If there were any doubts that New York City\u2019s economic development agency is cantering toward a new era under the Mamdani administration, its new leader, Tony Shorris, laid them to rest in his first public speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor too long, economic growth has fueled inequality,\u201d Shorris said, sharing his philosophy for the Economic Development Corporation while speaking at City & State\u2019s Economic & Workforce Development Summit<\/a> Thursday. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be that way and our focus at EDC will be to make sure it does not.\u201d<\/p>\n Shorris assumed the role of president and CEO last week<\/a>, joining an administration eager to broaden the agency\u2019s work beyond its traditional focus courting private businesses. With a goal to realign the organization to pursue economic justice in addition to growth, it took New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani an arduous seven months<\/a> to find someone he believed could satisfy the business community and execute on that vision. Enter Shorris.<\/a> A city government veteran of multiple mayoral administrations and a recent partner at the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, he\u2019s well-versed in politics and business.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n His vision for the agency, shared in his keynote remarks, aligned with many of the mayor\u2019s values. Throughout the 16 minute speech, Shorris spoke of strengthening workforce development programs and increasing worker power, argued that the city\u2019s economic power can grow alongside the economic power of New Yorkers, promised that the agency would do a better job acknowledging communities\u2019 needs and made a compelling case for why economic growth and economic justice are integral to each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to be a force for economic growth for EDC, that\u2019s what we do, but not unbridled growth \u2013 not growth at the expense of communities or opportunities or equity,\u201d Shorris said.<\/p>\n Referencing the role EDC is playing in the creation of city-owned grocery stores \u2013 one of Mamdani\u2019s cornerstone campaign promises \u2013 Shorris said the agency will continue looking to reduce costs and provide New Yorkers with public goods \u201cthat level the playing field\u201d between working people and the wealthy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFamilies, for too long, have been told to just deal with it,\u201d Shorris said of the pressure New Yorkers feel to meet the crush of housing, healthcare, food, childcare and transportation costs. While he didn\u2019t name any new EDC projects on the horizon aligned with this mission, he teased that there are more to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Economic Development Corporation, which has a unique nonprofit status, is a powerful city agency that\u2019s long been viewed as a tool to champion the city\u2019s economic growth. Over the years it\u2019s had a guiding hand in a broad range of infrastructure projects such as the creation of Hudson Yards and the High Line, expanding the city\u2019s ferry system and redeveloping Brooklyn Marine Terminal. The agency is also the city\u2019s single largest landlord, controlling over 60 million square feet of city property.\u00a0<\/p>\n All that to say, the city\u2019s business leaders are invested in its direction. And many in this community have been apprehensive about Mamdani\u2019s democratic socialist views \u2013 some outwardly hostile.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shorris acknowledged those concerns Thursday, but asked New Yorkers to suspend their \u201chard-headed, well-tested skepticism\u201d and believe in the administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHelp us deliver on those principles, whether you agree on every specific policy of the administration or not, so we can make people believe again that government can work for them,\u201d Shorris said. \u201cThat’s the new era we’re trying to create in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there were any doubts that New York City\u2019s economic development agency is cantering toward a new era…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,5868,4619,9,24,63,1413,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-349662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-economic-development","tag-events","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-policy","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}