Tech:NYC Digest: March 28

Tech:NYC Digest: March 28

March 28, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Monday, March 28, 2022 

Happy Monday (and no, you won’t find any hot takes on The Slap here). In today’s digest, MTA prepares to drop mask mandates, Manhattan sees increases in BA.2 infections, and the top safety concerns employees have heading back to the office.

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By the numbers:  

  • New positive cases statewide: 2,010

    • New positive cases, NYC: 840 

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 1.7 percent (no change)

  • NYC Hospitalizations: 253 (+3)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress: 

    • New Yorkers with at least one dose: 89.5 percent

    • New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated: 76.1 percent

In today’s latest:

  • The Biden administration is planning to offer Americans ages 50 and older a second booster of the Pfizer or Moderna coronavirus vaccine without recommending them outright. The FDA is expected to authorize the boosters this week. (New York Times)

  • The head of the MTA, Janno Leiber, said the agency will not require riders to wear face masks once the Transportation Security Administration drops its federal mask mandate for all indoor transportation facilities, which is set to expire on April 18. (Newsday)

  • The BA.2 subvariant of Omicron is making the rounds across NYC, increasing infection rates particularly in Manhattan — where most residents are vaccinated against COVID-19. (amNY)

  • Mayor Adams joined JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes at JFK Airport today to congratulate the NYC-based airline for expanding its presence in Queens and adding 5,000 new jobs to the city’s economy. The mayor said JetBlue’s expansion efforts at JFK’s Terminal 5 will help revitalize the city’s $72 billion tourism industry. (CBS New York) 

In other reading:

  • What NYC’s testing numbers tell us about the chances of a BA.2 surge (Gothamist)

  • These young New Yorkers have a message to share about getting vaccinated against COVID (New York Times)

  • Where Do You Throw a Proper Birthday Bash in NYC? Searching for one crowded clubstaurant at a time (New York Magazine)

Safety on public transportation and in NYC generally is the single biggest obstacle to mobilizing workers to return to the office as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, a new poll by Morning Consult found.

  • Ninety-four percent of respondents stated that not enough is being done to address homelessness and mental illness, followed by assaults and gun violence, as it relates to safety on the streets and subways.

  • With anxieties about public safety ongoing, workers are more likely to resist calls to return to in-person work until their concerns are addressed by their employers.

The poll, which was conducted on behalf of the Partnership for New York City, surveyed more than 9,000 NYC residents working in offices from February 17 to March 11. Personal safety was far and away the top concern:

  • "And these are magnified by two years of a pandemic in which we just had a great sense of anxiety, about illness, about death, and about normal life, '' Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City, told ABC New York.

Despite those challenges, most New Yorkers remain optimistic:

  • 72 percent reported they were committed to NYC and wanted to be part of the city’s recovery.

Our takeaway: It’s not just about safety protocols in the office — employees think their companies should take some responsibility for the broader personal safety of their team members post-pandemic. By working more directly with elected leaders to make quality of life improvements, tech companies have the expertise and resources to help develop solutions that can be a win-win for the city and the tech industry.

In other reading:

  • Why one tech CEO paid to fly his employees out to Mexico City for a week (Protocol)

  • The Worst Part of Working From Home Is Now Haunting Reopened Offices (Slate)

  • Job Hunters Take A Stand: We’re Not Writing Cover Letters (Wall Street Journal)

  • DailyPay, a NYC-based enterprise tool for the financial industry, raised $300 million in a new credit facility. Barclays led the round. (Newswire)

  • March 29: In-person: How I Raised My Seed, with Highnote co-founder and CEO Jordan Bradley and Neura Health co-founder and CEO Elizabeth Burstein. Hosted by Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. Register here.

  • March 30: In-person: Real Estate Innovation Done Right, with Upward Labs CEO Shana Schlossberg, ClearAir.ai co-founder Michael Petgrave, Saya founder Sanjay Poojraym and others. Hosted by the Williamsburg Hotel. Register here.

  • March 31: Virtual: The Future of NYC: Charting an Equitable Recovery for All, with Federal Reserve Bank of New York president and CEO John C. Williams, BlocPower founder and CEO Donnel Baird, Regional Plan Association president and CEO Tom Wright, and more. Hosted by the New York Fed. Register here.

  • April 5: Virtual: What’s Next Summit 2022, with Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, and others. Hosted by Axios. Register here.

  • April 6: Virtual: Data Science Day 2022, with White House Director of Science and Technology Policy Alondra Nelson and IBM Research AI vice president Sriram Raghavan. Hosted by the Data Science Institute at Columbia University. Register here.

  • April 7: In-person: New York Product Conference, with Squarespace VP of product Natalie Gibralter, 1stdibs chief product officer Xiaodi Zhang, Noom VP of product Raj Krishnan, and others. Hosted by Product Collective. Use code TechNYC to save 20 percent off any pass by registering here.

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