By YOUNG MONEY Staff
20 July 2011

New York City may be the Big Apple, but it still lags behind Silicon Valley in terms of the booming technology industry. In an attempt to change that, The New York Times reports that Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced plans to subsidize a major new science and engineering university in the city.

The plan looks to offer effectively free real estate in any of four different locations: the south of Roosevelt Island, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Governors Island and the Farm Colony on Staten Island. In addition, the city would contribute up to $100 million for development.

"During the 1980s and 1990s, Silicon Valley - not New York City - became the world's capital of technology startups, and that is still true today," Bloomberg said in a speech. "But if I am right, and if we succeed in this mission, it won't be true forever."

Already the city has received 18 submissions from 27 institutions, including Cornell and Stanford Universities.

Bloomberg noted that New York City already passed Boston in terms of technology investment last year, according to The Boston Globe. Still, companies spun-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have produced more than $2 trillion, he says, making the potential returns dramatic.