BENEFITS TIGHTROPE
BY JACQUELINE NEBERRising in ation has imperiled one of employers’ biggest bargaining chips for employee retention: bene ts. As prices spike amid the “great resignation,” it’s not a game companies can a ord to lose.
e cost of medical care in the New York–New Jersey area rose by about 8% between September 2021 and last month after steadily creeping up all summer due to in ation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. e price of providing bene ts is expected to surge by about 6% next year, according to Mercer, following a more
modest 4% gain this year that was driven by rising premiums and prescription drug costs, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.
ready o er certain bene ts are trying to communicate what they provide in better ways.
Toss-up races for Congress proliferate
BY ROSS BARKANIfthere’s one certain takeaway from the large number of competitive House races across New York state, it’s that the Democrats really didn’t want it to be this way.
is year, for the rst time in modern history, Democrats in the state Legislature had full control of the redistricting process. ey engineered friendly House maps after a bipartisan commission predictably deadlocked.
ey quickly declared victory, having tilted the playing eld their way after being on the defensive for decades.
Republicans challenged the maps, though, and eventually won, with the state Court of Appeals ruling Democrats had violated an anti-gerrymandering amendment in the state constitution and not followed proper procedure. An independent special master was appointed to draw new maps.
OF WORKERS who quit
in
e price increases come at an inconvenient time for employers, with workers demanding more. New categories, including fertility bene ts, telehealth options and mental health support, have grown in popularity— and can add costs as well. As health care grows in tandem with employees’ expectations, some companies are getting squeezed just in time for open enrollment. Others that al-
“ ey have to o er more than medical, vision and dental,” said Brandon Weber, chief executive of Nava Benets, a Flatiron-based brokerage that o ers bene ts consulting and a search engine service.
e stakes for striking the right bene ts balance are high. According to the Pew Research Center, 43% of workers who left their job last year said one
e result, after months of chaos and uncertainty, were two primary dates during the summer and many unhappy incumbents.
e special master prioritized competitiveness and compactness. Gone were the gerrymandered House districts. In their place were a stunning number of toss-ups in a midterm year.
Hochul and Zeldin express very different visions for governor
BY ANNE MICHAUDIn a short, rapid- re debate last Tuesday evening, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Rep. Lee Zeldin expressed what has often been lacking this election season: their visions for how they would govern if elected.
Hochul, a Democrat who is seeking her rst elected term, sought to project a con dent air as the adult in the room. She cautioned Zeldin repeatedly that governing is complicated. “Sound policies, not soundbites,” she said.
e Republican congressman from eastern Long Island attempted to tie Hochul to the corruption of the Andrew Cuomo years, during which she served as lieutenant governor. Zeldin vowed to bring balance to a state capital dominated by
is Nov. 8. Absentee balloting and early voting are already underway.
e pair met as polls have tightened in Zeldin’s favor, with one poll putting him just 4 percentage points behind Hochul.
time homebuyer tax credits and approve new pipelines to do a better job delivering energy across the state.
Transportation leaders address in ation, safety and congestion
BY AARON ELSTEINIn 2019 about 19,000 riders swiped into the Myrtle/Wycko Avenue subway station in Bushwick, Brooklyn, every weekday, making it the 75th busiest station in the system.
is past spring fare evasion was rampant, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority hired two security guards. eir job was to stop a thief from breaking into MetroCard vending machines and selling rides at a discount. e move paid big dividends: Fare collections rose by $100,000 per month.
they’re trying to deal with crushing road tra c, roaring in ation and public safety concerns.
Ruth Fasoldt, director of state and local government a airs at Lyft, reported that shared rides returned last week. For anyone frustrated over the time to summon a car, usually due either to a shortage of drivers or congested streets, restoration of shared rides should offer some relief—not to mention save passengers some money.
“ at did help remove some friction,” Fasoldt said, noting that her industry was the last to shed Covidera restrictions.
Democrats and to “stop picking winners and losers based on political connections.”
e debate, held at Pace University in Manhattan, was the only forum where the candidates agreed to meet prior to Election Day, which
National Republicans have taken notice, fueling a last-minute push from donors.
Many disagreements e evening was dominated by disagreements over crime and public safety. Hochul accused Zeldin of politicizing crime and trying to frighten people into voting for Republicans.
Zeldin said his opponent was soft on punishing criminals, citing bail reform, and he reiterated his intention to re the elected Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg. Zeldin claimed that, as governor, he could remove Bragg for failing to uphold the law, a contention Hochul contested.
e two also clashed on abortion rights. Disagreements over the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic waited until the end of the hour.
Both candidates aligned themselves with Mayor Eric Adams—not an especially popular mayor at the moment but one who is native to the voter-rich city, as Zeldin and Hochul are not, and who brings credibility on crime as a former police o cer.
Zeldin spoke about his support for Adams’ law-and-order career and policies. Hochul noted how rare it is that New York’s governor is working hand in glove with the mayor of New York.
Other takeaways
● Zeldin mentioned that Jewish people have been targeted by attacks in the city, perhaps to draw attention to his being one of the few Jewish Republicans to serve in Congress. He also noted that he supported moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“ e $100,000 is a net gure, by the way, after the cost of guards,” Richard Davey, president of New York City Transit, said at a transportation forum ursday held by Crain’s at method to deal with fare evaders could go some way toward restoring the nancial health of one of the world’s biggest subway systems. But with a $2.5 billion de cit looming, the system is ill-equipped to hire more guards, even if they do produce revenue.
$100K
MONTHLY GAIN from hiring two guards to stop fare evasion at a Bushwick station
Cabbies are awaiting relief from fuel prices. at should come after a vote on or around Nov. 15 by the city Taxi and Limousine Commission that could turn a $20 ride into a $27 ride.
“ is will mean 33% more dollars in drivers’ pockets,” TLC Chairman David Do said.
‘Weekend czar’ for MTA
Hard to balance the books
“We’ve got a scal cli ,” Davey said. “We’ve got to be thoughtful.”
HALL
Crain’s
an awards
Neither candidate talked about in ation, an issue that has weighed heavily in campaigns nationally.
Hochul’s vision, should she win, includes a plan to build 1 million homes—which she said she would present to the Legislature in the next session. She wants to amend city zoning laws to allow o ce space conversion to housing, and she said she would push for transit-oriented development in the Hudson Valley and Long Island suburbs.
Zeldin criticized the governor for presiding over a high rate of population decline. He said New York has lost more residents than any other state. To turn that back, he promised to cut spending and taxes, lift the ban on fracking, allow cryptocurrency mining, expand broadband access, support rst-
● Asked if they support the two overdose prevention centers in the city, where addicts can use illegal drugs without reprisal, Hochul said she is listening to health experts and looking at the data. Zeldin said, “Heck no.”
● Zeldin claimed that migrants have been coming to New York for quite some time and that Hochul acted with “transparency” only when people were being bused from Texas and Arizona. “She found her bogeyman as soon as the buses started arriving,” Zeldin said. “She’s making believe this is the entire problem.”
● Hochul’s smile disappeared only when her opponent raised the issue of her support for a new Buffalo Bills stadium in her hometown. e governor pushed through a $600 million contribution to the stadium in the waning days of the state budget agreement in March. “ is was about the identity of a community,” she said, “like Broadway in New York City.” ■
Except for airlines, the business of transporting New Yorkers is even more precarious than usual. Public transit systems never cover their costs, and private operators Uber and Lyft are pro table only on an “adjusted” basis overlooking a eet of expenses. Taxi drivers haven’t been granted a fare increase in 10 years.
At the Crain’s forum, leaders from all parts of New York’s transportation world explained how
Davey said he wishes more residents would take the subway. In the meantime, he said, he hopes to make the millions who ride the trains happier about the experience. Because weekend ridership has returned faster than on weekdays, he said the MTA has anointed a “weekend czar” to improve service. On-time trains ticked up to 83.5% in September from the prior month, he said. But with construction work underway, weekend subway travel can be di cult. A recent Davey family trip to the Bronx Zoo was nearly spoiled because their train was diverted and they got lost riding a bus.
“We got there before the zoo closed,” he joked, “which was good.”
LAST WEEK’S DEBATE WAS THE ONLY ONE THE CANDIDATES AGREED TOTRANSPORTATION FORUM (left to right) Telisha Bryan, David Do, Richard Davey, Ruth Fasoldt and Cory Schouten BUCK ENNIS
Working out of a van, these delivery startup founders are rethinking ef ciency
The upstart: Carry
It’s probably the worst fate to befall a startup: You launch and discover that no one wants what you’re o ering. at was the situation confronting Aaron Walters and Jason Ovryn when they started Carry in 2018. e Brooklyn startup o ered a two-hour delivery service, but online shoppers were spooked by the hefty fee Carry originally charged.
It took three years of experimentation before the co-founders got it right. Carry now o ers same-day (rather than two-hour) delivery within the city for a at $6.95 per package. at’s less than FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service typically charge for twoday ground shipping.
It’s still early days for Carry, which is headquartered at the Brooklyn Navy Yard WeWork and backed by $325,000 in funding from four angel investors. It employs just one full-time worker—a chief technology o cer—and a half-dozen delivery guys working on a contract basis. e 27-year-old founders are still hands-on, sorting packages daily and making the occasional delivery.
ever since.
In 2018 Walters was driving for Uber after quitting a mechanical engineering job and pondering how to pursue his true love: entrepreneurship. One day, he was surprised when an Uber customer, rather than getting in the car, handed him a casserole to deliver to a relative’s home a few miles away. A lightbulb went o : “If the rideshare model could be used to deliver people and food, why stop there? What other things did people want delivered quickly? e immediate answer was retail,” he says.
He called Ovryn, who was living in California and studying for the LSATs. e two decided to launch their company in New York City. But that’s about all they gured out in advance.
“Aaron’s background is in mechanical engineering. My background is in law and sales,” Ovryn says. “Neither of our backgrounds are in retail or logistics or delivery. It’s like we were in kindergarten.”
e company’s van drivers pick up packages from retailers in the morning and then park curbside, where they scan and sort the packages for distribution along delivery routes created by Carry’s proprietary software.
Next, delivery guys driving their own cars pull up to the van to pick up a bin of 40 to 50 packages. ey make their deliveries following a predetermined route, again generated by Carry’s software.
Walters says he taught himself to code using online courses and created the software in a few months.
“But it works!” he says. eir new CTO—a former developer for Amazon—is re ning the code and getting it ready to scale.
For now Carry has just one van that it rents for about $2,000 per month. e van services a swath of Brooklyn and Manhattan. e co-founders calculate they’ll need 150 vans to cover the entire city.
e next stops, they say, will be Chicago and Los Angeles.
ANNE KADETBut they’re now handling about 1,000 packages per week for clients including jewelry maker Catbird, co ee roaster Devoción and granola maker Tom’s Perfect 10. Ovryn says the company is full speed ahead: “We want to deliver the majority of local e-commerce packages in America.”
The reigning Goliath: UPS
e United Parcel Service, headquartered in Atlanta, delivers 25.2 million packages daily in more than 220 countries. Its revenues last year topped $97 billion.
How to slay the giant Walters and Ovryn grew up four blocks from each other in New Rochelle, met in the fourth grade and have been friends
ey initially o ered a $20, two-hour delivery service to local e-commerce companies—but shoppers didn’t bite.
e problem, they realized, is that online shoppers are typically more price-sensitive than speed-sensitive. So the co-founders started experimenting with the price. It wasn’t until they began o ering same-day delivery for less than $10 that they saw a meaningful surge in demand. e lower service charge produced a new challenge, however: how to operate pro tably.
Their big innovation? Mobile sorting sites.
National parcel services typically pick up packages and schlep them to a distant warehouse, where they are sorted for delivery to their nal destination. Carry’s model eliminates the warehouse—and all the associated time, travel and costs. Instead, the company uses electric vans to serve as sorting stations on wheels.
The next challenge
Carry investor Mark Geller helped to found national logistics service Happy Returns and has served as its head of product since it was acquired by PayPal last year. Although other same-day delivery startups have tried and failed to operate pro tably, Geller says, Carry’s delivery model is di erent. And although the model is publicly visible, the company has a year’s head start over potential copycats.
e rst company that can o er a compelling service at a nationwide scale will have a meaningful advantage, he notes, so Carry needs to get big quickly.
“I’ve been telling them that since the rst phone call,” Geller says. “We don’t talk about growing 3X a year, we talk about growing 30X a year. But they did that last year!” ■
Anne Kadet is the creator of Café Anne, a weekly newsletter with a New York City focus. She previously was the city business and trends columnist for e Wall Street Journal.
Former home of actress Joan Copeland, late sister of playwright Arthur Miller, sells for $5.9 million
BY C. J. HUGHESWhen it comes to “it” buildings among the Hollywood crowd, 88 Central Park West might take the cake. Residents of the cooperative, The Brentmore, have included Robert De Niro, An nie Leibovitz, Lorne Michaels, Paul Simon and Sting.
The celebrity list at the prewar building grew one name shorter in January with the death of resident Joan Copeland, an actress and the sister of playwright Arthur Miller; he died in 2005.
Copeland's home, No. 11W—a three-bedroom, three-bath unit— has sold for $5.9 million, according to public records.
the paperwork. Austin Schuster, the Compass agent who marketed the home, did not return a call for com ment.
Copeland might not have achieved the kind of house hold-name status as some of her neighbors, but her career, which started in the 1940s, included about every type of acting job, from mov ies to TV series and soap operas.
She had a recurring role as a judge on Law & Order, but she perhaps was best known for her stage work.
RESIDENTS OF tHE BUILDING HAVE INCLUDED MUSICIANS PAUL SIMON AND StING
The unit, which features a fire place in the living room, a formal dining room and a Juliet balcony lining its north-facing windows, seems to have bucked the recent trend among high-end co-ops of trading at a discount. No. 11W sold for the price it was listed for in June, suggesting interest in the Brentmo re remains strong.
Not much could be gleaned about the buyer, who purchased the apartment through an entity called the Brentmore 2014 Revoca ble Trust and had an attorney sign
She had a star turn in The American Clock, a 1980 play penned by her brother for which Copeland won a Drama Desk Award.
Copeland and her husband, engineer George Kupchik, purchased their apart ment in 1988, records show; the price was not disclosed. Kupchik died in 1989.
The Brentmore, a beaux-arts building by the park at West 69th Street, currently has one apartment for sale, No. 3/4N, a four-bedroom listed at $8 million that has been on the market since last month. Anoth er unit, No. 7/8N, also a four-bed room, is listed at about $10 million, but StreetEasy says it has been in contract since last month. ■
Controversial Two Bridges skyscrapers face new lawsuit
BY EDDIE SMALLThe legal fight to halt the con struction of multiple residential towers in Two Bridges is back on.
Local Councilman Christopher Marte and multiple residents of the Lower Manhattan neighborhood have filed a lawsuit in Manhattan state Supreme Court aiming to stop the skyscrapers planned for 247 Cherry St., 265 South St. and 259 Clinton St. from moving forward. The suit argues that their construc tion violates enhanced environ mental protections that were en shrined into law as part of the New York State Bill of Rights earlier this year.
The towers, which would bring around 3,000 housing units to the neighborhood, have already sur vived multiple legal challenges. They appeared to have a clear path forward as of May 2021, when the New York Court of Appeals rejected
attempts by community groups to stop the developers from building them. The City Council and former Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer had sued to stop the proj ects as well, arguing that they should not have been allowed to bypass the city’s contentious landuse process, but the Court of Ap peals also declined to hear that case.
Marte acknowledged the lengthy battle in a statement and noted that the laws have changed.
“It has been so long since we started this fight that new laws have been passed,” he said, “and we have stronger protections in place from the environmental hazards that the city blatantly disregarded when it approved the towers.”
New developers have arrived too. The projects were initially from JDS Development Group, Starrett De velopment, L&M Development Partners and CIM Group, but only JDS is still definitively involved with the effort. Joseph Chetrit purchased
the L&M and CIM Group site in March for $78 million, and The Real Deal reported in September that Gary Barnett was buying Starrett's site at 259 Clinton St. for about $100 million.
Health and safety
The Asian American Legal De fense and Education Fund is repre senting the plaintiffs in the case.
The organization argues that con struction of the towers will exacer bate the health problems of resi dents in an area that has already been hit hard by the Covid-19 pan demic. It cites an amendment to the New York Bill of Rights enacted in January giving each New Yorker the right to clean air, clean water and a healthy environment as the main reason why the towers should not be allowed to move forward, as construction on them would de prive residents of this right.
“We do not deserve to have our health and safety targeted so that
the city and luxury developers can make money,” Barbara Kempe, a Two Bridges resident and plaintiff, said.
The city did conduct an environ mental review of the project and published an environmental im pact statement in November 2018, but this was before the new amend ment and the pandemic, making it “anachronistic” and unconstitu tional, according to the lawsuit. A supplemental environmental im pact statement is now needed, it says.
The lawsuit asks the court to compel the developers and the city, which is named as a defendant in the suit, to comply with the new amendment and to stop all work on the projects from taking place until they do so.
The city is reviewing the case, ac cording to the Law Department. Representatives for the developers did not respond to requests for comment by press time. ■
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Average Wall Street pay headed for sharp drop
Pay on Wall Street is likely to drop sharply this year due to the bear market, and re mote work is proving to be a sticky concept in an industry with deep misgivings about it.
Average pay for Wall Street workers is on pace to fall by more than 20% this year after the New York state Comptroller’s Office said last Tuesday that it hit a record $516,560 last year. A 20% drop would translate to average pay of $414,000— still four times higher than the average pri vate-sector wage in New York.
moving forward in terms of impacts possibly on assessments, property taxes and so on,” Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli told Crain’s “Let’s hope those [office-return] numbers get even stron ger.”
High stakes
The stakes are high be cause Wall Street is a dominant force in New York’s economy. JPMor gan is the city’s largest commercial tenant.
AARON ELSTEINThe fall would spell bad news for the city and state, which rely heavi ly on the securities industry for tax revenue. But the impact could be
On its own, the securi ties industry accounted for 22% of all state tax rev enue in the fiscal year that ended March 31, according to a report from DiNapoli’s office, cushioning the blow from big declines in tour ism and other key revenue sources.
The industr y was responsible for 16% of all economic ac tivity in the city last year, thanks to out size pay.
demic. Last year the average Wall Street bonus clocked in at nearly $258,000, but the city has estimated those checks will shrink by at least 22% this year.
more profound if employees con tinue working remotely. Despite edicts from banking companies to return to city offices, fewer than 60% have.
“This has implications long term for the office sector and for the city—which obviously is a concern
ON POLITICS
This year won’t be as bountiful, Di Napoli said, because capital mar kets have gone dormant. First-half profits for banks and brokers fell by 50%. The previous two years were unusually profitable for Wall Street, thanks to the federal government’s extraordinary measures to support markets during the Covid-19 pan
New York’s share of all securi ties-industry jobs has fallen to 17.6%, about half the level of 30 years ago, as firms relocated mid level employees to lower-cost lo cales such as Dallas and Jackson ville, Florida. Still, DiNapoli noted, New York is on pace to recover about half the 3,500 Wall Street jobs lost in 2020 and 2021. Damage was mitigated by the industry success
fully moving to remote work.
Shrinking footprints
That’s a shift many banks would like to reverse, in part because office landlords are some of their largest borrowers and are on the hook for billions of dollars in loans. Shortly before Labor Day, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley summoned employees back to the office, and the CEO of Jefferies said it was time to end “lonely home silos.” Even so, only 56% of financial-services work ers were back in their office last month, according to the Partner
ship for New York City, whose mem bers said they expect the figure to increase to 61% by January.
Big employers including KPMG are shrinking their office footprints. At least for now, there’s only so much institutions can do to force people back, considering there are more than 300,000 job openings across financial services.
“Some smaller financial compa nies are using generous flexi ble-work policies as a recruiting tool to poach workers from the ma jor firms,” the comptroller’s report said. ■
Mayor tries to undo a city crime narrative
Adams pointed to rising crime to clinch election. Now he says part of the crime problem is perception
Mayor Eric Adams is frustrated these days.
His approval ratings are down, crime is still up, and the city’s economic recov ery from Covid-19 has lagged the rest of America’s. His administration has pro duced few new policy ideas of note. New Yorkers largely seem disen chanted with his swagger ing mayoralty.
In an interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace, Ad ams lamented that per ception was worse than reality when it came to a rise in subway crime.
front page, portraying him riding a unicorn through “fantasy land.”
ROSS BARKAN“We have an average of less than six crimes a day on a subway system with 3.5 million riders,” Adams told Wallace. “But if you write your story based on a narrative, then you’re going to look at the worst of those six crimes and put it on the front pages of your paper every day.”
“I have to deal with those six crimes a day—felony crimes—and the perception of fear,” he added.
The New York Post, once firmly in Adams’ corner, mocked him on its
The irony is that the most danger ous crimes are down in New York City, with the murder rate falling almost 15% from last year and shootings down close to 14%. Burglaries, robber ies and grand larcenies have all risen—the 40.6% spike in grand larcenies is particular concerning— and they have contribut ed to overall concerns about rising crime. Sub way murders have gone up as well, despite de creased ridership, and that’s been a vexing prob lem for New York.
But Adams is one of the very last politicians who should complain about perceptions of crime not matching reality. He won his may oral race last year on the premise that crime in New York was out of control. He demagogued repeated ly on the issue. He proclaimed that the city was not safe at all.
“On Day 1, I took the subway sys tem, I felt unsafe. I saw homeless everywhere. People were yelling on
the trains. There was a feeling of disorder,” Adams said in January.
Or listen to Adams in May: “I have never in my professional ca reer, I have never witnessed crime at this level.”
Historical context
As a police officer and captain, Adams patrolled the city in the 1980s and ’90s, when all kinds of crime, including murder, occurred far more frequently than today.
That isn’t to downplay the con cerning surge that has come about since the end of 2019. It’s to simply
add historical context that has al most always been lacking in Ad ams’ public remarks.
Last Saturday Adams teamed with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is fac ing a tough re-election challenge from Republican Lee Zeldin, to an nounce an initiative to flood the subway with even more police offi cers and install surveillance camer as, all in a bid to tamp down crime. It might not work. There is no easy correlation between an increased police presence and declining crime. Police matter, but so do oth er macroeconomic and sociologi
cal factors that cannot be easily tamed in time for Election Day.
Adams staked much of his may oralty on quickly reducing crime, something he has little direct con trol over.
He helped fuel the very narrative that is now undoing him. It’s easy to fulminate and criticize; it’s harder to be the executive taking the blame, each and every day. With so few ma jor accomplishments or even pro posals, Adams is left to talk about— and complain about—crime.
He earned his fate.
Quick takes
● If Kathy Hochul somehow loses to Lee Zeldin in the governor’s race—she is still favored to win— expect Andrew Cuomo to launch his political comeback in four years, promising to end Republican con trol of New York.
● The New York City Council is making a big mistake by ending hy brid work for central staff employ ees. Some are bound to quit, con tinuing the city’s brain drain. ■
Ross Barkan is an author and journalist in New York City.
THE CItY AND THE StAtE RELY ON THE SECURITIES INDUSTRY FOR tAX REVENUE
Better benefit plans help recruit, retain talent
the most from their health plan, savvy employers are opting to integrate medical, pharmacy, behavioral and specialty benefits. [They] leverage predictive analytics and proactive clinical interventions. The goal is to support employees in making more informed choices, help identify risks earlier, and eliminate duplicative services and waste.
For instance, to help improve care for people with diabetes, it is possible to use data to identify individuals who have missed a recommended annual eye exam and hemoglobin A1C test. When there are gaps, proactive outreach from a nurse can assist people to schedule these appointments,
their activity levels while making it easier and more affordable to access live or on-demand fitness classes. For instance, millions of UnitedHealthcare members may be eligible for a 12-month Peloton App Membership at no additional cost as part of their health plan, giving people access to fitness classes across various disciplines, such as strength, running, cycling and meditation.
CRAIN’S: Smartphones and computers also have the potential to improve health care access. How has virtual care evolved in the past few years? What can employers expect next?
CRAIN’S: What other strategies should employers consider to help employees access the best care possible?
lower out-of-pocket costs for employees by up to 44%.
CRAIN’S: Why are companies more focused on enhancing their employee benefits?
JUNIOR HAREWOOD: Due in large part to the pandemic, the past several years have been marked by remote work and fewer face-to-face meetings. Because of this, employers have confronted numerous new challenges when it came to supporting the health of their employees while continuing to drive business growth.
We know that a healthier workforce can help improve productivity and bolster a company’s bottom line. In fact, work illness and injury cost U.S. employers $225 billion each year. With medical care ranking as the second-largest expense (behind salaries) for employers, it is vital [that] organizations maximize the value of their health benefits to better support the well-being of employees.
CRAIN’S: It’s open enrollment season, which means employees are making benefit decisions for next year. With that in mind, how can employers make more strategic and data-driven health benefit decisions for their workforce for 2023 and beyond?
HAREWOOD: With the Great Resignation still in play, many employees are looking for—and expecting—a more comprehensive package of benefits. To help employees get
helping avoid potential complications that diminish quality of life and contribute to the total cost of care.
CRAIN’S: When it comes to wellness programs, what trends are you seeing?
HAREWOOD: Most employers offer well-being programs, sometimes with financial incentives for healthy activities, such as walking or for meeting certain health targets (for example, normal body mass index). To make these initiatives more appealing and engaging, some employers are starting to incentivize a growing number of healthy activities, including filling out a health survey, selecting a primary care physician, getting a biometric screening, meeting daily activity goals or sleeping enough. Rather than offering virtual coins or gift cards, some of these programs are seeking to spur engagement by including financial incentives that can be used to pay for medical care now or in the future.
Wearable devices and digital fitness apps can also play an important role, providing employees with daily feedback on
HAREWOOD: Covid-19 trigged an unprecedented surge in the adoption of virtual care, with the use of telehealth services so far this year significantly above prepandemic levels. In fact, nearly 90% of Americans surveyed said they want to continue using virtual care for nonurgent health needs, while 76% of employers grew their virtual care offerings amid Covid-19.
Importantly, virtual care has expanded from treating urgent care issues, such as allergies, rashes or seasonal flu, to now provide access to other types of care, including primary, specialty and behavioral. Company and human resources leaders should continue to evaluate the virtual care options available to employees through their health plan, local care providers or other virtual service providers, while looking to add emerging virtual care resources related to physical therapy, neurology and dermatology.
Expanding the use of telehealth can not only make access to care more convenient, it may also be able to lower out-of-pocket costs for consumers and reduce the total cost of care for employers.
HAREWOOD: Some newer health plans are doing away with deductibles and instead focusing on giving employees first-dollar coverage, coupled with access to upfront pricing information before people schedule medical appointments. We’ve found that by eliminating deductibles and providing clear pricing, we can remove financial barriers to care while encouraging people to select quality, cost-efficient health care providers and facilities. Many employers are offering a traditional health plan alongside one of these newer options, such as Surest™, which can help reduce the total cost of care for employers by up to 15% and
We’re also seeing more employers roll out programs focused on helping address social determinants of health, such as lack of access to affordable housing, nutritious food and reliable transportation. We know that social determinants of health—more so than what happens in the doctor’s office—can influence up to 80% of a person’s health.
Given that, emerging programs are using predictive analytics to help identify people with potential needs related to social determinants of health, and then connecting them with low- or nocost community resources to help save on utility and internet bills, child care costs and even home repair bills.
Bond measure aimed at the worsening climate crisis deserves New Yorkers’ vote
Candidates typically are the headliners for New York elections, and that holds true for this year’s gubernatorial matchup between incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul and surging Republican challenger Lee Zeldin.
But voters across the state, and across ideological lines, would be wise to pay attention to an important question set to appear on their ballot Nov. 8. ey’ll be asked to approve the largest environmental bond act in state history, a measure that would earmark $4.2 billion to help New York mitigate the global climate crisis.
e plans call for billions of dollars in investments in climatechange mitigation, for projects to reduce ood risks, improve water-quality infrastructure, conserve open space and develop recreational amenities. e state’s
electric models by 2035.
e money also would activate New York companies of all sizes to help shore up pressing needs— supporting the creation of more than 30,000 jobs, a number that could swell to 80,000 once the investments are leveraged—to address storm surges and sea-level rise, upgrade bridges and sewers, add renewable energy infrastructure, and retro t buildings to reduce emissions and improve e ciency.
THE PLAN WOULD LESSEN FLOOD RISKS, SHORE UP INFRASTRUCTURE AND MORE
public schools would even get $500 million to replace 50,000 gas-guzzling school buses with
e ballot initiative comes as the city marks a decade since Superstorm Sandy hit our shores, killing 43 people and in icting an estimated $19 billion in damage and lost economic activity.
Infrastructure improvements installed in Sandy’s wake have left us better prepared—though not
nearly prepared enough—for big storms.
A recent report from city Comptroller Brad Lander highlights that $4 billion of the federal Sandy recovery funds— 27% of the total earmarked in 2013—remains unspent. at’s a good reminder that funding alone won’t prepare the city for climate change. Leaders must proceed thoughtfully while
considering community feedback and weighing strategic priorities.
If the state’s ballot measure sounds familiar, that’s because a similar—though smaller, at $3 billion—measure had been scheduled for a vote in 2020 before former Gov. Andrew Cuomo shelved it amid the Covid-19 upheaval.
We can’t a ord to put it o again. ■
How to solve the health-equity puzzle
BY MARK USTINThe Covid-19 pandemic has taught health care policymakers that, notwithstanding e orts in recent years to increase access to quality health care for all people, the health-equity gap remains.
e gap has been particularly signi cant during the pandemic. e rates of test-con rmed Covid19 diagnosis and exposure, hospitalization and death in New York City all show substantial racial and ethnic disparities.
e gap is not limited to Covid19, however. ose outcomes re ect pre-existing di erences in social determinants of health— including education, jobs and neighborhood characteristics— that together result in poorer outcomes generally for impacted populations.
Of course, it is one thing to identify a problem; it’s quite another to come up with a solution. e health-equity puzzle is complex. For a long time, policymakers focused on coverage, the thought
being that the fundamental equity problem was that some populations had no way to pay for care. at focus has had a positive impact, but it has not solved the inequity issue. Certainly, coverage issues linger. But evidence also suggests that even where coverage is available, some people still are not getting the care they need.
Cultural competency
Policymakers, payers and providers are beginning to respond.
When it comes to social determinants of health, policymakers are incentivizing—and in some cases mandating—relationships between providers and community-based organizations that provide social supports and services.
Providers, in turn, are building the relationships, recognizing that not only is it a mechanism for improving population health generally, it also will improve providers’ bottom lines because they are being paid for patient outcomes rather than just units of service. ose e orts are closely related to cultural competency. Not only
do providers of health care services and social determinants of health need to account for the determinants, they need to do so in a way that encourages diverse populations to use available services.
Perhaps the most obvious factor is language. If people cannot nd a provider who speaks their language, they are less likely to seek out services.
It goes far beyond that, however. People also need providers who understand their cultural assumptions. On a more basic level, studies have found that patients respond better to providers who look like they do.
Cultural competency is not restricted to race and ethnicity. Several providers have had great success in providing services (sometimes in partnership with community-based organizations) that focus on serving the LGBTQ+ population. Increasingly, providers are also recognizing the value in focusing on the delivery of care to individuals with physical, behavioral or intellectual disabilities. Very often, these are the most
expensive populations, so improving outreach to them can often yield the most positive results both substantively and nancially.
A newly re-energized state Department of Health is taking aim at health equity in a much more coordinated way as part of a larger reorganization. e new O ce of Health Equity and Human Rights will connect previously unconnected resources at the Health Department in a manner that promises to focus on cultural competency and social determinants of health in a comprehensive way.
As policymakers focus more on these issues, it would behoove providers to do the same, as reimbursement systems, state grants and oversight increasingly take health-equity issues into account. A system that generates better outcomes for diverse populations would not only bene t patients but also providers’ bottom lines. ■
Mark Ustin is a health care regulatory lawyer and lobbyist in Albany and a partner with Farrell Fritz of Long Island.
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We must prioritize accessible infrastructure, especially as more residents face long Covid
BY REBECCA KARPAlthough this feels like the most “normal” fall we’ve had since Covid-19 rst arrived, there are still thousands of new coronavirus cases every day. Meanwhile, many people—including me and 20 million other American adults—are living with long Covid and its range of debilitating symptoms, which can persist for months or years.
As New York’s leaders pursue an
As an urban planner dedicated to inclusivity, I’m thrilled by the federal funding allocated to New York’s recovery from the economic downturn and pandemic. But I’m equally concerned that the money will be spent on ableist patterns that have hardened over time.
My rm works across sectors to create equitable projects. I’m always thinking about how physical spaces impact people’s daily lives. Too often I see how the issue of accessibility gets lost in the planning process.
DISABILITY ACCESS IS AN ISSUE THAT IMPACTS ONE IN FIVE NEW YORKERS
infrastructure-led recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, it is our moral and economic imperative to ensure that accessibility remains a priority, even as agencies are faced with trimmed budgets. Disability access is an issue that impacts one in ve New Yorkers—more than 3 million people. It cannot be treated as anything less than a key metric for how we judge the success of development projects and the way in which we value our people.
When we do not center accessibility, we’re not only failing to realize a vision that re ects the needs of all the people who use public spaces and infrastructure, we’re also excluding millions of people from equal opportunity to employment and participation in regional economies. e cost of excluding people with disabilities runs up to 7% of the GDP for some countries.
New York’s ine cient infrastructure building and maintenance process has resulted in an average delay of 90 months on projects such as park and library improvements. One of the consequences of the
delays is that accessibility gets held up in a regulatory maze.
For example, Gov. Kathy Hochul has committed to working with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to make 95% of subway stations accessible by 2055. Coming 32 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act, the initiative is overdue. But the time frame is an insult to people with disabilities.
No small task
Getting infrastructure built in New York City is no simple feat.
ere are structural reforms we can make to the planning process, however, to ensure better accessibility.
To begin with, the city and state should require that every policy and planning project integrate a disability access checklist, informed by the disability community.
e city and state should o er nancial incentives for developers to center accessibility in their projects. And the city needs to ensure building code regulations are updated in a way that supports accessibility infrastructure such as ramps and accessible bathrooms.
Beyond policy reform, we have to pursue a public-awareness campaign that increases opportunities for training in the private sector on
disability access, and emphasizes it as a core component of diversity, equity and inclusion training. We also should pursue learning tours to exchange knowledge with countries with exemplary accessible infrastructure, like Japan.
I shouldn’t have to ght to simply exist in this city. Yet I and others who are disabled or sick are expected to advocate to access infrastructure for which we already pay taxes.
As we reimagine infrastructure to
meet the needs of New Yorkers, we must recognize the diverse experiences of those living with disabilities.
New York has unimaginable talent across sectors, unprecedented funds for rebuilding, and dynamic and cooperative leadership. Let's be a city that builds infrastructure for all its residents. ■
Rebecca Karp is chief executive of urban planning rm Karp Strategies in New York City.
Wrongful death lawsuit bill would be a burden on minority- and women-owned small businesses
BY KENNETH THOMASGov. Kathy Hochul recently signed legislation to strengthen New York’s minority- and women-owned business enterprises—welcome news for small-business owners across the state. Unfortunately, another bill under consideration by the Hochul administration threatens to dramatically raise the cost of doing business, especially for MWBEs in a
represented entrepreneurs will be the most a ected by unintended consequences—notably, MWBEs.
MWBEs already grapple with signi cant challenges, from institutional barriers to securing nancing to a lack of peer-support networks. For construction contractors and developers across New York, there is an insurance availability and a ordability crisis due to the state’s uniquely problematic liability laws. According to the Institute for Legal Reform, New York already has the costliest liability environment in the nation, which means an expensive and unstable insurance market.
surers opt to avoid writing policies in New York altogether.
higher-risk and capital-intensive industry, such as construction.
Earlier this year the state Legislature passed S.74-A, which will expand the scope of wrongful death lawsuits, leading to a massive increase in the cost of insurance for businesses of all sizes. But as we have seen time and again, small businesses and historically under-
In recent years the pandemic, ination and a tight labor market have further increased the di culties facing minority-owned businesses, especially in construction.
is bill will only make matters worse. Businesses will be forced to pay higher insurance premiums and will be left with fewer and less robust options for coverage as in-
MWBEs sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs, stimulate local economies and lead the way for the next generation of women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color. If Hochul signs this bill, the resulting insurance increase will shutter many MWBEs for good, reduce access to government projects and damage the economy—ultimately setting back business ownership and economic mobility in these communities.
e impacts of S.74-A will be felt the most by those with the fewest resources; it’s this lack of operational, nancial and administrative capacity that creates a precarious arena for MWBEs to navigate. is
bill will only compound those issues.
e governor can continue to be a friend to MWBEs across New York by vetoing this bill—thwarting inated insurance premiums and preventing a higher barrier from
being erected because of shortsighted legislation. ■
Kenneth omas is a co-founder and board member of the Minority and Women Contractors and Developers Association.
TOP TECH UNICORNS
Ranked by valuation
Some unicorns feasted this year, while others could be starving
None of last year’s top five uni corns—Gemini, Attentive, Better, Cityblock Health and Ro—held fundraising rounds this year, keeping their valuations constant and land ing them farther down the list. But for com panies like Chainalysis, ConsenSys, F ireblocks, OpenSea and Ramp, taking the risk of fund raising in a down market has paid off.
OpenSea shot to the top of Crain’s list of the city’s biggest unicorns. The nonfun gible-token marketplace, which was val ued at $1.5 billion last year, is now worth about $13.3 billion. In January OpenSea raised more than $300 million from top VC firms including Coatue Management and Paradigm. Other impressive ascents include Chainalysis, whose valuation more than doubled from last year to $8.6 bil lion, bumping it up seven slots, and Ramp, which also doubled in valuation and up graded from the 12th slot last year to third.
So far this year there have been 176 new ly minted unicorns in North America, with a combined valuation of more than $286 billion. That’s a 50% drop from last year’s all-time high of 362 companies that crossed the billion-dollar-valuation threshold, and an almost 70% fall from their collective
$933 billion. However, 2022’s figures still far surpass all years prior to 2021, accord ing to PitchBook data.
“The VC investors that sustained these unicorns are pulling back the availability of capital,” said Kyle Stanford, a senior ana lyst at PitchBook. “Overall, all of these uni corns are in a very difficult spot.”
With a nearly nonexistent IPO market, next year could be another bumpy one for unicorns, especially those whose cash runways deplete. Once that happens, a company either can take on debt or take on the risk of holding a fundraising round that might result in a lower valuation, jeopar dizing future capital and alienating current investors.
Swedish fintech company Klarna, which popularized a “buy now, pay later” mod el, paints a cautionary tale: The company, which was valued at $45.6 billion last year, tanked 85% to a $6.7 billion valuation after holding a fundraising round this summer.
“We do expect to see more pain in terms of down rounds and unplanned financ ings,” Stanford said. “They’ll need to extend their runway to survive until the IPO mar ket comes back.”
— Amanda GlodowskiCityblock
495
833-904-2273
SamanRahmanian
NY11255
ToyinAjayi
RommIyah BayGross ToyinAjayi
$6.3 $900 Maverick Wellington Tiger Global General Catalyst Kinnevik SoftBank Group
386Health technology company
iCapital 60 E. 42nd St. New York, NY10165
Chainalysis 114 Fifth Ave. New York, NY10011
Grafana Labs 29 Broadway New York, NY10006
Ramp 71 Fifth Ave. New York, NY10003
Cockroach Labs 125 W. 25th St. New York, NY10001
Fireblocks 500 Seventh Ave. New York, NY10018
Dataiku 902 Broadway New York, NY10010
Better.com
World Trade Center New York, NY10007
212-994-7400 icapitalnetwork.com
517-213-3180 chainalysis.com
LawrenceCalcano Chairman, chief executive
OpenSea 228 Park Ave. South 347-641-9373 opensea.io DevinFinzer Chief executive, board member
MichaelGronager Chief executive
AlexanderAtallah DevinFinzer
PhilPool DanVene JohnRobertshaw NickVeronis
MichaelGronager JonathanLevin
212-812-4179 grafana.com RajDutt Chief executive RajDutt AnthonyWoods TorkelÖdegaard
805-223-3307 ramp.com
EricGlyman Chief executive EricGlyman GeneLee KarimAtiyeh
718-962-4179 cockroachlabs.com SpencerKimball Chief executive SpencerKimball PeterMattis BenjaminDarnell
347-977-5401 fireblocks.com
415-523-8837
MichaelShaulov Chief executive MichaelShaulov PavelBerengoltz IdanOfrat
646-568-7477 dataiku.com DanielBrennan Chief legal officer BridgetShea Chief customer officer EdwardBush Chief operating officer
ClementStenac FlorianDouetteau
VishalGarg
executive ShawnLow VishalGarg
gemini.com TylerWinklevoss
Dataminr 135 Madison Ave. New York, NY10016
Gemini 600 Third Ave. New York, NY10016
646-701-7826 dataminr.com
CameronWinklevoss
TedBailey
executive CameronWinklevoss
TedBailey Chief executive JasonEdelboim President, chief operating officer
$6 $729 Wells Fargo UBS Credit Suisse
$13 1 $432.12 1 Coatue Andreessen Horowitz Y Combinator
$8.6 1 $536.72 Paradigm Addition Ribbit Capital
$6 1 $569 1 Sequoia Capital Lightspeed Venture Partners Coatue
$8.1 $1,400 Redpoint Ventures Spark Capital Founders Fund D1 Capital Partners Coatue
$5 $633.1 Sequoia Capital Altimeter Capital Benchmark Index Ventures Google Ventures
$8 $1,227.87 DRW Venture Capital Ribbit Capital SCB10X
$4.6 $643 Capital G ICONIQ Capital Tiger Global Management
$7.7 3 $1,204 Activant Capital American Express Kleiner Perkins
$4.1 1 $1,050 1 Institutional Venture Partners ArrowMark
655Alternative investing financial technology company
769 2 Non-fungible token marketplace
850 2 Blockchain data platform2014
886 2 Productivity software2014
114Finance automation platform 2019
150Delivers a cloud-native distributed SQL database
2 Digital asset custody and settlement solutions company
100Connecting data and doers through Everyday AI
5,000 2 Digital mortgage platform2014
Bringing fashion experience to city real estate
City brokers come from all walks of life. We’ve seen actors, a pen salesman and a cannabis dispensary owner all find their way to real estate later in life. But few have had the journey of Laura Pomerantz.
Out of college, she started working as a stock options broker for her fa ther’s friend. She then transitioned into the fashion business, an industry she grew up in, working as a buyer of children’s apparel for Burdine’s. That’s when she met her now-husband, John Pomerantz, who was the CEO
of publicly traded apparel giant Leslie Fay. She spent the next 18 years of her life at the company.
Now Pomerantz is in her third career. She’s a real es tate broker representing clients from Bloomberg to Warner Bros.
“I have this philosophy that you never have to be stuck, that your skills are always transportable,” she said.
Years after transitioning into real estate, Pomerantz started her own business and brokered retail deals for Levi’s and Ted Baker, among other clients. That caught the atten tion of Ed Forst, the then-CEO of Cushman & Wakefield, who pro posed merging their businesses.
“He was pretty relentless,” Pomerantz recalled. “Ultimately I agreed to do it.” She is now the firm’s vice chairman.
What’s your secret sauce for getting clients?
I want to meet them in person. The
chemistry can be much better when you meet someone in person. [If I’m working with a retailer,] I wear some of their clothes or jewelry. I’ve done David Yurman, just finished something for Temple St. Clair. It’s flattering for them, but a lot of my cli ents also make beautiful things. Then they’re also interested in why you chose that specific prod uct. Then you get into a dialogue that promotes a friendly atmo sphere.
I do take them out to lunch or say, “Let’s meet for coffee or a drink.” And it does promote friend ship.
What was your favorite deal?
My favorite deal was working on the Bloomberg LP headquarters at Lex ington Avenue and 59th Street. It was an empty lot owned by Vorna do Realty Trust, and that was where we ultimately went after many iter ations of considerations and evalu
ations for buildings for Mike Bloomberg.
How did the former mayor become your client?
He was a very good friend of close friends of mine, Pat and John. I knew Mike socially, though not well, and I had sat next to him at dinner and charity things. What happened was I got this idea of where he should go build an office, and I wanted to talk to him about it.
I called my friends and said, “I want to talk to Mike Bloomberg about this,” and asked if they could arrange it. We went to see him at his original office on Park Avenue.
He wanted an office within walk ing distance of his house, and he had very specific parameters of things that he needed. Originally we started out thinking we needed a much smaller footprint.
Mike said he’d chosen someone in the organization to spearhead the office project and that if we got along, we could work together. The young man he chose was Paul Dar rah [now the director of city real es tate for Google], and he and I just formed a wonderful friendship. We worked through the whole thing.
People would wait their whole lives for this transaction. Steven Roth [founder of Vornado] built that building, but Bloomberg’s space was a building within a build ing. Bloomberg’s needs were some
thing where he could at tract the best talent, where he could walk to work. He wanted a good landlord who could un derstand the enormous tech needs of the compa ny.
A client is about to walk out the door. What’s your Hail Mary move to keep the deal intact?
Each deal is so different. I have been in situations like that, and if the client has gotten so frustrated or the landlord is so rigid that you can’t bridge it at that moment, the best thing to do is end the meeting and reconvene tomor row or the next day.
You have to take the client out of that environment so they can ratio nally think about what they’re do ing. At times the appropriate thing to do is to just walk out.
You have to try to pitch a resolu tion of some sort. What is our job, really? Always go into a meeting knowing what your issues are and having some alternatives for those issues.
What’s the most complicated deal you’ve worked on?
The Harry Potter store in Flatiron. I represented the landlord, Shefa Land Corp., and it was pretty excit ing. He hadn’t negotiated a deal
NEW YORK BUSINESS
like that in decades because Resto ration Hardware had been in that space for so long.
The building had not been reno vated for a while, and there were tremendous technological needs for Harry Potter and Warner Bros. Given that the landlord hadn’t been as involved in big retail deals, there were certain things that we had to educate them on, like the conces sions landlords give with tenants like Harry Potter.
It was complicated because there had to be some changes to the building, and that always creates a problem. Then of course you have to deal with permits and approvals from the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Department of Buildings because the building was landmarked. There were a lot of intricate negotiations and tasks that had to be worked through. ■
FA ST
where news happens
Join us to hear from Andrew Kimball, President & CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corp., interviewed live on stage by Crain’s New York Business Editor-in-Chief Cory Schouten. Find out how the agency plans to drive the next round of corporate investment in New York, which industries it is prioritizing, where the city economy is heading, and how the EDC envisions the future for public-private partnerships.
Prezzee
Global digital gifting company Prezzee has appointed Josh Berwitz as its North American President and Global Chief Growth Of cer. Josh will play a vital role in pushing for further growth and securing the business’ position as the leading digital gifting company in North America as Prezzee makes key investments across its product portfolio, technology and partnership offering. He will lead a team of 40 across New York and San Francisco.
Sumantha “Sumi”
Sedor has joined Foley Hoag LLP’s New York of ce as a Partner in the Business Department.
She has expertise in life sciences transactions,licensing transactions, product acquisitions, joint ventures, distribution & supply arrangements, strategic alliances and corporate partnering.
Sedor also has experience in corporate restructuring, venture capital, private investments in public companies transactions, corporate compliance and disclosure and corporate governance.
Attorneys John Gourary and Rachel Beller will lead the rm’s newly established Royalty Monetization Practice Group, specializing in both classic and synthetic royalty monetizations for universities and nonpro ts, life sciences companies, individual inventors, royalty funds, pension plans and other investors.
Gourary, widely recognized as the leading practitioner in the eld of pharmaceutical royalty monetizations, has been involved in this market from its early stages. Beller has worked closely with Gourary for many years on the acquisition and nancing of pharmaceutical royalty streams. She has also assisted clients with bank nance transactions, including acquisition nance, structured nance and other asset-based deals.
Kirk R. Rossi has joined Phillips Lytle LLP, a premier regional law rm recognized nationally for legal excellence, as chief operating of cer. Mr. Rossi will be a vital member of Phillips Lytle’s leadership team responsible for leading and directing business operations across the rm. He brings with him over 30 years of experience, a deep expertise in optimizing law rm operations and substantial nancial acumen.
He joins Phillips Lytle after more than 10 years as COO and CFO at Day Pitney.
Fairstead
Sally Hebner has joined Fairstead, a national purposedriven, vertically integrated real estate company, as its Chief Financial Of cer. Hebner has three decades of experience in real estate accounting and nance. She most recently served as the Chief Financial Of cer of Enterprise Community Partners. Sally joins Fairstead’s leadership team to help steer the company during its ambitious period of growth.
COMPANIES ON THE MOVE
NEW OFFICES
ConnectOne Bank East Hampton, NY 844.266.2548 www.connectonebank.com
ConnectOne Bank expands its Long Island presence with the announcement of a new loan production of ce in East Hampton, NY and the addition of Long Island banking expert Margie Meighan. The East Hampton of ce is ConnectOne Bank’s second of ce on Long Island and will be located at 14 Main Street in East Hampton, NY. This announcement comes on the heels of ConnectOne’s recent expansion to West Palm Beach, FL. The of ce opened on Monday, October 17, 2022.
EisnerAmper New York, NY 212.949.8700 www.eisneramper.com
Lurie LLP has joined global business advisory rm EisnerAmper. Founded in 1940, Lurie has 200 professionals and 24 partners in of ces in Minnesota and Florida. Lurie provides client solutions in accounting, audit, tax planning and wealth management across sectors such as health care, professional
technology, manufacturing and distribution, franchising, real estate and
What nonprofit leader Ron Richter has learned from a lifetime of helping children
INTERVIEW BY BRIAN PASCUSRon Richter is the chief executive of JCCA, formerly known as the Jewish Child Care Association. Before joining the organization, he spent more than a decade as a juvenile-rights lawyer in New York City, he was commissioner and deputy commissioner of the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, and he served for more than four years as a state family court judge.
Crain’s spoke with Richter about the lessons he has learned during his career and why children often hold little power in our society.
How did you come to your current posi tion of power?
I have sort of centered my career on working with children and families. I started out as a lawyer representing people who have issues related to their economic security. I began representing a group of women and securing them retroactive pay for what we now call kinship foster care, and I became very interested in issues related to children in the custody of the government. I got a job representing children at the Legal Aid Society for 13 years.
Then, in 2005, Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg hired a commissioner at the Administration for Children’s Services I knew. He wanted to change the way the city was represented in the family courts and asked me to come over to ACS to become deputy commissioner for family court.
takeaway for business professionals
Founded in 1822, JCCA is one of New York City’s oldest nonprofits. Its work serves around 17,000 children and families each year and bridges the foster care system, mental health treatment, family support services, the education system and early career development. JCCA has a $75 million endowment and a $120 million operating budget.
I got really into juvenile justice policy and child welfare policy from a city perspective. Then I had the opportunity to work for Mayor Bloomberg as city family services coordinator. That job entailed working with human services agencies at City Hall to address gaps in the safety net, working with Health + Hospitals and with the commissioners of the seven big human services agencies. I was appointed in 2009 to become a family court judge, and I did that until I was appointed to be ACS commissioner. I went back to the bench after Mayor Bloomberg’s term ended.
Why JCCA?
I really missed organizational management. I missed having an impact on vulnerable communities in a way that could have a broader impact than the way judges have it, case by case. I felt as though coming to JCCA would give me the chance to have a leadership impact on the people who work here, but also to have a real impact on the 16,000 to 17,000 New Yorkers that this organization impacts every year.
At JCCA you oversee a $120 million budget and employ about 1,000 people. How do you keep such a large organiza tion afloat?
I work with an impressive and committed board of trustees. I also have an exceptional executive team that has taken time to develop talented people who bring diverse perspectives to the table. They are not afraid to disagree with me and deliver their particular expertise—whether
it’s financial, programmatic, operations— and engage in productive conversations about the direction of the organization.
At ACS, what did you learn about city government?
I think I learned the importance of understanding revenue streams, motivating staff and ensuring that people feel valued when they come to work every day. I learned that politics matter in trying to advance an agenda and that relationships are critical to getting things done at every level.
What are you most proud of doing in your career in child services?
I think that I’ve been a strong proponent of ensuring that, when possible, families have access to science-based services.
In our vernacular, we call them evidencebased models. When I was the deputy commissioner of ACS, we were the first jurisdiction in the state to offer evidencebased models to families so that their children were not placed away from their home in juvenile-delinquency cases. And when I was commissioner, New York City was the first jurisdiction to offer evidencebased models in preventive services so that children were not removed from their
parents in child-welfare cases.
Why do you think so many children fall through the cracks?
We don’t have a strong early-childhood education system in the U.S. We don’t believe in the adage “an ounce of prevention,” and we suffer for it. We’re very different from other modern nations. I know people are very resistant to invest early, and children don’t vote, but we do not invest in early care and education in the U.S. The result is that children don’t get the support they need, and neither do their parents. We want folks to work, and we’ve seen a significant increase in working, for sure, but we have not seen a concomitant increase in quality child care.
What can we do to reform the system?
I think that part of reforming it is looking at early children’s development and figuring out where investments make the most sense. Science says ages 0 to 5 are when the human brain develops most critically. Government should be investing most significantly in 0 to 5. And we should be ensuring parents have what they need to support the healthy development of their child. You saw what happened when parents were
DOSSIER
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 1,000
ON HIS RÉSUMÉ Deputy attorney-incharge, Legal Aid Society (1991–2005); deputy commissioner, NYC Administration for Children’s Services (2005–2007); family services coor dinator, New York City (2008); family court judge, New York state (2009–2011 and 2014–2015); commission er, NYC Administration for Children’s Services (2011–2013); chief executive and executive director, JCCA (2015–present)
BORN Hackensack, New Jersey
RESIDES Yorkville
EDUCATION Bachelor’s in French and international relations, Tufts University; master’s in mass communication and law degree, Boston University
BREAKING THE MOLD One of Richter’s first projects after he joined JCCA was creating an early literacy program. This public-private partnership to provide individualized tutoring, caregiver train ing and community activities to JCCA’s foster-care clients inspired the 2019 launch of LEAP—Leadership Educa tion and Achievement Pathways—an education and employment project designed to support children until they reach their 20s.
given tax credits at the beginning of the Biden administration. They spent the money on children and supplemented the development of their children with all sorts of things. For some parents, they could afford a tutor. For others, it meant they didn’t need to worry about whether to pay rent or pay for their child to have enough to eat. But I do think that the benefits should be targeted, because the government doesn’t have unlimited resources.
How do you define power?
Traditionally power has been about privilege, and I guess one way to define power would be to think about the power of individual agency. Kids and families in JCCA’s care are under the oversight of many different systems: child welfare, family court. They are told where to live and how to parent, and they appear to have no power.
What do you do for fun?
I exercise four times a week. That can mean elliptical, weights. I spend a lot of time with my family, and that includes a 12-year-old daughter, who is amazing. I try to go to the beach as often as I can. ■
Gains in jobs delivering outpatient services keep city’s health care workforce on growth trajectory
BY MAYA KAUFMAN AND CARA EISENPRESSThe city’s health care workforce left prepandemic levels in the dust as it continued its steady growth through last month, buoyed largely by gains in health care services outside of hospitals, new state data shows.
ere were 630,600 people working for the city’s health care employers, including hospitals, nursing and residential facilities, physician o ces, outpatient care centers and home health care services, in September, according to a monthly jobs report released by the New York state Department of Labor.
at marks a 7.6% increase since the same time last year and 6.7% growth from September 2019, when just under 591,000 New Yorkers worked in the sector.
Ambulatory health care services saw a 10.7% rise in jobs between September 2021 and last month,
outpacing hospitals’ job growth rate of just 2.4% in the same time frame.
Robert Martiniano, senior program manager at the SUNY Albany School of Public Health’s Center for Health Workforce Studies, attributed that to rising demand for home health care services that is fueled by an aging population and the growing popularity of aging in the community rather than in a residential facility.
Home care, which is categorized under ambulatory services in the state’s data, tallied nearly 247,000 workers in September—a 13.6% jump year over year.
Also within ambulatory services, jobs in physician o ces rose 6.7%, from 60,000 in September 2021 to 64,000 last month. Outpatient care centers reported about 24,000 workers, up 6.3% from a year ago.
During the same time frame, hospital employment grew just 2.4%, from 167,200 to 172,400. It is unclear, however, how many employees of hospital-owned outpa-
tient facilities are included in that category and how many are counted under ambulatory health care services. e Department of Labor said it depends on how each hospital reports its data.
High turnover
Martiniano characterized the growth as the health care workforce playing catchup after pandemic job losses and a sign of more turnover,
not the creation of jobs. Turnover rates are higher among younger health care workers than they have been in older generations, and many of those older employees retired during the pandemic, he said.
Indeed, hospitals and other health care organizations still face workforce shortages.
e Department of Labor report does not break down increases by job title, but Martiniano said much
of the growth in the health care workforce has been concentrated at the lower end of the pay scale. For example, he said, many employers have increased hiring of lower-paid licensed practical nurses because registered nurses have proved hard to come by.
“Especially in home care, you’re not talking about a lot of high-paying jobs,” he said.
A statewide $2 minimum wage increase for home care workers went into e ect Oct. 1.
Unlike the city economy as a whole, the health care sector has recovered all jobs lost in March 2020. Health care surpassed its prepandemic jobs number late last year.
e U.S. jobs picture has been much rosier than the city’s, but it took the country until the summer to regain all lost jobs in the health care sector.
“It’s a good sign, showing that New York is at the forefront of taking care of its residents,” said Barbara Denham, senior economist at Oxford Economics. “While other localities haven’t recovered sta or aren’t bee ng up in a post-Covid world, it’s reassuring that New York is.” ■
Finding solutions to the affordable housing crisis should focus on more than just rental apartments
Last year was the busiest year in more than three decades for condo and co-op sales in Manhattan, with almost 14,000 deals in the bor ough, according to Doug las Elliman. But even this was not enough to boost New York’s national standing for homeowner ship, as the state still had the lowest rate in the country last year at about 55%, according to a new report from the state comptroller’s office.
The report is a good re minder that, although New York’s affordable housing crisis is often framed around high rents, especial ly because the majority of city dwellers are renters, opportunities for affordable homeownership in
SMALLVirtually every major controversy around affordable housing in re cent years has centered on the rent al market: the 421-a tax break, the 2019 rent law, empty rent-stabilized apart ments, the eviction mora torium, the emergency rental assistance pro gram, and on and on and on. This dynamic is also at play with the city’s con troversial real estate proj ect du jour, Innovation QNS, a rental develop ment that would bring about 2,800 apartments to Astoria, 1,100 of which would be permanently affordable.
Shortsighted focus
The focus on apartments makes sense to a certain extent given the undeniable reality that most New Yorkers are renters.
MOST reNterS WOULD PreSUMAbLY LIKE TO OWN A HOME At SOMe POINt
the city are incredibly difficult to come by as well. Addressing this should be a key part of any program or policy that aims to help make the city a more affordable place to live.
Homeownership rates are 45% in Queens, 30% in Brooklyn, 24% in Manhattan and 20% in the Bronx, according to the comptroller’s report. Single-family homes are not very prevalent in the city apart from on Staten Island, while multifamily buildings with at
City still relies on real estate taxes
DESPITE THE well-publicized strug gles the real estate industry has been going through since the pan demic began, the city’s reliance on tax revenue from the sector has ac tually increased in the wake of Covid, according to a new report from the Real Estate Board of New York.
Taxes from the real estate sector made up an average of 51.9% of col lections from fiscal years 2015 to 2018, but this increased to 54.1% in fiscal year 2021, the report says. Fi nal revenues exceeded projections by $1.3 billion for the year, driven largely by the incredibly strong residential market. There were almost 14,000 Man hattan condo and co-op sales in 2021, the highest in 32 years, according to Douglas Elliman, and the borough’s luxury market had a banner year as well with about $16 billion worth of sales, a record dating back to at least 2006, according to the Olshan Report.
That should help offset expected declines in personal income tax and corporate tax revenues, the re port says. Although real estate transfer taxes are expected to de cline that year, property tax assess ments will likely increase, accord ing to REBNY.
“This report is another reminder that the health of the real estate sec tor and the city’s finances and economy are inextricably linked,”
REBNY President James Whelan said in a state ment.
least 10 units ranged from 36% of the housing stock in Queens to 90% of the housing stock in Manhattan as of 2020, the report says.
But focusing too much on afford able apartments can be shortsight ed. Most of these renters would presumably like to own at some point—it is the American Dream, after all—so it is paramount to help them find an affordable way out of the rental market rather than just an affordable way to stay in the rental market. This would benefit the city’s tax coffers as well, as a re cent report from the Real Estate
Board of New York found that the surge in residential sales last year helped the industry contribute to more than 54% of its overall tax haul for fiscal year 2021.
Help exists Affordable homeownership help does exist in New York, to be fair. The state’s mortgage agency offers low-cost loans and down-payment assistance to help New Yorkers buy property, and a key component of Mayor Eric Adams’ housing plan is turning empty and dilapidated “zombie homes” where the owners
are behind on their mort gage payments into afford able homeownership op portunities.
But actually finding an affordable home to pur chase remains a challenge, and a lack of awareness that assistance exists is likely part of the problem. The first recommendation for how the state can help with homeownership in the comptroller’s report, for instance, says simply, “ensure that the availabili ty of homeownership as sistance is widely known.”
Factors like a lack of supply and high mortgage rates have made the current hous ing market beyond brutal for po tential buyers, including in markets that are far less expensive and com petitive than New York, and I am under no illusion that the state is just an awareness campaign away from making it easy to find a cheap three-bedroom condo in Manhat tan. But if New York wants to move out of last place for homeowner ship and enjoy the tax revenue and other perks that entails, officials should do more to recognize that it is not just the rental market facing an affordability crisis.
■
Housing-strapped city has 46K vacant rent-stabilized apartments: survey
The number of vacant rent-sta bilized apartments in the city has ballooned to 45,970, ac cording to the Department of Hous ing Preservation and Development. The figure comes amid tenant accu sations that landlords have been ef fectively warehousing rent-stabi lized units in the wake of the strict 2019 rent law even as the city grap ples with a longstanding affordable housing crisis. Landlords say the law has simply made it too expen sive to renovate and rent out the units
AMOUNT of tax collections that came from real estate in FY21
Real estate–related tax es are expected to ac count for more than $35 billion in the city’s adopt ed budget for fiscal year 2023, compared with $30 billion from all other tax sources, according to REBNY. They are projected to ac count for $34.2 billion for fiscal year 2022.
And the prominence of real es tate taxes is not poised to change going forward. Tax collections from the sector should increase by $1 bil lion in fiscal year 2023, which runs from July 2022 through June 2023.
The city estimated in its prelimi nary budget early this year that commercial buildings had kept about 92% of their value despite the pandemic and were worth about $301 billion in total for fiscal years 2022–2023. The Department of Fi nance estimated the total value of all property in the city at about $1.4 trillion for fiscal year 2023.
The figure from the city’s 2021 Housing and Vacancy Survey puts the net vacancy rate for rent-stabi lized apartments at about 4.6%, ac cording to HPD. This is up from about 2% in 2017, the survey says. The survey is the official source of New York’s vacancy rate and is used to determine whether rent stabiliza tion is still needed in the city. New York’s rent-stabilization law could be voided if the vacancy rate rose above 5%, given the amount of available housing. This has tradi tionally not been a concern given factors like the constantly high de mand for affordable housing and the assumption that landlords would be eager to get renters in their apartments.
ed that the number of vacant rent-stabilized homes in New York last year was close to 89,000, citing HPD figures. HPD spokesman Jere my House told Crain’s that number is wrong.
Record-high rents
Vacant apartments have become a major point of contention as the city grapples with an affordable housing crisis, with rents hitting re cord highs over the spring and sum mer.
landlords are ware housing units in re sponse to the 2019 law “absurd,” maintaining that it just does not make economic sense for them to renovate and rent the units at this point. The 2019 law made several changes to rent regula tion in New York, in cluding making it harder to convert rent-stabilized units into co-ops or condos and drastically limit ing rent increases tied to renovations landlords make to their apartments.
“If there’s anybody who’s running a business model based on expect ing the law to change, they’re out of their mind,” he said. “That's just bad business.”
Cea Weaver, campaign coordina tor at the tenant advocacy group Housing Justice for All, argued that landlords are not being honest about the impact of the rent law.
— E. S.
Local news outlet The City report
Jay Martin, executive director of the Community Housing Improve ment Program, a landlord advocacy group, called the assertion that
“Rather than buy into the land lord lobby’s lies, we need lawmak ers at every level to do even more to help tenants organize and fight for the safe and affordable housing they need,” she said. — E. S.
The new map pitted two senior Manhattan Democrats against one another: Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, each of whom have served roughly 30 years in Congress. Maloney lost the Aug. 23 primary race to Nadler.
Now, with only days to go until Election Day, Democrats are fight ing for their lives in districts across the suburbs and upstate, and even in one in New York City.
The New York results could af fect control of the House, which Republicans are forecast to win. Democrats’ fortunes brightened during the summer after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, but lately concerns about inflation and crime have risen to the forefront.
Below are five key House races to watch in New York.
NY-1
REPUBLICAN LEE ZELDIN is vacating this Suffolk County district to run for governor. Since 2014, when Zel din first unseated Tim Bishop, the 1st Congressional District has been in Republican hands. Recent sub urban turns toward the Democratic Party have made the district more competitive, but Republicans are still favored to hold it this year.
Bridget Fleming, a Democratic legislator in Suffolk County, is cam
paigning on protecting abortion rights and addressing the climate crisis. The district has a mix of afflu ent, left-leaning voters and work ing-class Latinos who have tradi tionally voted for Democrats. At the same time, it’s one where Donald Trump has been popular, particu larly with middle-class homeown ers.
Zeldin won multiple elections while sticking close to Trump. Re publican Nick LaLota, the county Legislature’s chief of staff, is run ning a prototypical Republican campaign this cycle, homing in on inflation, gasoline prices and Presi dent Joe Biden’s lack of popularity. He is also trying to blame Fleming and other Democrats for elevated levels of some types of crimes.
Both Fleming and LaLota oppose changes Democrats made in 2019 to the state’s bail laws.
NY-11
CAN MAX ROSE get his old seat back?
The Army veteran drove out Re publican Dan Donovan in the dis trict, which covers Staten Island and parts of southern Brooklyn,
during the anti-Trump wave in 2018. Two years later, Trump carried the district and Rose fell to Nicole Mal liotakis despite winning more votes in the district than Biden.
It appeared Democrats had drawn a district to sig nificantly aid Rose, pulling its lines north into deepblue Sunset Park and Park Slope. But the courts threw out that map, and the spe cial master eventually drew a new NY-11 that looked very much like the old NY11.
NEW YORK’S COGRESSIONAL TOSSUPS
In a midterm year that might yield a red wave, it’s hard to see how a Democrat can win a district that voted for Trump in 2020. Rose has raised funds aggressively and stumped hard across the dis trict, bashing Malliotakis for her opposition to abortion rights and her vote against certifying the 2020 presidential election results. But Malliotakis remains the clear favor ite. Few Republican incumbents are likely to lose seats this cycle; she
probably won’t be one of them.
NY-17
SEAN PATRICK MALONEY heads up the Democratic Congressional Cam paign Committee—which means he is responsible for strategizing and fundraising to protect the House Democratic majority. What Maloney didn’t anticipate, before the special master drew a new con gressional map, was that his own district would be a battleground.
Biden carried NY-17, a suburban district including Dutchess, Put nam and Rockland counties, and Maloney remains the favorite
against Mike Lawler, a Republican assemblyman. But Maloney had to survive a primary from Alessandria Biaggi, a state senator. He also earned ill will from Democrats over his decision to run in the redrawn 17th District, considering most of its territory had been represented
by a popular freshman congressman, Mondaire Jones. (Jones eventually ran unsuccessfully in NY-10, an open seat representing parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan.)
Maloney is a proud centrist, but he remains vulnerable in a district with a considerable number of right-leaning voters.
Super PAC spending might prove decisive. Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, authorized his PAC to dump $4 million into the race in one October week alone. A Democratic super PAC, in turn, has begun targeting Lawler.
Maloney, overall, has outraised Lawler and holds the edge heading into November.
Maloney losing her seat after 30 years diminishes NY’s sway in the House
BY TANEIKA DUHANEYWith the stroke of a redistricting pen last spring, New York Democrats lost at least 30 years of seniority in the U.S. House— even before they showed up at the ballot box.
at’s because a special master combined two districts—the 10th and the 12th, on opposite sides of Manhattan—to form the new 12th District. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, was forced into a runo with Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
NY-19
MARC MOLINARO, the Dutchess County executive, was a heavy favorite to win the redrawn NY-19, based in the Hudson Valley. A moderate Republican, he t the pro le of past incumbents, and Biden carried the district by only 5 points. But Molinaro’s loss this summer in a special election to Democrat Pat Ryan for NY-18, a similar district, raised questions about whether Molinaro will win in November. at race hinged on abortion rights and Ryan’s staunch support for them in the wake of the repeal of Roe v. Wade.
Josh Riley, a Democratic lawyer and former U.S. Senate sta member, has been a robust fundraiser as he attempts to re-create Ryan’s playbook. Molinaro, though, might still hold the advantage as in ation concerns could outweigh reproductive rights down the home stretch. Molinaro has run statewide before, losing to Andrew Cuomo in 2018, and has strong name recognition in the area.
Nadler won, but redistricting had set up a lose-lose situation for the Democratic Party.
“Losing a senior member of Congress is a great loss in New York, and that seniority is not replaceable for generations,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime Democratic political strategist. “[We’re also] losing someone who was able to work across the aisle, which Carolyn Maloney did successfully.”
Maloney received 24.3% of the vote compared with Nadler’s 55.3%, according to city Board of Elections gures. Attorney and former Obama sta er Suraj Patel was third, with 19.1% of the vote.
“Democratic voters didn’t like making this choice. ey were forced to make this choice,” said Bruce Gyory, another Democratic political strategist.
Contrast grew wider e candidates’ di erences initially seemed minor, but they were glaring upon closer examination.
Nadler positioned himself early and often as the best 30-year political representative for New York. Political strategists, including Lupé Todd-Medina, concur and suggest Maloney’s message failed to connect.
“It was great that she was running as a strong woman; that was absolutely the way to go,” Todd-Medina said. “But her messaging got mu ed when she talked about other issues.”
nist support. “I’m proud to endorse @JerryNadler for re-election in #NY12. When Manhattanites need a champion—someone to defend their reproductive rights, ght back against Republican bullies in Washington, and protect our kids from gun violence—they know that they can depend on Jerry,” Warren tweeted.
“Elizabeth Warren’s endorsement removed one of the irreplaceable strategic needs that Carolyn Maloney had, which was to reach women in a clear and direct fashion,” Sheinkopf said.
A trailblazing career
NY-22
WILLIAMSFOR YEARS, Democrats would try but fail to take out John Katko, one of a vanishing number of centrist Republicans, who held on to his seat despite his disagreements with Trump and the national party. Even when Democratic presidential candidates won his district, Katko managed to survive. Now the moderate is retiring from his Syracuse-area seat, and Democrats are hoping to pick up a win.
But getting one is likely to be di cult, even with Katko removed from the scene. Polling has showed Democrat Francis Conole, an Iraq War veteran and former policy adviser at the U.S. Department of Defense, narrowly trailing Brandon Williams, a Navy veteran and entrepreneur.
Neither candidate has held elected ofce before. Conole ran and lost in the 2020 Democratic primary to face Katko. Although NY-22 isn’t a high-pro le contest, it’s one of a few that could determine the shape of Congress next year.
Both candidates are running on conventional platforms, with Conole attempting to put Williams on the defensive over abortion and Williams talking up crime and in ation.
■
For example, Maloney predicted during an early August debate that President Joe Biden would not seek re-election. She issued an apology days later.
Maloney also faced sti criticism from Patel.
“Patel, the third candidate in the race, went after her, tagging [her] as having an anti-vaccine record, even though she said she changed her mind when it came to the Covid
In her concession speech on the night of Aug. 23, Maloney displayed the same energy she has been known for since taking o ce. e congresswoman, ranked as the third-most-e ective lawmaker by Vanderbilt University’s Center for E ective Lawmaking, acknowledged that having a seat at the table in uences the agenda to include “things that directly a ect our lives, our children and our families.”
“She’s been a trailblazer, not just for women, but for our city,” Todd-Medina said. “She has been a champion for our city.”
rization Act. e law provides 12 weeks of paid parental leave for federal workers. Her Never Again Education Act directed the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to develop and disseminate programs for teachers nationwide.
She also sponsored the reauthorization of the Debbie Smith Act, which provides law enforcement agencies with funding and training to deal with backlogged DNA evidence in sexual assault cases. ese accomplishments, as signi cant as they are, are not what most New Yorkers know her for. Constituents think of Maloney for the Second Avenue subway extension as well as “Zadroga,” which is shorthand for the Permanent Authorization of the Sept. 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act.
James Zadroga, an NYPD detective, died of a respiratory disease after working hundreds of hours on rescue and recovery missions at the World Trade Center site.
When the Victim Compensation Fund announced in 2019 that Sept. 11 survivors would not receive full compensation because of funding shortfalls, Maloney sponsored a bill making VCF funding permanent. She also advocated for extending the subway, a project that languished for 60 years.
vaccine,” Gyory said. “He [also] hurt Maloney because [he] was clearly in support of [Biden].”
In addition to Patel’s verbal jabs, the New York Times’ endorsement of Nadler created an uphill battle for Maloney. e newspaper is a trusted voice for many, Gyory said. “When [the endorsement] came in the form of a clear editorial, I think that moved a lot of voters who didn’t really want to make up their mind, but ultimately, they did,” he said.
For other undecided voters, Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s endorsement of Nadler may have proved decisive. Weeks before the election, the Massachusetts senator tweeted 273 characters that may have eroded Maloney’s femi-
With an extensive record of getting bipartisan legislation passed, Maloney did not only legislate for New Yorkers. Most recently she worked to remedy the longstanding issue of mandating the U.S. Postal Service to prepay retiree health care costs. is requirement has been cited as the main reason for the Postal Service’s nancial problems, which created losses and ineciency. e bipartisan-supported Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 will cancel the requirement for the agency to fund retiree health care costs years in advance and is expected to save the Postal Service $50 billion in the next 10 years.
In 2019 Maloney spearheaded legislation to address paid family leave. Portions of her Federal Employee Paid Leave Act were included in the 2020 National Defense Autho-
e Second Avenue line is intended to alleviate overcrowding on the Lexington Avenue line and give commuters between 125th Street and Lower Manhattan a transportation alternative.
“If her career rested just on Zadroga and the Second Avenue subway alone, it would be a pretty good career,” Sheinkopf said.
Maloney, who will leave Congress in January, declined to speak with Crain’s about her plans.
In the interim, no one is ready to speculate on what she may do. What’s for sure is that “she will remain a respected voice in the public square, New York and the nation,” Gyory said. “When anybody writes a history book on this period of members of Congress, those history books will treat her very kindly, and she deserves that.”
Notice of Qualification of PARFUM FRANCIS KURKDJIAN, LLC
Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 08/10/09.
Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 07/20/09. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE
addr. of LLC: 2711 Centerville Rd., Ste. 400, Wilmington, DE 19808.
Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, DE, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Qualification of FARALLON OVERLOW GP II, L.L.C.
Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/20/22.
Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 09/10/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.
DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Qualification of FARALLON HOLDCO, L.L.C. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/20/22.
Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/09/15. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.
DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES
Notice of Formation of Construction Bae LLC.
Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 06/28/2022. Office: Brooklyn County. United States Corporation Agents, Inc. designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to United States Corporation Agents, Inc. at 7014 13TH Avenue, Suite 202, Brooklyn, NY 11228. The principal address of the LLC is 557 Grand Concourse, Suite 6046, Bronx, NY 10451.
Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
Notice of Formation of LONDON OAKS ACQUISITION, LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/20/22.
Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of LAUREN J. HOFFMAN PSYCHOLOGY, PLLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/07/22.
Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of PLLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.
Purpose: Practice of psychology.
Notice of Formation of HER INCLUDING THEM LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/11/22.
Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of TOMPKINS TERRACE DEVELOPER, LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/03/22.
Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of CHARTER VILLAGE DEVELOPER, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/20/22. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Qualification of FARALLON ASIA (GP) II, L.L.C. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/20/22. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/13/11. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.
DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.
MCGOMER REALTY LLC.
Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 08/25/22. Office: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, 139 Centre Street, Unit 818, New York, NY 10013.
Purpose: Any lawful purpose.
Notice of Formation of TOMPKINS TERRACE HOUSING GP, LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/03/22.
Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice is hereby given that license #TBA for beer, wine, and cider has been applied for by the undersigned to sell beer, wine, and cider at retail in a restaurant under the ABC Law at 1154 1st Ave Middle Store New York NY 10065 for on-premises consumption. UME NY INC. dba UME.
Notice of Formation of TOMPKINS TERRACE HOUSING CLASS B, LLC
Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 10/03/22.
Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Notice of Formation of CHARTER VILLAGE PRESERVATION GP, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 09/20/22. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 30 Hudson Yards, 72nd Fl., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207.
Purpose: Any lawful activity.
Healthcare Reporter
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reason was that “bene ts weren’t good.” Companies are recognizing that they need to o er more than the bare minimum to keep current workers and attract new talent ahead of open enrollment, the period each year when employees may enroll in a health insurance plan for the following year. Employers set their own enrollment periods, typically in November, where employees elect to keep their current benets or change plans.
e Kaiser Family Foundation reported that the average cost for a Northeast employer to provide coverage for a family last year ranged from almost $21,000 to nearly $26,000 annually. In 2018 the average price across di erent types of plans was less than $21,000.
Meanwhile, New York employees already pay some of the highest health care premiums in the country, in part because of the state’s minimum coverage requirements. Insurers must cover second opinions for cancer patients, chiropractic care and more than 3,000 other procedures, making the consequences of health plan cost-sharing more consequential.
Working from home, isolating for months and adapting to pandemic life have led to di erent employee needs. According to a survey released this year by the Society for Human Resource Management,
workers 35 and younger rank mental health bene ts as being most important to them. A quarter of the employers surveyed have increased their mental health o erings during the pandemic, which Weber estimated would equal about 1% to 3% of a rm’s overall medical spend. Some bene ts that companies have introduced include meditation apps and substance use treatment.
Some 43% of the employers SHRM surveyed said they expanded their telehealth bene t options during the rst year of the pandemic.
Family-planning bene ts such as covering in vitro fertilization treatment—which are part of open enrollment—are now one of the top ve bene ts millennial employees look for, said Peter Anevski, chief executive of Progyny, a fertility bene ts startup in Midtown. Demand is increasing, and fertility rates are dropping, he said.
Anevski said that “fertility and family-building bene ts would typically be 1% to 3% of the overall health plan cost.”
Aside from health care bene ts, the Society for Human Resource Management reports that generous paid time o , remote working options and paid family leave are most important to employees. In a separate Mercer study, 44% of employees said they want to be able to work from home full time.
Communication is key
For some employers, particularly larger ones, the challenge is not pro-
viding more bene ts; rather, it’s effectively communicating to workers which perks they have at their disposal. Candice Sherman, chief executive of the Northeast Business Group on Health, a coalition of bene ts providers and health care rms, said more employees at member companies do not understand the scope of their bene t plans.
“Many of our members talk about employees saying they’ve got this issue, and they’re surprised to learn they have bene ts for that,” Sherman said. “Members are focused on how to communicate and promote bene ts.”
Companies are popping up to help employers tell their workforce the nuances of their coverage. Rightway, a bene ts company near Union Square, made an app em-
ployees can use to access their information. Nava has a search engine that employers and workers can tap to research bene ts by category. And Flume Health in the Flatiron District has created a platform that aims to help companies launch bene t plans that are more speci c to their employees’ needs.
Nava spokesman Kyle Marshall said the cost for using the company’s platform is comparable to traditional methods. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, in New York small group market bene t broker fees average just under $21 per member per month while large group fees are about $12.
As some employers wrestle with how to communicate bene ts, many are struggling to provide insurance at all—especially smaller
rms. Small Business for America’s Future, a national nonpro t, conducted a survey last month among 121 New York small-business owners to study the impact of rising health insurance costs. Each owner’s company employs no more than 500 people, and the majority employ 20 or fewer. Four out of 10 business owners said they are not o ering their employees health insurance, and 85% of those respondents said it’s because prices are too high. More than a quarter of respondents said they’ve held o on hiring to o set insurance costs.
No turning back
Now that many employers have solicited feedback, changed their offerings and focused on bene ts administration, there might be no going back.
Sherman of the Northeast business coalition predicted that in the future rms will focus even more on providing bene ts that focus on “wraparound, holistic” areas including more family-building resources, nancial wellness, child care, gym memberships and even pet care.
For Weber, a potential paradigm shift is a silver lining. Traditional bene ts packages and how they are communicated are “proving year over year to be a broken value proposition for the average American employer,” he said.
“ e cost-increase tsunami that we’re facing,” he said, “is moving employers to look past the status quo.” ■
Williamsburg company wants to give your to-go food containers more staying power
BY CAROLINE SPIVACKFed up with seeing takeout containers and co ee cups littering New York streets, entrepreneur Caroline Vanderlip sought to craft a system that would reduce single-use waste.
e idea began in 2019 with a desire to overhaul the to-go industry with reusable containers. But after months of development, it became clear that it would be a risky challenge to disrupt consumer behaviors.
Instead, Vanderlip decided on a more targeted approach: a reusable dishware program that would partner with corporate cafeterias, schools and other institutions to replace single-use packaging with containers that could be washed and recirculated. at is the premise of Re:Dish, a Williamsburg-based startup o cially founded in 2020 that says it has diverted more than 22,000 pounds of trash from land lls and other waste systems so far this year.
“We take something that people don’t really think about—the packaging that their food is in—and on an individual basis it may not feel like a lot of environmental savings, but when you aggregate that across tens of thousands of users on a daily basis, it becomes quite signi cant,” said Vanderlip, Re:Dish’s
founder and CEO.
e concept is simple: Re:Dish provides reusable containers to a client for food service. Once diners are nished, they drop those containers—which are custom-made in an Oregon plant—in bins that Re:Dish then collects and trucks to its industrial cleaning facility in Williamsburg, and the cycle repeats.
Workers process up to 8,000 pounds of dishware per day, though Vanderlip says the startup has the capacity to process nearly 100,000 pounds each day.
Currently, Re:Dish says, the rm is partnered with multiple Fortune 500 companies, ve schools and a couple of lm sets. e rm charges 60 cents per container, with varied rates for schools, and expects to close 2022, its rst year of operations, which started in March due to the pandemic, with just shy of three quarters of a million dollars in revenue, said Vanderlip. e startup expects to generate between $5 million and $7 million in revenue for 2023.
Environmental impact
e rm has crafted a nifty dashboard, called Dish Track, that allows companies to quantify the environmental impact of using Re:Dish’s services in real time. at data can be folded into companies’ emissions report-
ing and toward sustainability goals.
“We want to encourage reuse in large institutions because the impact can be greater than the individual consumer or one restaurant,” said Vanderlip. “So we are very focused on institutions and the education of the employees or students of that institution as to why it matters.”
Waste that would typically be sent to a land ll is eliminated, and the carbon emitted and water that would have been used during the manufacturing process is saved. e system is also a greener alternative than compostable packaging, which in some cases requires more energy and water to manufacture than its plastic counterparts.
“All of the environmental impacts, from a carbon standpoint, are really happening before the packaging has ever even made it to a person to use in the rst place,” said Rich Grousset, vice president of sustainability at Re:Dish. He stressed that the energy used to manufacture single-use products is consistently higher than what it takes to pick up, wash and bring back containers. “And so trying to shift people’s thinking to understand that is really important.”
Toward that end, Re:Dish has sought to green every aspect possible of its operations. It optimizes its trucking routes, with the eet
traveling less than 15 miles per day. (A switch to electric vehicles is the goal but currently cost-prohibitive.) Equipment recirculates some of the water used in the cleaning process, and the rm hopes to eventually purify and reuse all the water used for on-site washing.
When reusable containers are damaged and need to be replaced, Re:Dish sends them back to the manufacturer, which grinds them down and repurposes the akes into new dishware. e company also repurposes a plastic lm the manufacturer uses in the shipping process by partnering with aNYbag, a local company that uses the material to create handbags.
“My experience has been that people will do the right thing when it's put in front of them,” said Grousset. “ at’s what we’re seeing play out in these institutional settings where we operate: If you just swap out the single-use products for the reusables, everyone uses it.”■