Industrial Land Squeeze

When Mayor Bloomberg came into office in 2002, New York City had 12,542 acres of land where manufacturing businesses could legally operate. Today, thanks to zoning changes, it has fewer than 10,746, and another 1,800 acres would be converted to other uses under proposed rezonings  If the planned rezonings go through, New York
City will have lost 20 percent of all its manufacturing space in the span of just a few years.

Less manufacturing space means fewer manufacturing jobs. Industrial jobs are, for the most part, good jobs for working-class New Yorkers—in New York City they pay $49,000 a year on average, compared with $34,000 for retail positions.

This map (click to download) shows the extent of erosion of industrial land through recent zoning changes, the location of semi-protected Industrial Business Zones, and the impact of planned future rezonings of industrial land to other uses.

For more details on New York's industrial land loss, see the Pratt Center Issue Brief "Protecting New York's Threatened Manufacturing Space."