Our July 21st forum explored the most promising opportunities for New York City’s economy to regain strength and put forward ideas to harness the city’s economic assets to spark an inclusive and lasting economic recovery. Expert panelists included Margaret Anadu, head of the Urban Investment Group at Goldman Sachs; Dan Doctoroff, chairman and CEO of Sidewalk Labs and former NYC deputy mayor for economic development; Winston Fisher, partner at Fisher Brothers, co-chair of the NYC Regional Economic Development Council, and CEO, AREA15; Jelena Kovačević, dean of NYU Tandon School of Engineering; and Derek Thompson, staff writer at The Atlantic.

The wide-ranging discussion touched on many ideas, including cultivating the city as a laboratory for urban innovation; accelerating investments in energy efficiency, green infrastructure, and resiliency; organizing support for the creative economy; ensuring high-potential, smaller companies have the capital to grow; developing shovel-ready infrastructure plans to prepare the city for any future federal investment; rethinking storefront retail and developing more adaptable spaces through flexible zoning; planning for job hubs dispersed across all five boroughs; and investing in education and training pathways to expand access to the industries that are better positioned to weather the storm.

A video of the full discussion is available here.

The forum was part of the Center for an Urban Future’s Middle Class Jobs Project, a research initiative made possible by Fisher Brothers and Winston C. Fisher. We are also grateful for general support from The Clark Foundation and the Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel Foundation, and ongoing support from a number of other philanthropic funders.

This was CUF’s third virtual forum exploring how to plan for an economic recovery in New York. It follows our April 30 symposium, “Ensuring an Inclusive Economic Recovery in NYC,” and our April 17 symposium, "Planning for a Recovery: Restarting New York City’s Economy in the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic.”