"Good Morning.  This is Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

"Even in tough economic times - in fact, especially in such times - City government has to find ways to support the new businesses that create the new jobs New Yorkers need, while also improving basic services like police and fire protection and emergency medical care.  Let me tell you about two good examples of how we're doing that now.

"The first is our New Business Acceleration Team, or N-BAT.  Created in partnership with the City Council and Speaker Christine Quinn, N-BAT works with new restaurants to schedule reviews and coordinate inspections, speeding up the process of opening their doors to customers.  N-BAT helps them save months of waiting and thousands of dollars in start-up costs - and as a result, create jobs and serve New Yorkers more quickly.

"One good example is the recently opened Tacos Tulcingo in Jackson Heights, which I visited last Monday.   N-BAT began working with its owner, Modesto Ramirez, last May, and helped him shave a full four months off pre-opening delays, and also save more than $35,000 in costs.  N-BAT has helped more than 545 other new restaurants turn the lights - and the grills - on.  And these businesses have created more than 6,000 jobs.  This year we're expanding N-BAT so that by the end of 2012, it will be able to support all restaurants that open or change ownership in all five boroughs; that's about 4,700 each year.  N-BAT also has begun assisting new businesses in other sectors, including retailers.

"Last week we also completed a nearly 10-year-long overhaul of what is the nation's largest 9-1-1 communications center - handling 11 million calls a year, or an average of 30,000 calls every day.  Created in 1968, the system had remained largely unchanged since 1995.  But as technology has continued to evolve, and as our population and number of tourists here have continued to grow, the system has become increasingly susceptible to becoming overburdened.

"Now, for the first time, our more than 1,500 NYPD and FDNY emergency call takers and dispatchers are together - on the same floor of the Public Safety Answering Call Center.  They all now use the same technology, making it easier for them to coordinate emergency responses.  And their software and hardware is truly state-of-the-art.  Now when someone dials 9-1-1, the call taker will automatically receive not only the address and telephone number, but also a digital map of the caller's location.  The system is more resilient, too.  It can now handle more than 40 times its normal daily call volume; that's nine times the peak we experienced on September 11th, 2001.  Taken together, these improvements make up the largest, most comprehensive technology and hardware overhaul of any 9-1-1 system in America.

"These are just two examples among many of ways that we're continuing to improve City services and also keep our economy moving ahead.

"This is Mayor Mike Bloomberg.  Thanks for listening."