Is New York Dead Yet?

American Greatness ^ | 3/3/2021 | Dan Gelernter

[Onthebrink]

James Altucher was savaged for a piece he wrote last year in the New York Post called “New York City is Dead Forever.” New Yorkers hated the implication that the city lacked the necessary fight or resilience to come back from an extremely terrible run. New York has made many dramatic comebacks in the past. It’s almost a staple of the way the city operates: Democratic mayor ruins the city, Republican mayor squelches corruption and fixes the city, creating good times and leading to a new Democratic mayor who ruins the city again, and so on. La vie continue.

But Altucher may have a point. The problem this time around is not a uniquely incompetent mayor or a uniquely terrible health crisis: It’s a shift that threatens to undercut New York’s reason for existing.

[Migraine]

"If Broadway is dead, New York is dead."

It's the great WHITE WAY, so it has to be canceled.

[Migraine]

NYC is a cadaver. It reminds me of JoeBlivious. It is being examined, experimented with and picked apart for science.

[sphinx]

Correct. Suburbs only look "cheap" -- or rather, marginally cheaper; the DC suburbs are pretty pricey too -- because we socialize infrastructure costs and rely on eminent domain. If we unbundled those delivery systems and required full marginal cost pricing for roads, water and sewer, electric and telecom utilities, schools, etc., a lot of suburbs would be priced out of business. The development imperative would be for maximum use of existing infrastructure, densification, and slow, compact buildout from the existing core. This is the way cities traditionally grew prior to the invention of the automobile suburb after WW II. The automobile suburb is probably the most heavily subsidized form of development ever invented.

The problem with the cities is political corruption based on the alliance of public sector unions, the welfare constituencies and the democrat party. The flight of the middle class further cemented one party rule in the old cities, which are now locked in a death spiral. That's a tough problem to solve, but no one should hold up suburbs as the natural order of things in a free market.

Our biggest cities have also simply grown too large for tolerable automobile commuting.

[PGR88]

Certainly NY City, and to a great extent NY State also - are purely a function of the S&P 500 and Bond Markets.

Something like 40% of NY State income tax revenue comes from 100 individuals and firms who operate on Wall Street. I believe the figure is even higher for NY City.

[Little Ray]

Looks dreadful.

[Little Ray]

I totally believe that urban areas vote Democrat.
They are dependent on the city government for most of their services. This dependency probably causes them to vote for ‘moar stuff!” from government even if commercial services are better and cheaper.

[100%FEDUP]

The Minnesota Transit System is the same.

[Paladin2]

“The automobile suburb is probably the most heavily subsidized form of development ever invented. “

I think the property taxes [wealth taxes] paid in Suburbia [and the resident’s sales and income taxes paid over the decades] well cover the “subsidies”.

[Verginius Rufus]

Gerald Ford finally getting his wish all these years later?

[monkeyshine]

They just need to open some casinos in the city and all will be well.

[jdsteel]

“Create a system that can not be rigged.”

Not really hard to do.

Hire a large credit card company to handle the process. Make all data available to the Government. Impose huge fines for any illegal voting that happens.

They do trillions of transactions a day with near perfection.

[Jimmy Valentine]

That’s what happens when you build an underground rail system in a swamp next to a river.

[Chickensoup]

did I hear that the stock exchange is threatening to leave Manhattan for locations south?

[gitmo]

They have been considering several cities. Charlotte, NC was one.

[gr8eman]

Truth...In 50 years NYC will just be a port with some museums with high security. Snake Plisken is already a senior citizen!

[Chickensoup]

when they leave everything else will collapse.

[Chickensoup]

credit card fraud is rampant.

[kvanbrunt2]

funny and after the crash of 87 we used to hit some of the bars near and in the buildings where major brokerage houses were renting space. The running joke was, “what do you call you broker after the crash?”..... “waiter”.

[jdsteel]

Credit cards do millions of transactions a day with almost zero errors.

Some people are careless with their privacy and some are careful but are victims of criminals. Either way, Credit Card companies record is far, far better than our current state of affairs.

Light years better.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Bad as it is, I think New York City has a better chance than Los Angeles. It’s more likely to eventually elect some sort of (Democratic) Giuliani II, for one thing.