Sept. 1, 2021 | Sourced from NYT by Nicole Hong

Is Brooklyn Leading New York City Out of the Pandemic?

Josh Miller, chief executive of the Browser Company, next to co-workers Shaneka Ramdeen, left, and Kristina Varshavskaya. The company relocated from Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn. Credit | Nate Palmer for The New York Times

Manhattan's vanishing office districts and spaces have benefited Brooklyn neighborhoods where residents worked from home, testing the balance between the city and the boroughs.

Manhattan has always been the backbone of NYC's booming economy, attracting workers and travelers from all over the world. And yet during the pandemic, it was the hardest hit as tourists and commuters both disappeared from Manhattan.

As Manhattan struggled, the other boroughs helped pull the city out of its deep economic hole. Brooklyn ended up leading the way.

Brooklyn's share of the city's private-sector jobs had increased the most in ANY borough during the pandemic, according to the federal labor data. Brooklyn had the biggest increase in new residents compared to any other ZIP code in NYC. Brooklyn home prices also rocketed to a record high.

That's not to say that Brooklyn isn't hurting in many other ways. But on a positive note, Brooklyn is arguably now better positioned for further growth than prior to the pandemic. Manhattan will always have outsized importance in driving the city's economy, the pandemic triggered a seismic shift in how New Yorkers worked, how they lived, commuted, and spent their time and money. And yet, small businesses rebounded much faster in the outer boroughs than the ones in Manhattan.

During the first year of the pandemic, higher-income neighborhoods in Manhattan on the Upper West Side and Upper East Side saw the biggest net loss in residents. Brooklyn, meanwhile, benefited from the shutdown of Manhattan's office districts. Brooklyn had the largest share of college-educated residents outside of Manhattan and became a popular destination for Manhattan residents seeking bigger apartments.

Whether these shifts prove to be lasting and whether larger employers will start to relocate to Brooklyn is the key question. Manhattan is home to less than 20 percent of New York City's residents but accounts for at least half of the city's tax revenues, according to the New York State office. Manhattan's share of the city's property and sales taxes dipped during the pandemic, economists say that business activity in other boroughs is unlikely to overtake Manhattan anytime soon.

However, a new era of hybrid work has promoted some smaller employers to open offices in Brooklyn, which could have a broad ripple effect for neighborhoods across the city's most populous borough. Brooklyn has added more than 230,000 new residents in the past decade according to 2020 census data. It is also becoming the fastest population growth of any borough!

The pandemic could accelerate a trend that started after the 2008 recession when job growth in New York City began to be driven by the boroughs outside Manhattan. Brooklyn has been the biggest generator of new jobs in the city.

Brooklyn went from being an option you wouldn't consider because of how inconvenient it was to the city to now being the most convenient and desirable.