This may be a mixed blessing...particularly as Mayor Bloomberg is on record as saying he would like to get rid of the Garment District --you should pardon the expression-- "Wholesale"--because he thinks Manhattan should basically be as geared towards luxury housing wherever it can be created, knocking out all historical elements of the City in doing so..
IMPORTANT UPDATE; I did not realize that Mayor Bloomberg has reconsidered his earlier statements and is now acting amenable to seeing what can be done-- to quote a recent report:
Of course, saving the Garment District is about more than the decisions made by a single designer—and part of the recipe is having political support, not just in words, but actions. Earlier this year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg opted to throw his weight behind some fresh incentives aimed at revitalizing the Garment District in order to keep Fashion Week (which generates more than $800 million annually for New York City) vibrant and to help ensure that more of the clothing shown on its runways is not only designed, but manufactured, here. Ideas include launching a fund that emerging designers can tap into to help finance their new collections—as long as they are produced in the city. There’s also a plan afoot to help talented designers acquire business skills, offering them a mini-MBA course in partnership with the Fashion Institute of Technology, or simply teaching them how to run a business, including marketing, operations, and financial management skills.
Well, change is inevitable, but maybe there is a more even handed approach than this...it looks like enough people are getting concerned now, though, and I am beginning to feel better about all this...
In THIS case, I feel the renovation done was splendid and more work like this would be very much welcome for the area...
I would like here to insert a posting from the Municipal Art Society of New York (from 2011))
(Note: Unforunately, there is a small glitch in this posting in that sometimes the text from their report gets cut off at the right hand side...Dang, I don't know why things like this happen...but I think you can guess what has been lopped off from context. (L.K.)
Fashioning the Future: NYC’s Garment District
The fashion industry is an essential part of the economic and cultural vitality of New York City. In 2010 the industry accounted for 4.6% of the country’s total fashion employment. This is almost equal to finance, where NYC accounts for 5.6% of the nation’s financial services jobs; or media and entertainment, where 5.1% of the American jobs in that sector are located in NYC. But numbers are only one part of the story. As many researchers have documented the Garment District is one of the few remaining manufacturing and design clusters where young entrepreneurs can launch a company at the same time that a recent immigrant can put their skills to use and begin to climb the economic ladder.Over the last year MAS has conducted case studies, gathered new data, interviewed dozens of experts, compiled other studies of the fashion industry, researched the history and explored a variety of policy recommendations. The recommendations outlined in our report flow from a careful recording of the history of the fashion industry, an examination of our competitors, and a thorough analysis of the competitive advantages of the Garment District.
These recommendations offer an agenda for a conversation that needs to continue to develop between the stakeholders. Ultimately lasting solutions for supporting the fashion industry and the Garment District will emerge from the creativity and energy of those that helped make NYC the fashion capital of the world. The costs of doing nothing are lost jobs, missed opportunities for strengthening a vital industry, and the erosion of a sector of the economy that inspires entrepreneurship and helps shape NYC’s identity.
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