Tech:NYC Digest: December 9

December 09, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Friday, December 9, 2022

Happy Friday! We’re back with another “Friday Five” roundup of our top stories in New York tech.

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The Hour of Code (AVC)

We wrap up Computer Science Education Week today, and Tech:NYC chair Fred Wilson writes about the Hour of Code, alway a highlight of the week’s events each year. The hour introducing NYC students to computer science through a hands-on exercise always gets them excited about engineering — and it’s a proof point for why CS education should be in every public school. Programs like this are an important component in creating the pathways for New Yorkers to get the well-paying careers they want.

Enterprise software is one of the bright spots in the city’s tech scene (Crain’s New York Business)

Q3 data shows that customer cutbacks for SaaS solutions largely haven’t materialized, and NYC-homegrown companies like MongoDB, Datadog, and UiPath are inking new partnerships that bring some stability to predictions that 2023 will be a challenging year for the economy.

Mayor Adams’ Plan for NYC’s Housing Crisis Would Relax Rules for Developers (New York Times)

At Tech:NYC, we spend a lot of time mobilizing our network to support policies that make the city a place where tech talent (and indeed all New Yorkers) want to live. Affordable housing is at the top of that list, and this plan — 111 detailed action items — will significantly speed up new construction (as well as office-to-housing conversions). The result: 500,000 new units over the next ten years. It’s an ambitious goal we’re thrilled to see come to action.

Joby Partners With Aviation High School to Train eVTOL Technicians (Flying)

Aviation High School in Long Island City may be one of the city’s coolest public school programs (the classrooms are actual aircraft hangars!), and Joby’s new partnership will help train students interested in aerospace careers with their latest all-electric air taxis. Graduates from Aviation also account for a significant share of the industry’s technical workforce, so the initiative will also go a long way in ensuring these students build careers here and remain economic contributors to their local neighborhoods.

The Best Pizza in the World Can Be Found in One Square Mile of Williamsburg (Grub Street)

Should Tech:NYC put together a pizza crawl? (That’s a rhetorical question, as the answer is an obvious ‘yes.’)

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