Sorry, Jerry Seinfeld: Your love of New York City won’t change the facts about its crisis

New York Post ^ | 08/25/2020 | James Altucher

[SeekAndFind]

I’ve gotten more death threats in the past week than probably the average politician does — all because I wrote a column for The Post with the online headline “NYC Is Dead Forever: Here’s Why.” I presented facts. Plus, I told the story of my own lifelong love affair with the Big Apple and lamented its impending demise.

Now Jerry Seinfeld — sitting in the comfort and safety of his Hamptons mansion, with probably five dozen rare Italian sports cars in the garage — has written a response in the New York Times calling me a “putz” and insisting that “NYC has resilience.”

My mother agrees with him.

I appreciate that Seinfeld is also concerned enough about the city to write a rebuttal. But there’s denial, and there’s reality. Denial won’t help anything. Failing to address problems won’t save Gotham.

We all get it. New York has “grit.” I lived three blocks from Ground Zero on 9/11. I lived on Wall Street during the financial crisis and Great Recession. I was optimistic then. But let’s look at the facts — again:

• Apartment vacancies are at an all-time high right now. That’s 13,117 vacancies. This number will rise: 1 in 4 residents haven’t paid rent since March.
• Deficits are at all-time highs. The city is drowning in $9 billion of red ink. A billion more than expected. And tax revenues will see their steepest decline in city history.
• More companies are leaving New York than ever before.

[SeekAndFind]

For the first time in history, internet bandwidth allows all or nearly all white-collar ­employees to work remotely. Back in 2008, average bandwidth was 2.5 megabits per second (not enough for video). Now it’s more like 30 megabits per second (more than enough for video).

Does this mean people like ­remote work? No. But most studies agree: Remote is more productive. Again, this isn’t my conjecture. Thousands of firms that make up New York’s tax base have concluded so.

The knock-on effects, combined with those from the needlessly protracted lockdown, are devastating.

Thousands of restaurants have shuttered their doors permanently. Yelp has said up to 50 ­percent of the restaurants it tracks are out of business. A study by Partnership for New York City found that up to one-third of Gotham’s 240,000 small businesses may never reopen.

What does this mean? It means more revenue declines and even higher deficits. It means the choking death of the tourism industry. It means eerily empty office buildings.

[riri]

What NY doesn’t have is magic dirt. The stuff that made up NYC of yesteryear has been diluted.

[Rurudyne]

Progressivism living off of the largess of yesterday and the capitalism of today like the ideological parasite it is.

[Dilbert San Diego]

New York is in trouble. So are other big cities.

With so many people able to work remotely, who is going to lease all that office space in all those skyscrapers?

How many people live in New York City, or nearby suburbs, because they had needed to go into Manhattan every day to work in those office buildings? Where will they live now, if given the choice to work off site, and have no need to live within commuting distance of Manhattan?

How do restaurants or other service businesses survive, if all those office workers who comprise their customer base, just aren’t there anymore, or go into Manhattan infrequently, and not every business day?

There will be lots of ripple effects from all of this. The bottom line is that many small businesses will go out of business permanently, and commercial real estate is going to take a huge hit.

[Sans-Culotte]

calling me a “putz” and insisting that “NYC has resilience.” My mother agrees with him.

Agrees that NY is resilient, or that the author is a putz?

[P.O.E.]

Maybe NYC used to have “grit”. They also used to have the finest police force on the planet. (well, they still do, but they’ve been left holding the bag. It’s treasonous the rotten way they’re being treated.)

[Buckeye McFrog]

Apartment vacancies are at an all-time high right now. That’s 13,117 vacancies. This number will rise: 1 in 4 residents haven’t paid rent since March.

That is going to have a cascading effect as landlords begin to forego maintenance and perhaps even go bankrupt.

[Dilbert San Diego]

I had heard that deBlasio said he needs a $9 billion bailout.

Among other things, the election on Nov. 3 will determine whether deBlasio gets his bailout from Washington, DC.

It’s funny to see the political lineups on some issues. For example, the liberal view seems to be, that we need to lockdown the country indefinitely, as we wait for Dr. Fauci and his boys to come up with a vaccine against the virus.

But locking down the country, and lack of business activity which generates tax revenue, is what is causing deBlasio sleepless nights about his budget deficit.

If Democrat politicians around the country would allow for their economies to reopen, then their budget deficits will be alleviated as tax revenue starts flowing into their bank accounts.

So we see a contradiction. The liberals want the country locked down, but if we lock down the country and shut down the economy, deBlasio and Cuomo and company can’t pay their bills.

[mylife]

Hey Jerry...

[qaz123]

Has Seinfeld asked the Mayor what Mrs DeBlasio did with $850,000,000 ...

Chirlane McCray, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s wife, was entrusted in 2015 with running a new initiative in the city called ThriveNYC, a program that attempted to address issues of homelessness, substance use, depression and suicide, all centered around mental health and with a price tag of $250 million per year in tax payer dollars.

Now, four years later, there are serious concerns and calls for official inquiries into the program because no one can determine if it’s actually been successful. What’s more, due to a general opaqueness when it comes to the program’s budget, ThriveNYC has apparently left that nearly $900 million unaccounted for.

Facts, they are a bitch.

My brother is retired NYPD. One of his old partners is also retired and works as a contractor for DHS. Guy has to go into the city a couple of times a week to meet folks and drop off paperwork. My brother doesn’t go into the city anymore. Told my brother that the place looks like a war zone. Store destroyed, boarded up, graffiti and trash everywhere.

[RayChuang88]

I blame both Bill de Blasio (aka Warren Wilhelm Jr.) and Andrew Cuomo for this mess. de Blasio's near-complete lockdown of New York City economic activity and Cuomo's support of de Blasio will effectively destroy that city if both are not removed from office soon.

And no sympathies, Mr. Seinfeld. You and your fellow rich New Yorkers have fled to the Hamptons on Long Island or to Florida (using their second homes as new permanent homes) and they won't be coming back, either.

[billyboy15]

All those office buildings can be converted to condos.

Then all they have to do is find people wanting to live in the sewer that NYC has become.

[chief lee runamok]

"One solution would be a massive bailout, but that requires political will in Washington that may never materialize."

"..political will in Washington that may never materialize."

And rightfully so.

Altucher wrongly assumes there is legitimate reasons for federal bailout of nyc's many screwups.

[dfwgator]

I blame both Bill de Blasio (aka Warren Wilhelm Jr.) and Andrew Cuomo for this mess.

I blame the idiots who voted for them.

[mylife]

commercial real estate is going to be hit hard. thanks for ruining my daddy's business you fat ****

[Miss Didi]

How do restaurants or other service businesses survive, if all those office workers who comprise their customer base, just aren’t there anymore, or go into Manhattan infrequently, and not every business day?

Our commie mayor is now saying that indoor dining may not resume until 2021 which goes along with the offices remaining closed until then. It's a disaster.

[jerod]

Pure and simple... Bill de Blasio is a scumbag. When your city is controlled by scumbags... All you are left with is the scum they spread about like a virus of financial and social destruction.

This above photos from the 1970's shows the nostalgic past that Jerry Seinfeld likely remembers all too well...

Much different the Seinfeld sets of the 1990's.

[Rdct29]

I didn't read either of the names of the two jerk-offs in charge of the city and state today.

[AC86UT89]

“once great comedian”

OUCH