Tech:NYC Digest: June 8

Tech:NYC Digest: June 8

June 08, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes

Tuesday, June 8, 2021In today’s digest, why crime has emerged as the top issue two weeks before Primary Day, the growing confidence in return-to-office dates, and the 10 things NYC’s mayoral candidates can’t live without.Was this digest forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

Occupying a lot of Mayor de Blasio’s attention — and now two weeks away from Primary Day, just as much from the mayoral candidates — has been crime and public safety. The news cycles have recently been dominated by an uptick in subway attacks and a spike in shootings and gun-related fatalities, not to mention the surge in hate crimes, particularly against Asian Americans, through the last year of the pandemic.

  • By the numbers: According to the NYPD, during the month of May, crime across the city rose 22 percent over the prior year. Robberies were up 47 percent, shooting incidents were up 73 percent, and hate crimes against Asian Americans have increased a staggering 335 percent this year when compared to the same period last year. (NYPD)

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea believes the uptick has something to do with bail reform — laws that took effect in January 2020 to do away with bail requirements for certain non-violent misdemeanors and to make it easier for offending New Yorkers to be released soon after arrest. (Newsday) But according to a report released by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice in January, between 95 and 97 percent of the tens of thousands of New Yorkers who were arrested and charged with a crime in 2020 were not rearrested for another crime while awaiting trial. (Gothamist)

What about COVID? The Vera Institute’s Jullian Harris-Calvin has drawn attention to the overlap of communities that have experienced disproportionate rates of unemployment and economic uncertainty due to the pandemic and disproportionate harm due to gun violence. (PBS NewsHour) It doesn’t help that programs and activities working on community safety, like afterschool and violence prevention programs, have been closed or significantly limited. 

A job for the next mayor: All of this has brought crime and public safety to the center of the mayoral race — a new NY1/Ipsos poll shows that rising crime has overtaken the COVID-19 pandemic as the most important priority for the next administration.

  • All of the candidates have been vocal about their plans not only to curb the violence, but also to improve community-police relations and better support training, accountability, and mental health services. (New York Times) 

  • It came to a head this past week with how to handle the rise in homelessness and public safety concerns around Washington Square Park. Mayor de Blasio defended an enforced 10pm curfew, which resulted in violent confrontations with police and 23 arrests last weekend. (New York Times) 

Our takeaway

: Making New York City safe is a fundamental role of government. We must do everything possible to protect and support disadvantaged communities experiencing the worst of the violence. It’s also an economic imperative. When broad daylight shootings happen in Times Square, people may fear going to work and tourists will question whether the city is safe for them and their families. As we look ahead to reopening and recovery, that can have rippling effects throughout every borough.

With the vaccination rate among NYC adults on the verge of reaching 70 percent, employers are signaling more optimism about return-to-office plans, according to the latest survey on work trends in the city. (ABC New York)

  • The survey, conducted by the Partnership for New York City between May 17 and June 2, polled major employers about when workers will start coming back in regularly, how full their spaces will be, and what sort of protocols will be in place when they do.

Two waves of returns: The end of July will see the first wave — 29 percent of employees are expected to return by then — but the second (and much larger) wave will come around Labor Day. The total share of office employees expected to return by the end of September jumps to 62 percent.

  • That’s a 37 percent increase from March, when surveys indicated only a 45 percent return rate by the same time. But the caveat is that, for those 62 percent planning a return, it will only be for three days per week. (Commercial Observer)

Other polling shows that return timelines depend on industry, company size, and testing or vaccination policies:

  • 70 percent of real estate employees are already back in office, and financial services expect more than 60 percent will be back in September, up from the previous estimate of 50 percent. (Real Estate Weekly) Tech employers, on the other hand, expect 40 percent to return by the same time, which is actually down from the previous estimate of 51 percent.

  • Larger employers are bringing employees back at a slower pace. Employers with fewer than 500 employees expect 83 percent of employees in the office by September, compared to 52 percent for employers with over 5,000 employees.

  • While 72 percent of employers will not require returning employees to be vaccinated, 43 percent said they would restrict unvaccinated employees’ attendance at in-person or client meetings, as well as for business travel.

But there are hurdles: In ranking what employers think are the greatest impediments to a return: besides uncertainty over virus numbers itself, public transit safety and worker desire to continue WFH, crime and public safety, as well as school and childcare obligations surfaced as concerns for resuming an in-person schedule.

Related reading:

  • theSkimm co-founders Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg on the “her-turn” and creating a great office return for millennial women (theSkimm)

  • Anxious About Hybrid Work? Ask Yourself These 4 Questions. (Harvard Business Review)

  • 7 leaders reveal what they’ll retain from their pandemic workplaces (Fast Company)

  • You’re Finally Going Back to the Office. What Are You Going to Wear? (Wall Street Journal)

A new survey of Crain’s NY readers found that more than half expect workers to be back in the office for most of the workweek post-pandemic, and almost 80 percent expect to return to their offices within the next year. Meanwhile, major tech companies like Salesforce expect more than half of employees will remain WFH even after the pandemic. When your office reopens, how do you expect to structure your work week?

  • LetsGetChecked, a New York-based at-home medical testing company, raised $150 million in Series D funding. Casdin Capital led, and was joined by CommonFund Capital, Illumina Ventures, Optum Ventures, Transformation Capital, HLM Venture Partners, Qiming Venture Partners USA and Rory McIlroy. (Crunchbase News)

  • Nomad Data, a New York City-based company for finding data, raised $1.6 million in seed funding. Bloomberg Beta led the round and was joined by Alumni Ventures, Great Oaks Ventures, Correlation Ventures, and DataFrame Ventures. 

  • Odie Pet Insurance, a New York City-based pet insurance startup, raised $3 million. Kevin Colleran and Slow Ventures led the round and were joined by investors including Walkabout Ventures. (FinSMEs)

  • Pattern Brands, a New York City-based home products seller acquiring direct-to-consumer businesses, raised $60 million. Investors included Kleiner Perkins, RRE Ventures, Primary Venture Partners, Victory Park Capital, HOF Capital and RSE Ventures. (BusinessWire)

  • SIMULATE, a New York-based nutrition tech startup, raised $50 million in Series B funding. Seven Seen Six led, and was joined by NOMO Ventures, McCain Foods, Imaginary Ventures, Day One Ventures and Chris and Crystal Sacca. (TechCrunch)

  • June 9: The New Seed Strategy: Nomenclature, Check Sizes, and Does it Even Matter, with Lerer Hippeau partner Andrea Hippeau, Eniac Ventures general partner Nihal Mehta, Cowboy Ventures principal Jillian Williams, and Brooklyn Bridge Ventures partner Charlie O’Donnell. Register here.

  • June 9: Virtual: Machines + Media 2021: Facing the Future, with Tech:NYC founder and executive director Julie Samuels, Primary Venture Partners co-founder Ben Sun, NYCEDC Senior Vice President of Tech Karen Bhatia, and more. Hosted by NYC Media Lab and Bloomberg. Register here.

  • June 10: Virtual: Rebuilding and Revitalizing NYC’s Businesses and Workforce, with NYC Deputy CTO Alexis Wichowski, Cornell Tech’s Urban Technology Hub founding director Michael Samuelian, Bronx Community Foundation co-founder Derrick Lewis, and Company Ventures’ Urban Tech Hub executive director Robinson Hernandez. Register here.

  • June 10: Virtual: NYC’s Comeback: Attracting Back Remote Workers, with Union Square Hospitality Group CEO Danny Meyer, Partnership for New York City CEO Kathryn Wylde, Regional Plan Association CEO Tom Wright, and Manhattan Chamber of Commerce CEO Jessica Walker. Register here.

New York Magazine

’s popular “What I Can’t Live Without” feature is live with

, and their lists can be as galvanizing as their policy platforms. There was a very lively — and slightly judgemental — discussion about some of these picks in the Tech:NYC team Slack this afternoon, but to ensure we don’t influence your ranked choice voting preferences, we’ll have to decline further details.

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