New York City’s unglamorous modernization efforts

At a panel discussion during City & State’s Digital New York Summit on Thursday, experts from the private and public sector weighed in on how to make New York City more tech-friendly. Walei Sabry, a digital accessibility coordinator at the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, spoke about prioritizing digital accessibility and the hiring of people with disabilities in IT jobs. Michael O’Boyle, executive vice president at Capalino+Company and Aziz Ahmad, CEO of UTC Associates, discussed opportunities for incubators and accelerators to help the city take advantage of ideas from early and growth-stage tech companies. And Clam Lorenz, Head of Government Solutions at PayPal, talked about the research his company has done into citizens’ eagerness for online payments to and from government.

But comments from Archana Jayaram, deputy commissioner of strategic planning and policy for the New York City Department of Buildings, served as a reminder that the work of dragging government agencies into the 21st century in order to build a more tech-friendly city is often tedious, unsexy work. The DOB – whose work across the city includes permitting construction and conducting building inspections – is in the process of modernizing the mainframe it uses for all of its work, which is more than 30 years old. “I think the real partnership that I’m going to say many government agencies are looking for right now is some of that foundational work – trying to replace a mainframe, which must be done, and has to be the priority – means that some of the more fun stuff that we all want to have has to sort of take a backseat,” Jayaram said.

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