The planners are encouraged to work in teams in which each is a specialist in a different area such as municipals, trusts, stocks and bonds, in much the way doctors set up multiple-physician practices.
These days, investors are likely to find little to attract them to a traditional municipal bond unit trust.
The headquarters of many investment banks, government and municipal securities dealers, trust companies, utilities, insurance companies, and brokerage firms have also been located in the district.
They are working with landowners, municipal officials, land trusts and the state, facilitating the acquisition or protection of privately owned forest, marsh and meadow.
Mr. Letten made it, he said in a brief interview Monday, because he thought it would have "value in terms of public confidence," a remark underscoring the weakened level of public trust in municipal undertakings here.
Lurking just around the corner, too, was the gravest fiscal crisis the city had ever faced -- a failure of trust in municipal credit, and recurrent brushes with bankruptcy that would threaten the fabric of life in New York.
State and local officials across the United States have been phasing out the use of bottled water at government workplaces in recent years, citing a variety of concerns, including the energy used to make and transport the bottles and an erosion of public trust in municipal water supplies.
It is also the biggest underwriter by far of municipal and corporate bond trust funds.
The biggest challenge was to gain the trust of municipal employees, as childcare back in 2006 was for the most part state-operated or provided by churches.
