A Garment Center Town Hall Hosted By Community Board Five

 

Community Board Five hosted a Town Hall meeting on March 22, 2011 to discuss the Garment District, it's future and why it matters to NYC, the country and the President's campaign to Win The Future, an initiative to create and keep jobs in the US.  The forum included members of the fashion and garment industries, manufacturers, and representatives of the real estate and commercial development communities. 

Below are 10 videos covering, in order, the evening's proceedings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below is a partial list of participants.

 

   Jerome Chou is Director of Programs at the Design Trust for Public Space, a nonprofit dedicated to improving New York City's public realm. Previously, he has worked as a project manager for Freshkills Park for Field Operations; as a community planner for the Baltimore City Department of Planning; as a community organizer for Brooklyn ACORN and the Working Families Party; and as an assistant editor at the non-profit book publisher The New Press. He holds Masters degrees in Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning from the Harvard Design School. 

 

 

 

  Joe Ferrara is the founder and director of the Garment Center Supplier Association, an organization of over 100 companies that manufacture clothing in Midtown Manhattan.  Mr. Ferrara is also president of the firm that bears his name, and is considered a leading contract manufacturer of designer clothing in New York City.  For the past 24 years, Ferrara Manufacturing has employed hundreds of high-skilled dressmakers and tailors, making some of the finest clothes in the world.  Mr. Ferrara believes manufacturing is a sustainable activity in an urban environment and that it is a critical resource platform supporting New York's design community.

Mr. Ferrara is a strong supporter of fashion entrepreneurship in New York City and is an active advisor and investor for startup companies.  As a board member of New York Angels, one of the largest and most active angel investment groups in the country, Mr. Ferrara is a strong supporter of emerging businesses in e-commerce and branding concepts.  He currently serves on the Boards of several social media, conferencing, and e-tailing businesses relating to the fashion industry.  Mr. Ferrara also serves as a business mentor and coach for the CFDA Fashion Incubator and for the NYU business plan competition.  Mr. Ferrara earned his degree at NYU Stern and served on the adjunct faculty teaching financial statement analysis for several years.  While Mr. Ferrara holds varied interests across a range of sectors, the fashion industry remains his priority since it is dominated by entrepreneurship at every point in the value chain from design, to manufacturing, to distribution.  Mr. Ferrara is a strong believer that a sustainable role for manufacturing is essential to keep entrepreneurship thriving in New York City.

 

Adam Friedman is Director of the Pratt Center for Community Development, a division of Pratt Institute. For more then 45 years, the Pratt Center has provided architecture, urban planning and other professional services to strengthen New York City's low income communities. This technical capacity, plus Pratt's research and advocacy resources has help community groups develop thousands of units of housing, strengthen neighborhood shopping areas, envision thriving communities and translate those visions into zoning and other land use strategies.

Mr. Friedman is one of New York's leading experts in building sustainable communities and encouraging sustainable business practice, particularly in the manufacturing sector which can create employment opportunities for the city's residents. Mr. Friedman was the founding executive director of the New York Industrial Retention Network (NYIRN) which works with 200 to 300 manufacturing companies each year and was recently consolidated into Pratt.

 

 

  Eric Gural is an executive managing director at Newmark Knight Frank, where he specializes in owner representation and property management. Mr. Gural's primary responsibilities include managing and leasing property on the west side of Manhattan. He manages a portfolio consisting of 42 buildings and more than nine million square feet.

Outside of his professional pursuits, Mr. Gural actively contributes his resources as chairman of the board for Computers For Youth. He is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York, the Young Men's/Women's Real Estate Association, Fashion Center Bid and Union Square Partnership. He was honored as one of New York City's "Top 40 Under 40" in 2002 by Real Estate New York.

 

Stan Herman - The three-time Coty award-winning designer Stan Herman is truly a pioneering man.  Not only was he the President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America for sixteen years, but also the founding president of 7th on Sixth Corporation; the fashion shows in Bryant Park, for seven years.  With the Carol Hochman group, Stan has incorporated his ready-to-wear design savvy to become America's foremost designer of robes and loungewear.  His comfortable, lifestyle driven products can be found on QVC, QVCUK, QVC Germany, and at leading retailers across the country.  After 16 years on air he has built a return customer base of over 300,000 people and has sold over $100 million worth of robes.  Furthermore as the leading uniform designer in the world his uniforms arguably cover more bodies than any other single designer.

 

 

William Rees Morrish  -  Dean of the School of Constructed Environments, and Associate Dean for Parsons The New School of Design in New York City

He is a nationally recognized urban designer whose practice encompasses inter-disciplinary research on urban housing and infrastructure, collaborative publications on human settlement and community design, educational programs exploring integrated design which are applied to a wide range of innovative community based city projects. He is the author of Civilizing Terrains, and coauthored, Building for the Arts, Planning To Stay, and Growing Urban Habitats.

 

 

 

  Edgar Romney serves as the Secretary Treasurer of Workers United, SEIU and as well the Manager of the New York Metropolitan Area Joint Board - a local union representing thousands of workers in the garment industry in the New York region. Workers United, which was formed in March 2009, represents workers in apparel production and distribution, manufacturing, industrial laundries, and a variety of other industries in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. 

Over the years, Romney has received many awards in recognition of his work, including the Nelson Mandela Achievement Award from the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the Spirit of Life Award from the Robal Chapter of the City of Hope, the Man of the Year Award from the New York City Chapter of the NAACP, the 1993 Ellis Island Medal of Honor for exceptional humanitarian efforts, and the Community Service Award from the Chinese American Planning Council. 

 

   Yeohlee Teng was born in Malaysia and has worked primarily in New York City, where she established her house, YEOHLEE Inc, in 1981.

Yeohlee believes that design comes from serving a function and is refined through time and process. Her designs are driven by material, maximizing the use of each fabric by thoughtful consideration of weight, texture, color, cut and finishing. She believes that "Clothes have magic. Their geometry forms shapes that can lend a wearer power."

Yeohlee's work has been featured in numerous exhibitions internationally and is part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where curator Richard Martin called her "one of the most ingenious makers of clothing today. Yeohlee's clothes conserve and impart energy for they are the synthesis of reason and magic."

YEOHLEE's Collection is -and has always been -designed, developed and produced in New York City. Made in New York has the advantage of a quick "just in time" response that is critical in today's economy. This accessibility promotes efficiency, conserves time, energy and resources, and ties in with Yeohlee's Zero Waste philosophy.

YEOHLEE : WORK published in 2003 surveys the first 20 years of her practice with essays by prominent fashion, art and design curators and critics.

Yeohlee is the recipient of the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Fashion 2004.

 

  Madelyn Wils is Executive Vice President of the Planning, Development and Maritime division of the New York City Economic Development Corp. She is responsible for many of the City's area- wide revitalization plans throughout the five boroughs.  Since joining EDC in 2007, Madelyn has successfully supervised the 62 acre Willets Point re-zoning and the 60 acre Hunters Point South re-zoning. Amongst her portfolio, she oversees dozens of waterfront developments, transportation, streetscapes and park improvements in the five boroughs, including the East River Waterfront project, West Harlem Piers, Homeport, Coney Island, Brooklyn and Staten Island Ports and the Jamaica IMAX (intermodal) projects.

 Prior to joining NYCEDC Ms. Wils served as President of the Tribeca Film Institute.  She managed the expansion of the organization, from programming a 10 day film festival, into a diverse institution offering year-round cultural and educational programming.

From 2001 to 2005, she served as Chair of Community Board One in Lower Manhattan, where in the aftermath of 9/11, she played an integral role in the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan.  Ms. Wils led the development of the Master Concept Plan for the East River Waterfront, and was awarded "The Visionary Award" from the New York League of Conservation Voters for her efforts.  She negotiated significant capital projects for her community, including a new K-8 public school, The Millennium High School, an expanded PS 234, two community recreational facilities, new parks, Little League fields and a library in Battery Park City. Madelyn was a founding Board member of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and The Hudson River Park Trust.  She has also served on the Boards of the Alliance for Downtown New York, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Battery Conservancy, The Non-Profit Racing Oversight Board and The Empire State Stem Cell Board.