New York City rose from the ashes of America's urban crisis on the wings of Wall Street. For the past 20 years, the whole world has come to New York to raise capital. Our city flourished as New York businesses were recognized as best in class in almost every global industry. Until six months ago, our biggest economic challenge was thought to be competition from emerging financial centers in London, Asia and the Middle East.

Today, thanks to the collapse of global financial markets, we are all in the same soup. The prosperity that world cities enjoyed for almost two decades, driven by aggressive practices in finance and real estate, turns out to have been as much as 40% ephemeral.

So where do we go from here?

That is the question that Crain's and the Partnership for New York City hope leading New Yorkers will address on Feb. 3. One thing is certain: When the current crisis is over and the dust has cleared, our city and state must remain the center of world finance. There is nothing to replace financial services as a source of high-paid jobs, tax revenues and charitable contributions, and as a magnet to attract talent from around the world.

New York's recovery has been made more difficult by the disenchantment most Americans feel toward Wall Street. Frustrated over evaporating savings, falling house prices and growing unemployment, people cannot understand why taxpayer dollars are being spent to shore up major financial institutions rather than provide direct relief to individual families.

The fact that we have narrowly avoided the complete collapse of our financial system, and that the danger is still not behind us, is not well understood. New Yorkers need to keep sending the message that the future of America's Main Streets can only be secured if we salvage Wall Street and maintain our role at the forefront of global markets.

At the conference, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of J.P. Morgan Chase, who has emerged from this crisis as the leading figure in American banking, will be joined by Nasdaq OMX CEO Bob Greifeld and TIAA-CREF CEO Roger Ferguson, the former vice chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve System's board of governors. Along with other speakers, they will tackle the issues of how the financial services sector can recover its profitability and credibility, thereby remaining a strong, if more consolidated, pillar of the New York economy.

Fortunately, the Bloomberg administration has made diversification of the city economy a key item on its agenda. The city has pumped up efforts to support culture and tourism, create a life sciences industry cluster, upgrade infrastructure to attract technology-enabled businesses, and even establish safe havens for niche manufacturing.

At the conference, Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Bob Lieber will discuss their plans for sustaining job growth in multiple sectors across the five boroughs.

Last year, Houston replaced New York as the U.S. city with the most Fortune 500 headquarters. Maybe that is just as well. The next wave of rapid job growth will likely come from smaller companies in emerging industries. Of course, these companies will be seeking capital from the financial industry and will need business partnerships with multinational corporations.

Put these factors together with New York's softened real estate markets, world-class universities and surfeit of available talent from layoffs in key industries, and New York could have all the ingredients necessary to reinvent itself as a city of entrepreneurs positioned to be the first to benefit as the nation recovers from global recession.

Kathryn Wylde is president and chief executive of the Partnership for New York City. On Tuesday, she will moderate a discussion about financial services during the Future of New York City conference.