Bloomberg Touts a High-Tech New York City

By Janet Digeronimo & Sean Quigley

Mayor Bloomberg on Tuesday launched a major push to expand local tech businesses with a new Web site to connect job seekers with over 3,000 positions in 900 local tech companies.

At a press conference hosted at BuzzFeed headquarters the mayor promoted the “We Are Made in New York” campaign, which over the past decade has focused on film and television, was adding other platforms that Commissioner Katherine Oliver described as “a creative robust sector.”

WeAreMadeInNy.com, which can be accessed through NYC.gov, features services such as job maps, grant applications, office space locations and free computer classes, to name a few.

“We are on the right path growing dramatically,” said Bloomberg on New York’s place in the tech world, “but Silicon Valley is still ahead of New York.”

Successful entrepreneurs such as Elias Roman, CEO and co-founder of Songza, a free music streaming service, joined the campaign. “We are often asked why we based Songza in Long Island City as opposed to Silicon Valley, or even Manhattan,” Roman said, “now thanks to the support of the Bloomberg administration, New York City, and specifically Queens, has become a leading place to be for tech companies.”

In the launch, young industrialists were encouraged to take advantage of the resources at hand.  At the dawn of his administration, Bloomberg hopes that “the next Mayor will do more than we’ve ever done,” to improve the city