I'm Anish Summerodi and to kick off today's new tech city, I want to share a very telling story.

So the other evening I went to this event at a fancy PR agency around the corner from the WNYC Studios in Manhattan.

Picture this, a panel of top people from some of the big names in New York Tech.

Etsy, Airbnb, General Assembly, in the audience, more big names from the city's tech scene,

plus government officials and political candidates.

They gathered to discuss what should happen when this city's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, leaves office at the end of the year.

So it started out with a discussion about the history of innovation.

The incumbents have been around for a long time. The way of doing things has been around for a long time.

And every disruptor throughout history has faced barriers in the beginning.

I mean the car-faced barriers from the horse and buggy industry that forced them to have certain limits on speed and everything else.

There was a jab at tech journalists.

I think the media story in New York I think is like, look at all the geeks making these websites and iPhone apps.

And we need to shift that conversation to the people in the community.

And then there was an interesting question. An executive from Madison Square Garden, New York's most famous arena since 1968, asked the panel.

How do you commit to the city that we're here to stay and that we want to be part?

So it's hard to hear him, but here's what he asked. Why should the government invest in the infrastructure you want?

When many of us are suspicious that you tech companies aren't going to stick around? That's what he wondered.

And this is how the CEO of General Assembly, a popular education hub for wannabe techies, answered.

I would say look, we're, we have 10 year releases, so we're not going anywhere.

But the guy from Madison Square Garden had a quick response. That's what we thought too.

The crowd thought that was hilarious because just the week before you see the city council had voted to limit the historic arena's lease to make way for a new Penn station in Midtown.

So so much for sticking around.

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