Exodus from Fun City

While San Francisco (pop. 750,000) planted seeds of growth, New York City (pop. 7,500,000) showed symptoms of shrinkage. Though the city is beefing up its effort to attract new industries, it drives old ones away by reason of costs and congestion, smog and stickups, traffic and taxes that rise in a wry ratio with strikes and relief rolls. Over the last decade, companies have followed the flood of families to suburbia's fresher air and greener acres, draining the city of 17,000 industrial jobs a year. And so far this year, the exodus has continued at a startling rate.

Two weeks ago, Pepsico Inc., the parent company of Pepsi-Cola, announced that it will move its headquarters from midtown Manhattan's Park Avenue to the 112-acre grounds of the Blind Brook Polo Club in suburban Westchester County, which it purchased. Nearby Greenwich, Conn., last week gave preliminary approval to American Can Co.'s plan for shifting its 1,300-employee international headquarters to a 141-acre tract by 1970. Olin Mathieson Chemical Corp. bought 60 acres in Stamford, Conn., for its chemical division, along with 700 white-collar workers. Uris Buildings Corp., builder of dozens of Manhattan's new glass-girt office towers, announced plans for a huge laboratory-office center in suburban Rockland (N.Y.) County in anticipation of further corporate moves from the city.

"Not a Happy Place." With Flintkote Co. and American Metal Climax Inc. already headed for Westchester County, and Corn Products and Union Camp Co. going to New Jersey, seven of the U.S.'s largest companies had opted out of Fun City, as Mayor John Lindsay likes to call it, within a year. At week's end, pint-sized (250 employees) Bohn Business Machines announced that it would also quit Park Avenue for suburbia. President Arnold Perry blamed rising city taxes and sky-high commercial rents.

Board Chairman Leonard C. Yaseen of the Fantus Co., the world's largest location consultants, said that 14 more corporations with 11,500 employees are also studying whether to take their head offices out of Manhattan. As for their reasons, Yaseen called the labor market "unfavorable," labor leaders "unsympathetic," and "complaints regarding clerical workers universal." On top of that, said Yaseen, businessmen grumble about "commuting, the rising crime rate, swollen welfare rolls and the subway strike. New York is not a happy place to be."

Olin Mathieson and Pepsico blamed their departures primarily on an inability to find enough midtown space for their staffs. Vacant office space is so scarce in Manhattan today that other companies have grabbed eagerly at the forsaken quarters. Most of the demand comes from expanding businesses already on the scene, notably the headquarters of 26% of the nation's 500 largest corporations. In fact, Mayor Lindsay insisted that the city, with some 8,000,000 sq. ft. of office space due to be completed this year, is still amidst "a boom in corporate growth."

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