De Blasio Deputy: Your Love of Local Veggies Is Good For...Manufacturing?
It's a tough combo: stimulate economic growth and build more affordable housing. But deputy mayor for housing and economic development Alicia Glen doesn’t mind. She told Capital New York there are plans to update Hunts Point peninsula in South Bronx, taking advantage of what she calls the “locavore schmocavore” craze by increasing capacity for bottling and packaging for local food manufacturers.
The city's other plans to accommodate the new, tech-savvy world of manufacturing include a “tech-talent pipeline” for instant feedback from the ever-evolving, Millennial-driven sector. Think of it as a Grub Hub for tech companies, taking orders and providing programmers, engineers and other talent to businesses, with the hope of becoming the next Silicon Valley. So how is all of this manufacturing development supposed to thrive even as areas are rezoned for affordable housing? Glen tells the skeptics to chill out, saying the focus isn’t on rezoning industrial areas, but on upzoning underdeveloped residential areas.
