JPMorgan asks NJ for $19 million subsidy to move 2,150 tech positions from NY offices
[or $8,800 per job].
"The NJEDA is expected to consider an application by JPMorgan for a $19 million subsidy over 10 years, the second round of tax credits for the firm in about a year.. The state has awarded more than $5 billion in corporate tax subsidies since Republican Governor Chris Christie first took office in 2010... Last year, the Economic Development Authority awarded JPMorgan $225 million in tax credits to create 1,000 jobs in Jersey City and to retain 2,612 positions... Other financial services companies that received state tax credits since December 2013 to relocate or expand in Jersey City include RBC Capital Markets, Principis Capital LLC, New York Life Insurance Co., Brown Brothers Harriman Co., Fidelity Global Brokerage Group and Jackson Hewitt Inc."
Citadel to pay $300 per sq ft in NYC, priciest rent in city history, if not the world
[...and other buildings following suit at $200+ psft]
"Citadel has agreed to pay $300 per square foot to rent. That's about 50% more than previous peak rents in the city, which had topped out at about $200 per square foot. By comparison rent in a Class A midtown office building averages about $80 per square foot... But others are hoping to at least come close. A growing pack of landlords are chasing the elusive $200 barrier—a threshold that, before 425 Park Ave., had only ever been crossed by three other properties: 9 W. 57th St., the General Motors Building and 667 Madison Ave. Six other properties could triple that list."
[New York] City's office-building boom won't be enough to meet demand;
NYC needs much more than 20 million square feet over the next four years.
"Let's start with another number: 450 million, which is the total amount of office space in Manhattan. That would make the 2015-2018 increase about 4%, which means only 1% a year."
New Newark School Chief Sees $20 Million Budget Gap
That's on a " nearly $1 billion budget.
"Governor Chris Christie sought to make the low-performing system a national model for reform, but opponents say his administration’s top-down approach has ignored community voices... In June the Republican governor, who is running for President, appointed a panel to find a way to return to local control of the state’s largest school district... Chris Cerf, who took over as superintendent of the state-operated district last month... stepped down in June from the digital-education company Amplify... In the past school year, more than 36,000 children attended traditional public schools and 12,900 were in charters... of 2,481 children seeking kindergarten spots in the first round of applications for this fall, 42% listed a charter as their top choice."
Jersey City Gets More Control Of School System
"New Jersey took over the Jersey City school system 26 years ago... Jersey City schools were the first in New Jersey to be taken over after a 1988 state law empowering the state to take charge in failing districts. The state later took over school systems in Paterson, Newark and Camden... Chris Christie’s announcement in the summer that he wanted to find a way to return full autonomy to Newark schools... The Republican governor agreed with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat, to create a task force to seek a transition to local control... Jersey City’s test scores still show a troubled picture; state data showed that in 2014, about 37% of eighth-graders didn’t pass state tests in language arts and 47% failed in math. The district’s graduation rate ticked down in recent years, to 67% in 2014, from 70% in 2011."
Two reviews on Dale Russakoff’s new book, The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools? - A book which may be unfair to Mark Zuckerberg (and to Newark):
- NYTimes (Joe Nocera): What happened to Zuckerberg’s $100 million gift to Newark’s schools?
- WSJ: What happened to Zuckerberg’s $100 million gift to Newark’s schools?
Tower Honoring Edison to Shine Again
[ignoring the fact that Edison's first workshop was in Newark]
Albany Gets Goats To Help Clear Brush
[Not sure why, but this sounds relevant]
Notable and Quotable
From Donald Trump’s Trump: The Art of the Deal (1987)
"I’m not saying that’s a good thing, and in truth it probably says something perverse about the culture we live in. But I’m a businessman, and I learned a lesson from that experience: good publicity is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all. Controversy, in short, sells."
