New York City - Overview:
Covering an area of 301 square miles and home to over 7.4 million people, New York City is a model of diversity. The inhabitants of its five boroughs: Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island constitute more than 40 per cent of the state's population placing it among the most populous cities in the world. As a whole, the city's population has become even more diverse in the last 10 years. In the borough of Queens alone more languages are spoken than in any other part of the nation. Given this international hue, it is perhaps fitting that New York City is the home to the United Nations.

Though it has largely shaken its aggressive "dog eat dog" reputation, "The Big Apple" remains a vibrant hive of intense activity. Throughout the latter part of the 1990s the city went through somewhat of a renaissance with a variety of initiatives that have led to a safer, cleaner city with an enhanced business-friendly attitude.

On the face of it, New York City is certainly not the most inexpensive of business locations, but this fact is weighed against its many advantages. Its diverse and energetic population provides a considerable pool of available talent. Its status as a global transport hub provides efficient access to markets beyond its borders, and its technology resources, including one of the most sophisticated ICT infrastructures in the world make for an efficient business environment with room to grow. Today, New York is home to the headquarters of dozens of Fortune 500 companies.

The economy of New York City clearly sustained a serious blow in the events of September 11th 2001. Over 100,000 jobs were displaced as around 30 million square feet of office space was either destroyed or damaged causing an economic loss in the region of $83 billion.

In the immediate aftermath, the Alfred University New York State Business Climate Study, November 2001 found a business community struggling to recover from a serious body blow in already difficult times. Some businesses reported drops in sales of up to 30 to 50 percent and many cited fundamental logistical problems caused by the damage to the city's infrastructure as interfering with their ability to conduct business - despite maintaining customer interest, difficulty getting products and materials in and out of the city had a negative affect on income.

A year after the event, facts and figures still say little of the total impact such an event has had on the business community. However, according to the New York City Partnership, there are tangible signs of recovery. The cleanup of the World Trade Center site was less expensive and completed in a shorter time than was anticipated. Work to repair surrounding buildings and restore commuter rail, power and telecommunications systems has enjoyed similar success and much is being built to higher standards. Assisted by more than $20 billion in federal aid and insurance settlements estimated to exceed $40 billion, many of the major employers have returned, as have around half the jobs lost.

New Yorkers, have become accustomed to the necessarily tighter security measures around the city. These have affected travel schedules, and occasionally slowed daily commuting throughout the tri-state area thanks to its heavy infrastructure of bridges and tunnels. Security alerts are not infrequent and the city's inhabitants are becoming relatively patient with the additional security precautions, which have become a part of New York's daily reality.

The downtown area was hard-hit, and it has not yet fully recovered. Many of the downtown business moved to midtown or the suburbs to find accommodations, and many are still dislocated many months after 9/11. As normality slowly returns, the face of downtown New York has changed with many of its previous occupants deciding they prefer to remain outside the area. As a consequence the city now faces the challenge of enticing fresh enterprise to the location.

Considerable challenges remain. The tourist industry continues to feel the effects and vacancy rates in the city remain high. Hotel discounts are common and the repeal of the 25 per cent hotel tax is helping to make rates even more attractive but there is still some way to go before a return to pre-9/11 levels. Insurance premiums have risen and businesses are struggling to obtain cover for acts of terror. One thing that is becoming increasingly clear is that the federal intervention of the kind afforded to natural disasters is not sufficient in dealing with acts of war and terrorism and the role of government in protecting US business interests at home is in need of review.

Whilst the after-shocks of 9/11 will be felt for some time to come, business in New York City today is continuing at a pace and with the characteristic no-nonsense attitude for which it was famous long before 9/11. In a flurry of media coverage in March 2002, Merrill Lynch moved back into its Wall Street area headquarters, a sure sign that the hard hit financial district was getting back to normal. Since then, many of the downtown area's prominent tenants have returned. Michael Bloomberg, the former media mogul succeeded Rudolph Giuliani as Mayor and is working with organisations such as the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation on an aggressive redevelopment programme. This includes plans to encourage new infrastructure for the healthcare and biotech industries among others, and incentives to create major public/private partnerships that will attract investment, development, and tenants to the downtown area.

Economy:
According to Mayor Bloomberg in a statement made in late 2002, New York City has crime is at record lows; despite the national economic downturn, welfare rolls continue to shrink; and the fears that much of the city's businesses would desert following the World Trade Center attacks have proven to be unfounded. However, the generally slow performance of the national economy has had an impact. Most obviously on Wall Street, which accounts for around one-third of New York City's economy, the national malaise has cut into wages, profits and tax revenues. Whilst expenditure levels set in the budget last June are on target, the weakness of the economy gave rise to lower than anticipated revenues and the city is facing a considerable budget shortfall. Efforts to balance the budget include City Agency budget cuts of 7.5 per cent, labour productivity measures to improve city efficiency coupled with early retirement incentives to prevent large layoffs of City workers; requests for State and Federal assistance to fund the emergency preparedness program; and reforms to the City's income tax and property tax rate.

New York City is more than able to lay claim to the title of, Business Capital of the World and frequently does. Known internationally as a hothouse for ideas and a launch pad for trends, it is the location of choice for many a conference, corporate announcement and product launch. Major mergers and acquisitions, investments, and other transactions of national and international import, both commercial and political, are conducted here daily. American Express, Chase Manhattan, Citicorp, Merrill Lynch and Philip Morris and other New York residents are among the world's largest and most influential corporations and the city's largest employers.

Like most modern cities today, New York's economy is led by the services sector with financial and health services dominating the field. This sector has experienced the most significant increase in employment over the past ten years. Within the wider services area, business, engineering, management, education and wholesale/retail services are all well represented.

The US as a whole has an $8.5 trillion economy and New York City is its financial centre. The city is home to eight of the world's top 10 securities firms, 20 of the top 25 foreign branches of international banks along with 219 international banks. In the insurance field, five of the country's 10 largest companies are based in the city. The events of September 2001 are however evident. According to the Office of the New York State Comptroller in a release earlier this year, Wall Street bonuses dropped sharply in 2002 compared with the previous year. Firms on Wall Street paid out in the region of $7.9 billion in bonuses for 2002, and $12.6 billion in 2001.

The high-tech and new media element of New York City's economy began south of 41st Street in Manhattan in what became known as Silicon Alley and many of the small companies that started there helped to shape many aspects of the industry as it is known internationally today. Today Silicon Alley refers to an area covering Upper Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. There are approximately 4,000 high-tech and new media companies, ranging from small start-ups to large enterprises and the industry is worth in the region of $9.2 billion to the city's economy.

Very much the centre of the media, arts and entertainment world New York has a higher concentration of advertising, marketing, and public relations companies per square mile than any other city in the world. Manhattan is home to the greater concentration of national television and radio networks, newspaper, book, and magazine publishers and the borough of Queens has considerable production facilities. Among the area's most well known media names and largest employers are AOL/Time Warner, Viacom and General Electric.

Government initiatives such as Economic Development Zones have attracted thousands of manufacturers to Manhattan and its neighbouring boroughs. New York City is the nation's leader in printing and publishing and the apparel industry is second only to Hong Kong as the largest employer. The world famous "garment district" along Seventh Avenue is the centre of apparel industry. However, most garment manufacturing has moved to the outer boroughs such as Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

Infrastructure:
The Port of New York has for many years been at the heart of growth in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area. Today, it is the largest shipping centre in the nation and serves more than 100 international steamship lines. Over 30 of the world's top 100 steamship companies have corporate offices in the region. The movement of cargo through the port has an influence on many sectors of the area's economy. In addition to transporting goods and materials for a variety of industries, activities at the port require tremendous in-put from financial and insurance institutions, custom brokers, freight forwarders, and government agencies. The port's terminals and piers along the waterfront are at the centre of much of the physical handling. Thereafter, cargo moves by truck, rail, pipeline, or barge to the end users.

An independent study funded by the New York Shipping Association in August 2001 reports that in the ensuing 5 years, the port will see public agency and private corporate investment in port-related infrastructure in the region of $4.4 billion.

The region is well served by three local airports. La Guardia, Kennedy and Newark airports provide direct access to more than 400 locations world-wide and, according to the Port Authority Of New York & New Jersey Traffic Report November 2002, carry in the region of 80 million passengers per year.

Within the city itself, MTA New York City Transit Authority is responsible for running one of the world's largest subway systems with more than 240 miles of track. In addition, with more than 3,600 busses, they operate the world's largest fleet, 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Throughout the city there are more than 50 transfer points where subway lines and connecting buses intersect.

Frequent and efficient rail connections to anywhere in the nation are readily available. Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North and the PATH Rapid Transit System all service two major transportation centres in the city. Freight services are provided by CSX , CP Rail and the New York & Atlantic Rail Road.

Of course, no New York scene is complete without its famous yellow cabs. There are around 12,000 of these international icons providing the most convenient and most expensive means of public transport in New York City.

An extensive highway system throughout the five boroughs connects New York City to major eastern U.S. interstate highways through a wide variety of alternate routes.

Workforce:
New York City benefits from a diverse, well-educated workforce characterised by a no-nonsense approach to business. The entrepreneurial and creative aspects of the workforce are evidenced in the fact that since mid 1995 the number of new media related jobs in New York City has more than tripled. The city's colleges and universities offer a range of educational programmes that aim to produce talented individuals in the conventional fields such as professionals, programmers and designers as well as entrepreneurs.

Some of the country's top research universities can be found in New York City. These include New York University, Columbia, Yeshiva, Rockefeller, the State University Health Science Center at Brooklyn, and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. These and other institutions account for over 407,000 full and part-time student positions.

The events of 9/11 obviously had a devastating affect on the city's workforce. Projects such as the Job Creation and Retention Program, a federally funded assistance programme jointly administered by the Empire State Development Corporation and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, are designed to ensure that the city's workforce is given the best chance of recovery. However, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in a recent analysis of statistics and comments produced by a number of city agencies, most analysts expect a slower and weaker economic recovery for New York City than for the nation. The New York City Office of Management and Budget and the New York City Comptroller's Office forecast that the City may have to wait until 2005 or 2006 to regain 2000 employment levels.

Quality of Life:
New York City has an unparalleled array of entertainment and cultural facilities and events. These include a wide selection of museums and art galleries, top of the range retail, theatre, world cuisine, entertainment and attractions. Much of the city's character is expressed in its people who for many years were considered to be less than friendly and welcoming. Today this perception has changed considerably, though the intense and hectic pace of life amid the imposing architecture that were credited with creating this reputation are still very much a part of the city's identity.