomberg’s stated plan to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing, it’s just not enough.  We can do better.  We must do better. 

In addition to building, we need to lay the groundwork for a new dialogue on the issue. Smart growth brings together developers, City, State and Federal officials, non-profit groups, and community leaders, and creates a new vision for how to address New York City’s housing crisis.

Smart growth also makes building in New York City more efficient.  I know that the costs of doing construction, especially for public works, have soared in recent years.  Escalating prices have discouraged some from engaging in the very work that we need. 

My office has talked with all of you about this.  We hear you and are working to support you in anyway we can.  We will soon launch an initiative to streamline the approval process for change orders, continue to aggressively enforce prevailing wage laws and explore new ways to protect firms from bearing the risk of dramatic price escalations after they bid for a project.

Smart growth is about helping removing the obstacles that prevent you from doing your jobs.  After all, you build the foundation of New York.  In many ways, you are the foundation of New York. 

You are shaping a period of growth that is and will continue to be exciting for all New Yorkers.  In the upcoming years, New York’s grand infrastructure will be more creative and innovative than ever. 

However, our surging growth carries certain challenges that must be addressed in order for our City to continue to prosper and grow. 

So we must continue to push for smart growth, one that recognizes that our future prosperity is tied intimately to our ability to provide our communities all the structures and support needed to meet the challenges that await us in the future.  

When we build, we must be guided by principles and purpose that accommodates all New Yorkers.

And, we know that in order to make the system truly better, in order to make it more responsive to industry, we need to work in partnership with you, the New York Building Congress.  Your work creates the building blocks for our communities, our City and our future.  Lets work together to make this future everything it can be.    

Once again, thank you for inviting me to join you.

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