Neil A. Carousso produces NewsNation original “Kurt’s Country” – a celebration of country music and a slice of Americana with host Kurt Bardella.
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NYC Comes to Grips with New Normal, Changes Ahead for COVID-Battered Economy
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The changes brought on by COVID-19 are being cemented this year.
As cases and hospitalizations continue to soar amid a new wave fueled by the highly contagious Omicron variant, companies have been forced to nix plans to bring remote workers back to the office. The longer people work from home – some for nearly two years – the more difficult it will be to get them back into the workplace, said Kathryn S. Wylde, president and chief executive officer of the Partnership for New York City.
“It’s a big setback in the sense of the psychology more than the economy,” she said. “As long as people are functioning remotely and buying their stuff on the Internet rather than patronizing our local stores, we’re going to see a slowdown in the recovery of our brick-and-mortar economy.”
On the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank, Wylde told Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso that employers are facing the reality that remote work is here to stay.
“Our survey says 80 percent of companies are looking at what’s called a hybrid work schedule where people will at least work two or three days in the office, the other days at home, and that’s going to be the new normal post-pandemic,” the business leader said.
She told WCBS 880 many younger people prefer working remotely, but they’re missing out on mentorship. Partnership for New York City members JP Morgan Chase & Co, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have all continuously delayed their return to the office despite their leaders being staunch proponents of in-person work.
“We’ve had a Manhattan-centric economy for a very long time, at least since the 1970s,” said Wylde, noting a seismic shift in the local economy because of the pandemic.
As the head of the city’s foremost business group, Wylde has had numerous conversations with Mayor Eric Adams since being elected. Their professional relationship goes back years since Adams served in the NYPD, and later, Brooklyn Borough President. She told Connolly and Carousso the Adams Administration is considering new ways of spurring growth in neighborhoods outside Manhattan where people have been working from home.
“So, I think your point that we’re going to see business interests and real estate interests across the five boroughs actually benefit over the long-term of the de-concentration of economic activity across the city is very appropriate,” said Wylde.
The Partnership for New York City reports about 19 percent of Manhattan office towers are vacant. Wylde believes many of the old buildings will be torn down and replaced by residential apartments.
“There are a number of old buildings (in Midtown East) that don’t lend itself to residential conversation or any other conversation that will probably come down as you’re seeing happen with the RXR (Realty) project where they’ve taken down the Grand Hyatt and they’re going to rebuild a whole new setting that includes all these mixed-use and entertainment to retail as well as office structures,” she said, adding, “That’s going to be the plan of the future.”
New York City’s unemployment rate of 9 percent is more than double the national average of 4.2 percent. New York has added back a little more than half the jobs it lost in the pandemic, according to the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics.“We still have 360,000 people who have lost their jobs during the COVID and may not be qualified – probably most are not qualified – for the available job openings,” said Wylde.
She told Connolly and Carousso that Mayor Adams has been all ears on solutions.
“Closing that skills gap is another priority he has, and rather than telling us how he’s going to do it, he’s asking us how we can do it together with employers, with entrepreneurs, how we can do this together.”
Wylde said on the Small Business Spotlight the mayor wants to start internships for high school students and improve job training for college students to get them jobs in their hometown.
The business group is also working with the city to connect small businesses with big corporations as clients.
“Individual businesses have their own set of procurement with small and minority-owned businesses, but often, if they’ve got somebody good, they don’t want to share them or that small business may not have access to the support and the financing they need to grow and serve more customers,” explained Wylde.
She is hopeful Mayor Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul will see the value in unlocking city and state resources to help small businesses meet the demands of big companies as vendors.
“We have to organize it and create a system,” she said of the vetting process.
See more on the reshaping of New York City’s economy on the Small Business Spotlight video above.
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New Scholarship Assists NY Students with Dream Internship on Capitol Hill
By Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — New York college students can apply for the opportunity to work in Congress next semester.
A new scholarship will be awarded to State University of New York (SUNY) students who need financial support to intern in Washington. It is offered by the Former Administrative Assistant of the Year Award (affectionally called FAATY) in partnership with SUNY and the New York State Society.
2021 FAATY honoree Kevin Fogarty, former chief of staff to retired Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and co-founder of Ambrose Partners, told WCBS 880’s Neil A. Carousso the interns will have the opportunity to learn from veteran Capitol Hill staffers.
“This really gives these individuals an opportunity to see things that they normally would not do or be able to see,” Fogarty said. “It also allows them to create relationships not only with this office, but with other offices, and also with former chiefs of staff, too, who can help mentor these students and try to point them in the right direction for something they’re interested in.”
Interns will be assigned to an office of a member in the New York Congressional Delegation.
Fogarty invites SUNY students who are interested in learning more about the internship to contact him directly via Ambrose Partners’ website.
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Decision Makers Exclusive: Marriott President Says ‘Bleisure’ is the Future of Travel
In Best Of, Featured, Guest, Interview, Latest, News Stories, Technology, The World, Top News, videosProduced by Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (Bloomberg/1010 WINS) — While travel lovers may still have the COVID-19 pandemic blues, one hospitality industry leader recently joined 1010 WINS and Bloomberg to explain why the future of travel looks bright as we head into 2022.
Marriott International President Stephanie Linnartz told hosts Carol Massar and Larry Mullins in an exclusive Bloomberg/1010 WINS Decision Makers interview that “Bleisure,” or mixing business and leisure travel, is poised to be the future of the industry.
“I’m more bullish about the future of travel and my company than I’ve ever been,” she said.
Near the start of the pandemic in April 2020, Marriott – a hospitality company that operated 2,149 properties as of the end of last year, including JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis and W Hotels – saw business drop by 90 percent. Lockdowns and travel restrictions severely curtailed travel around the globe.
Since most of the company’s employees work on-site, around 80 percent were furloughed, laid off or lost their jobs when the pandemic hit and 25 percent of Marriott’s hotels were closed.
“It was really the most unprecedented, devastating event to ever hit our industry and other related industries,” said Linnartz, who has been with the company for 24 years.
However, she said the company worked quickly and creatively to adapt. When travel was restricted, this often meant entering the Marriott Bonvoy brand into partnerships with companies such as UberEats.
Now that travel has opened up more, Linnartz said she can see people eager to hit the road more than ever.
“We have really entered into a phase of recovery in the travel business,” Linnartz told WINS and Bloomberg. “I really think that travel is part of the human condition,” she added.
With the pandemic, the hotel experience has also changed, Linnartz said. Heightened cleanliness procedures and more features, such as check ins and room service, are offered via mobile devices.
“That’s something I think that’s going to stick,” said Linnartz of the technological advances spurred by COVID-19. Yet, she said it won’t replace the “human element” necessary to make travel great.
Going forward, the company is also planning to focus on some initiatives launched before the pandemic: becoming more environmentally friendly as well as offering high-end rental properties and yachts.
In 2019, Marriott International announced it would replace single-use toiletry bottles of shampoo, conditioner and bath gel in guestroom showers with larger, pump-topped bottles to reduce landfill waste. As of that August, the larger bottles were already in use at around 1,000 North American properties.
Another project from 2019 is the Marriott rental property program. Unlike other similar services offered by companies like Airbnb, Marriot properties are only premium or luxury, with high standards for amenities. Since the program started, offerings have grown from 2,000 properties to around 50,000.
“Things are moving in the right direction,” she said. “Travel is coming back in a major way.”
A remaining challenge for the industry has been finding staff amid a labor shortage, but Linnartz said Marriot’s commitment to a solid work culture and offering opportunities for advancement has helped prevent high turnover.
“Our culture at Marriott has always been our secret sauce,” she said.
“When you had a job at a place like that, you know, you were big stuff in the neighborhood you had a pride in doing that,” said Mullins, reminiscing about his time as a Marriott employee in Orlando, Fla.
As Marriott continues to look for ways to make work experiences for its associates positive and shaped to today’s challenges, Linnartz can also see how new, flexible work schedules in other industries are impacting the travel business.
“Bleisure,” is growing because people can work remote and take longer vacations, she explained.
Another challenge for the travel industry is the recent surge in omicron variant COVID-19 cases, which has set off mask mandates in the U.S. as well as some international travel restrictions.
Now that Marriott has weathered one part of the pandemic storm, Linnartz has high hopes for the future.
“From crisis comes creativity,” she said.
Decision Makers is a joint production from Bloomberg and Audacy – the parent company of 1010 WINS. It is produced by Neil A. Carousso.
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Long Island High School Prepares Students for Life and Business through Personal Finance Course
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
MINEOLA, NY (WCBS 880) — A private high school on Long Island is teaching financial responsibility – a real-world skill people often learn on their own.
Chaminade High School in Mineola requires a two-year financial literacy course for juniors and seniors. The class aims to prevent students from forming bad habits at a young age.
“I think for many of us, we learned how money works just by making the mistakes along the way and making those first decisions on our own,” said Chaminade president Brother Thomas Cleary who implemented the curriculum after Bloomberg proposed the idea in 2014. The financial firm sponsors the course and the school’s business center.
“We really want to empower our young men here to have the knowledge of how their money works before they actually have to press that button and put it into action,” he said.
A number of business leaders, including Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, have said they wish they had been able to take a finance class in high school. Bro. Thomas told WCBS 880 he would connect anyone interested in starting a financial literacy course at their school with Chaminade’s representative at Bloomberg.
Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso look at how sound financial principles apply to running a business on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank. Entrepreneurship can lead people down a path to financial freedom, but operating a business well requires financial discipline, as Chaminade’s class addresses.
“We have a number of young men, who are still in college, who’ve started their own businesses and have said that this financial literacy course really helped them navigate the ups and downs of starting a business while a college-aged student,” Bro. Thomas said. “We’re seeing in real-time the benefits of this course, and I think over the long-term, the benefits of our young men going into the business world with a solid understanding of how money works and how to make it work better for themselves and for our society is a win-win for everybody.”
The class focuses on saving for retirement, investing and avoiding credit card debt. Students at the all-boys Catholic high school also learn about the benefits of different types of investment accounts, including Roth IRAs and 401(k)s, and partake in a stock market competition in which the teens begin with a faux balance of $1 million to purchase stocks.
“You walk in the hallway, you’ll see kids checking on their iPad what their investment is doing that day and where it’s going,” the school president said of the enthusiasm he has witnessed first-hand. “These are 17, 18 year old kids who are really interested and that’s how the teachers keep them really interested in the course.”
The students monitor their portfolios through the semester with a close eye on movements in the market in real-time. The course’s instructors are experienced Wall Street professionals who bring their real-world experience into the classroom to relate how macro decisions affect people on a personal level.
“You know, where the market goes, it affects not only interest rates but how that affects mortgage loans and credit card debt and just the economy globally,” noted Bro. Thomas. “I’ve seen the instructors take one really minute detail in the news that day – you know, why did the stock go up or down – and they just show the ripple affect across the globe in so many different sectors.”
He told Connolly and Carousso that Chaminade’s objective is to provide a financial toolkit and a foundation students can build upon in their professional careers and personal lives.
“I got one email recently saying that his course at Chaminade was probably one of the most influential courses he had in terms of helping him decide what he wanted to study and where his passion was,” Bro. Thomas said.
See ideas on how to teach your kids about financial responsibility and get book recommendations for the holidays to make learning fun and engaging on the Small Business Spotlight video above.
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Small Business Comeback Tour: PSE&G Offers Rebates to NJ Businesses that Improve Energy Efficiency
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW JERSEY (WCBS 880) – PSE&G is incentivizing small businesses in New Jersey to be more energy efficient.
The utility company is offering rebates to retailers, restaurants, convenience stores and others that make improvements to help the environment.
“We’re the only business that wants you to use less of our product,” said Karen Reif, PSE&G’s vice president of renewables and energy solutions.
The utility is expanding programs that have saved customers a combined $350 million, according to Reif.
“Many New Jersey businesses are missing out on opportunities to improve their facilities, reduce maintenance costs and lower operating costs,” she told WCBS business reporter Joe Connolly.
Most modernizations to electric and gas appliances qualify for PSE&G’s rebates, including HVAC systems, lighting, heating and cooling units. The utility will send a representative to inquiring businesses to make recommendations that could save customers more than $100 per month.
“The best part is it’s good for the environment so it’s a win-win for everybody,” said Reif.
PSE&G offers 0 percent on-bill financing. Typically, the upfront costs of long-term energy and money-saving improvements are deterrents for businesses and individuals. The energy company is hopeful their incentives will encourage New Jersey business owners to make such modernizations.
See how PSE&G can help your business save energy and money and contact them at BizSave.PSEG.com.
PSE&G is the proud sponsor of the WCBS Small Business Comeback Tour with Joe Connolly.
