MAYOR BLOOMBERG DISCUSSES HOW THE CITY'S INVESTMENTS IN TOURISM, ARTS AND CULTURE, AND TECHNOLOGY SECTORS ARE CREATING JOBS AND SPURRING ECONOMIC GROWTH IN WEEKLY RADIO ADDRESS
The following is the text of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s weekly radio address as prepared for delivery on 1010 WINS News Radio for Sunday, February 24, 2013.
“Good Morning. This is Mayor Mike Bloomberg.
“Creating jobs is our number one challenge – and we’re working every day to find new ways to spur economic growth. Last week, we celebrated major progress in three critically important industries: tourism, arts and culture and our tech sector.
“Let’s start with our tourism industry. New York City welcomed an all-time high of 52 million visitors in 2012. Our success in attracting more visitors has meant we’ve achieved an all-time high of $55.3 billion in annual economic impact for our city – money that’s helped spur new hotel construction, including 72 hotels built outside of Manhattan since 2006. Most importantly, it’s also supported a record 356,000 jobs for New Yorkers.
“This year, we’ll do more than ever to continue creating new jobs in our tourism industry. That includes an effort, which I announced in my State of the City speech, to work with the City Council to legalize for-profit youth hostels. It will help us attract 175,000 more young tourists each year and support an additional 1,000 jobs. We’ll also launch a new effort to promote neighborhoods in all five boroughs. All of that will help us meet our new goal of attracting 55 million visitors and achieving $70 billion in economic impact by 2015.
“Another area where we’re seeing record growth is in arts and culture. Tourism is a big reason why – because half of all tourists to our city come specifically for arts and culture. They help support nearly a quarter-million ‘creative sector’ jobs in our city. We’re committed to keeping that sector growing – as evidenced by our $100 million investment in expanding the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District – which has the Brooklyn Academy of Music at its heart. Last week, we honored major cultural leaders in our city, including Harvey Lichtenstein, the District’s visionary and creative champion, who was BAM’s longtime executive director.
“Last week, I also visited the headquarters of a tech news company, Buzzfeed, to unveil our latest strategy to connect more New Yorkers to jobs in the growing tech industry. For instance, we’re launching a new website – www.WeAreMadeinNY.com. It not only builds on our interactive jobs map, which shows 900 local start-ups with 3,000 job openings. It also provides resources for entrepreneurs, like information about finding low-cost office space, and help navigating the permits and requirements for doing business in the city. And we’re launching a subway and bus ad campaign to spread the word about WeAreMadeInNY.com to all New Yorkers.
“Our tourism, arts, and tech strategies are critical to diversifying our city’s economy and creating jobs for more New Yorkers of all backgrounds.
“This is Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Thanks for listening.”
