New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (above, right) appeared alongside developer/former Nets owner Bruce Ratner (left) earlier today, with the former promising the latter’s still-under-construction Barclays Center would create 2000 jobs for area residents. Unfortunately for Bloomberg, Ranter stressed that many of those employed would only be at the arena part-time (“at any one time, we’ll have at most 800 people”), which led to the following heated exhange between the Mayor and New York Magazine‘s Norman Oder :
So, what would be the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs, a not uncommon measure?
“I don’t have any idea what that is,” responded the famously data-driven mayor.
It was pointed out to him that the Empire State Development Corporation estimated FTE employment at 1,120.
“The state can say anything they want,” responded Bloomberg testily. “I don’t know.”
“They approved the project,” this reporter continued.
“That’s fine. What does that got to do with their numbers? Maybe their numbers are right, maybe their numbers are wrong,” Bloomberg responded. “Address it to the state, don’t address it to me.”
Ratner took the podium and cracked a joke: “Norman, we’ve created one more job. That’s a job for you.”
A Forest City spokesman later provided a figure: 1,240 FTE jobs.