Breakfast With Berdon: Perception of Safety Is Essential to New York City’s Revival

On the latest installment of “Breakfast With Berdon,” a video series hosted by Berdon Accountants and Advisors LLP and produced with Commercial Observer, Meyer Mintz, tax partner and co-chair of the real estate group at Berdon, discussed the challenges currently facing New York City with Tod Waterman, the CEO of Waterman Interests.

Waterman expressed optimism for New York’s recovery, saying that the city’s real estate industry must rely on several concepts to get the city back onto firm footing.

“First and foremost, we’ve neglected the infrastructure of the city,” Waterman said. “We need great ports, terminals, subway lines, roads and bridges. You go to other cities around the country or globally, and we’re way behind on the infrastructure side.”

Waterman also notes that for every disaster that seemed to impede the city’s growth, from the 1970s financial crisis to 9/11, recovery eventually took hold due to an influx of young talent. But that talent can thrive here, Waterman said, only if they perceive the city as safe.

“What we need to provide as a city is safety,” Waterman said. “Public safety and quality of life on the streets is a theme that unfortunately reminds me of growing up here in the ’70s. So I think a reset of the relationship between the private sector, the public sector and law enforcement is called for right now.”

Mintz expanded on this by asking about the mix of jobs available for young people in New York City, and whether the city had the right mix of employment opportunities to compete.

“New York itself is a tremendous draw,” Waterman said. “These kids all want to be in great urban centers.”

That said, he noted two additional challenges to getting young people to move to New York right now.

“One is affordability,” he said. “We have a housing crisis that means different things to different people. For young people that don’t have an income or a job yet, it’s dauntingly expensive to move here. I think our industries are actually quite broad compared to certain times in the past. When I was getting out of college, we were a two- or three-trick town primarily driven by the FIRE sector, but that has really broadened.”

Waterman also mentioned how global political disruption is strengthening the case for New York as a new home for many.

“We’re obviously living in a time of some unsettling geopolitical factors,” Waterman said. “I think that as young people in Asia and Europe think about their futures, the United States and our great global gateway cities here are attractive to people from around the world. So I’m very optimistic that we have the offerings among industry sectors for young people to come here.”

Despite all the current challenges, Waterman is optimistic that New York City will, as always, rise above its challenges to continuing evolving as a one-of-a-kind, world-class city.

“New York’s been through difficult times before, and it’s always a mistake to vote against the city, or think that there’s not a great future ahead,” Waterman said. “We have challenges and it’s not going to be easy, but if all constituents pull in the same direction, great days are ahead.”