ayor Michael R. Bloomberg figured out a way
yesterday to turn bad news, like Citigroup's decision to move 1,900
jobs out of Lower Manhattan, into a ray of economic sunshine.
He announced that Citigroup, the city's largest private employer,
would erect a $200 million office building in Long Island City,
Queens, and had promised to increase its work force by 600 over the
next two years.
The fact that Citigroup was pulling 1,600 technology jobs out of
the still-wounded precincts of Lower Manhattan and sending them to a
corporate campus in Warren, N.J., did not even come up until the
seventh paragraph of a nine-paragraph mayoral news release. That is
where it also mentioned that another 300 bank jobs would depart for
Melville, on Long Island.
"Yes, some jobs are going to New Jersey, but more jobs are coming
here, and that's the trend that you want," Mr. Bloomberg said at a
news conference. "You will always lose some kinds of jobs. The
question is: Are you making New York an attractive place so that you
have more jobs coming in than going out, and are the jobs coming in
the higher-value jobs which give New York more of a future? And I
think this is a very positive announcement."
The mayor told reporters that Citigroup had promised to replace
the existing 1,900 jobs over the next two years with higher-paying
jobs. Citigroup's president, Robert B. Willumstad, said the bank
would not give up any space in Lower Manhattan.
The bank said it would add 2,500 jobs in all to its New York
payroll over the next two years. Subtract the 1,900 jobs lost to the
suburbs and you have a net gain of 600, if the bank's projections
are met.
"It's a great way to make lemonade from lemons," said Harvey
Robins, once an aide to two previous mayors, Edward I. Koch and
David N. Dinkins. "But I hope the bank's promises don't turn sour.
We need jobs today, not a promise tomorrow. We're still 200,000 jobs
behind where we were before 9/11."
In New Jersey, Gov. James E. McGreevey did not gloat about
stealing jobs from Manhattan (unlike his predecessors) when he held
his own news conference in Trenton yesterday. In fact, he did not
even mention New York.
He said that thanks to a tax break worth $57 million over 10
years, Citigroup planned to move 1,600 "out-of-state jobs" to a
corporate campus in Warren (the former home of Lucent Technologies),
and create 650 jobs.
As for Long Island City, Citigroup said it would build a
14-story, 475,000- square-foot building for 1,500 workers across the
street from its existing 48-story office building on Court
Square.
It plans to move 800 people from Midtown and add another 700 jobs
over time.
"Citigroup is the city's largest private-sector employer," the
mayor said in the release, "and will get even bigger with the
construction of this beautiful new building and commitment to create
more jobs in New York City."
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