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Dear New Yorkers,
If April showers bring May flowers, we should have a gorgeous spring after all of last week’s rain. Our staff marked April Fool’s Day with an audit designed to improve my style, but don’t hold your breath watching our Audit Recommendations Tracker.
Kidding aside, the economic outlook for April is largely positive. The U.S. economy continues to grow fairly briskly, and inflation continues to abate.
Job creation in NYC has continued at a moderate pace, concentrated largely in health care. Unemployment remains low, suggesting that job growth may be constrained more by supply (available workers) than demand. Tourism is back up to pre-pandemic levels by most measures.
Our Budget, Policy, and Audit teams have been busy over the past month, with announcements on the City’s Debt Capacity, Rent Stabilized Vacancies, Infrastructure Assessment, and more.
After three months of housing-focused Spotlights (rental market, housing supply challenges, and homeownership), we’re keeping a close eye on Albany. I’m keeping my fingers tightly crossed that the Governor and Legislature reach an agreement that will increase housing supply with a strong focus on affordability, strengthen tenant protections with good-cause eviction legislation, invest in housing preservation, and fund new rental vouchers to help homeless New Yorkers get off the street and out of shelter.
This month’s Spotlight focuses on CUNY. Since the Free Academy in Manhattan received its state charter 177 years ago this month, CUNY has been a beacon of accessible higher education and an engine of economic opportunity. CUNY schools are consistently ranked among the best in the country for upward mobility for working class and low-income students. CUNY graduates half of NYC’s nurses, a third of our teachers, and many tech workers, entrepreneurs, scientists, artists, and accountants. Unfortunately, pandemic enrollment declines and Adams administration budget cuts present new challenges. But if the students, faculty, and staff that I’ve been meeting on recent visits are any sign, I have no doubt CUNY will rise to meet them.
With gratitude for the many CUNY alumni in our office helping watch the numbers,
Brad Lander
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