Crain's New York Business

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ASKED & ANSWERED Why the city is important to Google’s business PAGE 15

SMELL TEST Company enlists Covid-sniffing canines to get staff back to office PAGE 3

CRAINSNEWYORK.COM

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OCTOBER 18, 2021

CLIMATE CHANGE

A STORM IS BREWING Low-income New Yorkers living in affordable housing face an outsize risk from extreme weather

BY BRIAN PASCUS

AVILA-GOLDMAN, of Gouverneur Gardens: “What scares me the most is we’re going to have to break up our communities and families.”

See CLIMATE on page 19

BUCK ENNIS

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ow-income residents are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change, thanks in large part to the city’s decaying stock of affordable housing. The homes are often in flood-prone waterfront areas that once were considered undesirable. More than 1 million people live in floodplains across the city, and that figure is expected to double as sea levels rise, urban planners and environmentalists warn. The New Yorkers most at risk are disproportionately people of color. The conditions pose a significant risk for the New York City economy, with employers facing the prospect of a significant portion of their workforce living in housing vulnerable to superstorms. The city, already known for its high cost of living, can ill afford to lose more affordable units. There are more than 1 million New York workers living in affordable housing now, said Esther Toporovsky, executive vice president of the New York City Housing Partnership, a nonprofit that works as an intermediary between the affordable housing industry and public agencies. “I would say probably a lion’s share of the workforce in New York, to

ADVERTISING

Uber and Lyft target surprising market: Yellow-cab rooftops BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

I

t seems an uneasy alliance. On the rooftop of some yellow cabs, a digital billboard reads: “Your ad here. Contact ooh@ uber.com.” Yep, the same ride-hailing app that helped upend the market for yellow cabs in the past decade is now in business with taxis. The San Francisco–based company reached a deal

during the spring with the largest medallion fleet-owner groups in New York that will allow Uber to manage advertising for digital screens on up to 3,500 cabs. A thousand screens have now gone live. Uber is not alone in its interest in the market. Rival ride-hailing company Lyft says it is managing more than 1,000 taxi-top digital displays in New York following an acquisition last year of advertising startup Halo. Firefly, a

NEWSPAPER

BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT

Architects show love for city’s diversity PAGE 23 VOL. 37, NO. 37

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© 2021 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC.

San Francisco ad startup whose investors include Google, bolstered its New York taxi-top presence with an acquisition earlier this year and says it has rights to 4,000 taxi billboards. The companies are staking their claim as part of a so-called out-of-home advertising market that will attract $7.2 billion in brand spending by the end of year, according to forecasts from media investment company Magna. The market for such digital outdoor

JAMAICA WORRIES IT’S BECOMING A DUMPING GROUND PAGE 6

advertising—which can be geographically targeted and updated in real time—took a hit when Covid-19 kept people home, so the companies are betting on a continued recovery, with more pedestrians out and about and cabs on the streets. “The potential audiences are back, they are spending more time than possibly ever See CABS on page 18

THE LIST

The metropolitan area’s largest law firms PAGE 12

10/15/21 4:21 PM


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