Snub for NYC biotech hub
Plan for downtown bioscience center popular with all but state legislators.
Oct 8, 2002
With some fanfare, New York State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver announced on October 2 that the state would award $5 million to launch the Lower Manhattan Bioscience Project, a public/private initiative intent on providing New York City bioscience with a downtown address.
Many observers quickly noted that the sum was somewhat meager when compared to the project's estimated $90 million price tag, and in particular when compared to the $110 million in state discretionary funding recently allotted to building a life sciences center in Buffalo, located in far northwestern New York, $20 million awarded in late September to foster biotechnology in upstate Syracuse, and $48 million granted at the same time to Long Island biotech.
Some Lower Manhattan Bioscience Project supporters believe the plan for a downtown bioscience center was short-changed because governor Pataki and state legislators saw fit to "politicize the distribution process," according to Jonathan Bowles, Research Director...