Many labor advocates feel that the city has allowed blue-collar jobs to disappear, while focusing on attracting white-collar jobs and housing development to the waterfront. The chairman of the Council's Select Committee on Waterfronts has proposed imposing a fee on owners who convert manufacturing properties to residential uses. Meanwhile, city officials are trying to keep as many manufacturing jobs in the city as possible.
See "Where Blue Collars Grow Endangered", Diane Cardwell, The New York Times, June 23, 2003