Michael Bloomberg Archive

When I attended a hearing at City Hall in NYC last year, the discussion was centered around how the city government can help tech startups grow and prosper in NYC. While I moved my startup out of NYC this summer, it’s still great to see progress on NYC growing as a place for technology. Most of the discussion revolved around creating “incubators” where startups can begin their life and grow until the point when they need their own larger office space.

Today NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s office has announced the upcoming launch of a new incubator in the Bronx located at the BankNote Building at 890 Garrison Avenue. The location appears to be a bit of a walk from the 6 train at Hunts Point Avenue.

Reading the announcement, the incubator feels more like an office sharing than a Y Combinator-style incubator. The space will hold bi-weekly networking events and the city has partnered with Baruch College to provide mentoring and other business support services.

Continue reading “Sunshine Suites Gets NYC Deal To Create Bronx Startup Incubator” »

Editor’s note: This post was authored by Tony Bacigalupo who runs the New Work City coworking location in NYC.

Today, New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, outlined the city’s plans to boost the media industry in NYC in a variety of ways as part of MediaNYC 2020, which was originally announced in February.

Most notable and relevant to us, of course, is the effort to build a “Hive” space for independent media makers and other independent workers. The overlap with our ongoing efforts with New Work City and the Runway Project is obvious, so seeing the city make an increasing effort in this area is exciting for us. This, in combination with the city’s announced efforts earlier this year at fostering entrepreneurial growth, is beginning to add up to a real, noticeable effort on the part of the Mayor’s Office, the EDC, and others to foster healthy entrepreneurial growth in the city.

Creating an entrepreneur-friendly ecosystem

Effective spaces do two things: they help new businesses get connected and grow, and they provide a fertile ground for new partnerships to be discovered an evolve. We’ve already seen that progress in our community, where members have formed partnerships to start new initiatives such as LaidOffCamp and Zeitheist, among others. Freelancers, too, have found work in meeting and working alongside their colleagues, and through referrals that we pass along.

Continue reading “Bloomberg’s Announcement on MediaNYC 2020” »

Update: We’ve received the following info regarding the briefing tomorrow: The meeting will take place in the Committee of the Whole Room, City Hall, New York, NY on Wednesday, July 30that 11:00 am. This is a public meeting and all are welcome to attend. For further information please contact Kunal Malhotra, Director of Legislation & Budget, 212-788-6975 or Kunal.Malhotra@council.nyc.gov 

Matt Hamblen is reporting that a decision has been made here in NYC not to create a municipal WiFi network. Tomorrow a private consulting firm, Diamond Management & Technology Consultants, will present the results of their feasibility study.

From Computerworld:

While the consultant may offer a concrete plan for broadband in the city, Malhotra said it is already clear to the advisory committee that wireless networks won’t be used. "We’re not going to go the direction of a Minneapolis or Philadelphia in New York," Kunal Malhotra said in a telephone interview today. "We don’t think municipal Wi-Fi will succeed."

Instead the idea would be to take a technology fund that already has $4 million from Verizon and push Time Warner Cable and Cablevision to each put in another $4 million. The idea is to help low-income NYC residents get affordable high-speed Internet access. Malhotra said they weren’t so interested in the type of technology used (wired or wireless) but more importantly getting people access to computer training and job skills.

On a side note, can the wireless carriers please start to provide access on subway platforms? Not in the tunnels – I don’t want 100 people in each car on the phone, but would love some access while waiting for the train. Considering that all stations have some easy path to light, can’t they just drop some repeaters down the chute and flip a switch?!?!

Furthermore, isn’t there a way to leverage the new bus shelters to become WiFi pods? C’mon NYC let’s move forward here!