I always had the impression that the way New York worked was as you work your way “up” you get “access to elevators” and afterwards you just avoid the ground floor. Since visitors don’t have much “access to elevators” all they see is the same things the homeless see, so, of course New York looks like crap to a visitor.
That’s a pretty good description. Also what happens is that in order to escape the squalor around them, many New Yorkers have tried to cozy up to the Democrat/Socialist party ruling class. To be an apparatchik means to be given perks allowing you to avoid (some of) the squalor.
Yeah New York probably doesn’t belong on this list of “hellholes” given the vast wealth that capitalism creates there, but good article otherwise.