New York City: Disney world on the Hudson

[telemann.livejournal.com]

The context of an earnest conversation about what New York City is turning into. The author of the Op-Ed is Jeremiah Moss, who maintains a fascinating photographic blog called " Jeremiah's Vanishing New York. " This follows-up on a recent article about even walk-ups ("walk-ups" are older buildings, that have no elevator but are up to five or six stories tall, and are typically more affordable because they don't have elevators or door men) are being purchased by real estate developers, and jacking up the rent by nearly 2/3. The average rent in NYC is over 3000 a month. But I think this conversation about what is happening to New York City is paralleling our national conversation about economic fairness and wealth too.



For background: the High line is an elevated rail spur that facilitated the moving of goods in midtown Manhattan, down to the meatpacking district. Rather than tear it down, it was suggested that it be instead turned into a park by the city.



I'm an old fart. My father was born and raised in Canada, served in the RCAF, and moved to the United States (Virginia, mostly to get away from the snow and frigid temperatures). So I have a lot of memories of family vacations going to Montreal, including stop-overs in New York City. The city then was in extremely bad shape during the mid 1970s. A series of fiscal disasters had it teetering near financial ruin (in part due to the lowered tax base facilitated by "white flight" to the suburbs. Infrastructure was falling apart-- bridges and the subway system were in serious disrepair. The Manhattan Bridge was crumbling into dust. Times Square which had been the crown jewel of Broadway was a shadow of its former glory. High crime rates, adult theaters, peep-show arcades, prostitutes, and pick-pockets made it a risky area for many tourists to wander around. Any available surface was covered in graffiti. I remember my father being a bit down about what the city had turned into. Things got so bad, New York had to ask the United States for money, to which the President Ford said "No."


New York Daily News infamous front page (President Ford changed his mind later).

When I arrived in 2000, the city seem very different to me. The first thing I noticed was how much cleaner everything was. Times Square was a vibrant place that was pretty safe, all kinds of new Broadway musicals and plays were filling theaters. Restaurants were bustling with patrons. But even the attitude was different. The city had recaptured its pride. Bridges were being repaired, the subway system was modernized, and no graffiti. In the 1970s if you said you lived in New York a typical reply would be "God, how do you survive there?" In 2000, when I told friends about my move, "Hey, when can I come up for a visit!?"

But over the time I've been here, a lot of the uniqueness has vanished. Neighborhoods are much safer true, but housing is pretty much unaffordable in those areas. The unique shops, bookstores, clothiers, have been muscled out by expensive chain stores, or stores that cater to very high end customers (pet clothing stores, designer clothes for toddlers, health spas, etc). The music scene has died in a significant way because there aren't venues for bands to learn their craft, those bars and lounges have been priced out by high rents and are now luxury condos. It's so bad, when Patti Smith was asked if it was possible for musicians to come to NYC to start a life in music she said no, saying "New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling. But there are other cities. Detroit. Poughkeepsie. New York City has been taken away from you. So my advice is: Find a new city." There are very few new Broadway musicals or plays anymore, new productions are revampings or remakes of either movies, or plays or revivals or painful vehicles excuses for performing Top 40 hits. Broadway orchestras have been reduced in size, while ticket prices are insanely expensive (I checked on two tickets to see the Spider-man production. Nearly 425.00) Bakery shops, bodegas (little grocery stores where you can buy a single cigarette for a dollar even ;), they're all vanishing as you will discover when you look through Mr. Moss' blog.

What the subway USED to look like:

I've noticed an increasing resentment about NYC's gentrification and "hipster-fication" that seems to have gained momentum, in large part to Mayor Bloomberg's indifference to financing building projects that favor middle class families, especially when he recently made a proposal for 300 sq. foot apartments that would rent for 3000.00 a month:


This micro apartment will rent for 3000.00 a month

The West Village along Christopher Street which has had a large gay population since the 1950s is even feeling the growing pains of gentrification. As rising rents make it impossible for working class gay men to live there, and as straight-hetero families move into the neighborhood, the inevitable complaints about gay bars being too loud due to their late hours and all the yelling and dancing and singing and smoking under their windows.

Personally, while I am very happy the city is a lot safer, cleaner, and has made some infrastructure improvements, I worry about at what cost and many of the unique things that New York offers are vanishing, as I have seen this firsthand. And this is not unique to New York for anyone that lives in a large urban center in the US. Some of the comments in Mr. Moss's echo my own sentiments, and the debate gets very lively. I agree, I don't see the loss of "Gasoline Alley" as a huge loss for Manhattan. But then, I don't drive a car here either. Mostly because of the expense.

Vintage video of what Times' Square used to look like:

Comments

[dwer.livejournal.com]

I grew up in NY, and I liked the NY of the 70s and early 80s far more than I like the city now.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Could you elaborate why? I'm curious. Several comments in the blog suggested the reason people say this mostly because of rose colored glasses of nostalgia.

I know a lot of gay friends who really rant about how much better things were and I used to hear Times Square called "Disney Land." My come back was, yeah but I don't want to live in a 24/7 S/M leather fantasy land either.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

I'm sure part of it is nostalgia. The city feels less accessible. I confess that I like the old Times Square better. But I don't like how the homeless are treated now, I don't like how sanitized and corporate things are.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

I sort of agree with the general point Mr. Moss is making about the city turning into a place he doesn't like, but the specific complaints about the High Line are pretty whiny and way exaggerated. I've been four or five times this Summer and it's delightful: it's free, clean and accessible to anyone who wants to enjoy it.. There are small spurs that break off the main walkway, one even has "poetry" corner with outdoor speakers and a recording of someone reading poetry. And I'm not sure what alternative to it would meet Mr. Moss' approval. Would he have wanted it razed instead of turned into a park where no one could enjoy it? And how does he know all the people he saw there were strictly tourists anyway? By asking them?

[dwer.livejournal.com]

for the record, I think the high line is awesome.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Matt Gallaway has written a well thought reply to all this. And his points are most excellent.

There’s an opinion piece in today’s NYT that blames the “overgentrification” of West Chelsea — specifically the influx of high-end retail, exorbitant residential towers, and vapid tourists — on the High Line Park, which if you haven’t heard of it is the elevated railway that’s being transformed into a park extending from roughly 10th Street/MePa into the low 30s on the far west side. This kind of writing drives me crazy because while it presents itself as being liberal and progressive — “save the local gas stations and help the working class” — at heart it’s very conservative, because in its nostalgic desire to keep one neighborhood (usually already gentrified) static, it ignores the plight of other neighborhoods (usually impoverished) whose populations have no desire to remain static. It’s like all those people who are like “let’s go back to the 70s” — which I can appreciate, because yeah, I want to live in a giant Soho loft for $300/month — but I also think of people who were living in Harlem and the Bronx when everything was burning, and I bet that they aren’t exactly excited to return to that period (and more to the point, areas that suffered forty years ago are in many cases still suffering). There’s a hypocrisy at play among those who like to complain about gentrification but who live in gentrified neighborhoods, and who moreover have never lived in a poverty-stricken neighborhood, and so have no inkling of what it means to crave those things complainers take for granted or even treat with disdain (a coffee shop being the usual signifier, or in this piece, tourists and their money). The piece in the Times reminds me of one written a few years ago by a blogger who lives in Cobble Hill who took a stroll along 125th Street and bemoaned the gentrification of Harlem, because the lines of vacant storefronts and pawn shops were now home to a bakery (as in one), a non-Starbucks, and maybe a new restaurant or two. I’m not saying that people uptown want to be infested with a strip of J.Crews and Banana Repubs, but there’s a middle ground, and it’s not wrong to want a coffee shop and a bakery, nor should wanting new businesses (or not really caring about the loss of gas stations) be equated with the desire to drive out every working-class person in the nabe. Believe it or not, people without millions of dollars also like to drink coffee and have fresh bread (and other kinds of fresh food) within walking distance of their/our apartments.

the rest is at this link. (http://matthewgallaway.tumblr.com/post/29968362938/a-few-notes-on-overgentrification)

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, the good old days... graffiti all over the subway cars, Times Square porn shops, etc.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think it's a travesty that you can't get a hooker in Times Square anymore. :P

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Haha. :P

[terminator44.livejournal.com]

Unless you play GTA IV.

[mutive.livejournal.com]

I think most of this is near inevitable in any big, expensive city. Like you mention, the average rent is >$3,000/month. If we say that's about a third of someone's income well...pre-tax incomes have to be >$100K/year (heck, even if it's 50%...we're still talking a six figure income pre-tax, which tends to go along with "older and well educated"). And most people who make that much want "Disneyland". (Or at least a nice neighborhood where you don't have to deal with porn shops, junkies, the homeless, etc.)

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Things are worth what people are willing to pay. At this point you should know what you're getting into, but I support some protections for people who have lived there a long time and suddenly get their rent jacked up.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

Porn theatres cleared out in part due to the city trying to clean up the dump, but in truth they disappeared for the same reason there are so very few pinball/video game arcades anymore. Porn still sells but you can get it at home, a much more comfortable environ. The advent of the VCR, DVD, Nintendo and Internet very much aided in the clean up.

Pinball/video arcades were where street kids could hang out 24/7 with relatively little hassle.

When I visited NYC in the late 80's it was still very much as depicted in your OP. But even then the rents in Manhattan were hefty. Sure there was more Broadway, but ticket prices were spendy. And as far as seeing a live punk rock show, there was CBGB's on Bowery or nothing, nada, zip, zilch. At the same time Toronto had several live venues for punk rock. In NYC, just the one venue. The live music venues listed in the Village Voice were nearly all out in the boroughs, and probably still are. If they were downtown they were either jazz or choreographed, set designed, and charged through the nose.

Contrary to the city that never sleeps, Times Square now folds up as soon as Disney/Ripley's/HardRockCafe/etc shut down for the night. It's not quite a ghost town but pretty close. I mean I expect that on Wall Street but on 42nd?

I don't think that cleaning up any city is a bad thing. When the public feels safe(r) it's always a positive. I do have concerns with where some of the elements disappeared to. Have the homeless just spread out elsewhere? Have they been escorted away (I assume out of state) or did they end up in mental institutions or in jails?

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Porn theatres cleared out in part due to the city trying to clean up the dump, but in truth they disappeared for the same reason there are so very few pinball/video game arcades anymore. Porn still sells but you can get it at home, a much more comfortable environ. The advent of the VCR, DVD, Nintendo and Internet very much aided in the clean up.

Well, yes and no. Rudy Giuliani made a concentrated effort to get rid of them, and it was pretty successful but they never went completely away, And the shops have come back with a vengeance in the time I've lived here. Which leads to the question, why? Since porn is free on the Internet (you don't even have to pirate it) and DVDs are dirt cheap, so why are the shops coming back in such a strong wayk? Basically they're good hook-up spots for a variety of reasons. The sex club dungeon featured and photographed in Madonna's book on sex now in the 1990s has a trendy restaurant above it since about 1993 (the sex club in the basement continued to about 2001). It's not that those places don't exist anymore, it's just that the Meat Packing (lulzy huh?) district was highly prized for condo and co-op development.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

Well yeah, same like the distillery district was prized by developers for condos.

As a city grows industry becomes less desirable in downtowns. Industry is often squeezed out of city centres because it's location is difficult for logistics (through increased traffic) and tax rates increase as property values increase. Besides they can be loud and smelly on nearby residences and business which used to be further away. You have large (interesting) space in old factories/warehouses that can be "gentrified" with a decent profit afterwards. Profit helps to pay for move out to more appropriate location. This is the way most cities grow, especially when they are confined by geography.

[brendala.livejournal.com]

I've never been to New York. But this sounds a lot like what's going on in most of California. Most of my friends still live at home because rent prices are really high even in "bad" neighborhoods (and the bad economy making good jobs hard to find certainly doesn't help).


It sucks that high prices and ridiculous rent is driving long time residents out. But I still don't see a downside to cleaning up the city. When I was a kid in the 80s/early 90s, the running joke about New York City and times square was that is was a crime-riddled hellhole. And that Central Park was a rape zone. Getting rid of that reputation probably aided in the gentrification.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Most of my friends still live at home because rent prices are really high even in "bad" neighborhoods (and the bad economy making good jobs hard to find certainly doesn't help).

Yeah, even Bed Sty in Brooklyn is becoming gentrified now. Bed Sty was one of the rougher areas in the city, and where more than a few riots broke out.

[caerfrli.livejournal.com]

He wants those kids to get off his lawn?

[peristaltor.livejournal.com]

I can't remember what PBS show it was, but someone addressed the fact that as the super-rich have gotten super-richer, the only recourse for spending money has been to massively remodel, to knock out walls between apartments and even floors. This has allowed them to build two-story waterfall water features (http://www.forbes.com/sites/morganbrennan/2011/01/27/property-porn-of-the-week-nycs-35-million-waterfall/), but has significantly reduced the apartment count in the city.

Fewer apartments means more cash for each. The über rich get big flats, the middle class get micro boxes, and the poor get literal boxes.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

A friend of a friend does custom salt water fish tanks, and he's installing 200,000.00 fixtures all the time, and that's NOT including the fish stock and maintenance. One of the clients is a model who went to a "mixology" bar near Columbus Circle and admired the tank they have so much, she got on in her apartment. Her electric bill must be over 1000 a month I bet (all the pumps, heaters, lighting, water cooling and heating really add up).

[kayjayuu.livejournal.com]

Okay, so help a brother out here.

If white flight removed the middle class tax base, and the city infrastructure failed, what is the tax base made of now?

Where are these people working who can afford $3K/mo rents on average?

I sort of know the answers but it may all be conjecture, and I'd like to have a more realistic view of how this is working.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

If white flight removed the middle class tax base, and the city infrastructure failed, what is the tax base made of now?


The end of the 1970s inflation (for both wages and goods) helped improve things too albeit very slowly. The first oil crisis hit the city hard. Government loans and infrastructure improvements helped the quality of life and business sustainability The 1980s stock market booms were a big help, meaning more and more people were moving to the city and living in it versus commuting. President Clinton's program to fund cities expansion of police allowed Mayor Rudy Giuliani to make good on his promise to clean the city of crime. Lowered crime rates improves the quality of life, more businesses and people move in. Add in several mayors who with their talents and some great administrators along with an improved national economy helped a lot too.

The rent figure I mentioned was an average, but there are people who live downtown in the Battery Park City area can typically pay up to 3500 a month rent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_Park_City); and I would suppose they're in finance or something connected to finance. The New York Daily News had a piece in the real estate section a few years ago about people who pay nearly all their salary for rent, and sometimes at the end of the month don't even have money for food. But the folks interviewed shrugged it off as something they were willing to do to live where they did. They also have room mates, working spouses, and a variety of ways to make ends meet.

The PBS documentary series on New York (by film maker Ric Burns) last episode "New York - City and the World" deals with this period, and it's available online for free.

[kayjayuu.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for this video. I spent a good few hours absolutely fascinated. It may even inspire a top level post (if/when I have the time). Lots I didn't know, and well done (and pre-9/11 by just a short time, which is really revealing).

Also through following links I've come across a Tumblr that I'll follow that should be very thought-provoking for me. Thanks.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Glad to help, Mr. Burns had to produce a supplemental vol to the series after 9/11 focused entirely on the WTC and the 9/11 attacks, while hitting on several themes that were the focus of the series. Personally I think that's my favorite episode no doubt for emotional reasons. I loved the architecture of the WTC and its iconic look. I relished every opportunity to see it when I was downtown.

[blueduck37.livejournal.com]

Eh.

I moved to NYC in the late '80s, and the place was a fucking mess.

I like the High Line. I like that crime is down. I like the subways are relatively clean. I like living in a city that people flock to, instead of fear.

And while rent is expensive, keep in mind most cited stats about rents refer to Manhattan. You can find affordable apartments in nice areas of Queens and Brooklyn, but some people get snobby about having to live in the outer boroughs. I live in Ditmas Park in Brooklyn (a nice area that previously wasn't), and paid $1,700 a month for a very roomy 820 sq ft place. You want a slightly smaller place? Less trendy area? You can do hundreds of dollars cheaper easily.

Yes, I would love less chain stores and more mom-and-pops... that's the only extent to which I agree with this line of argument.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and a great rebuttal has already appeared. (http://matthewgallaway.tumblr.com/post/29968362938/a-few-notes-on-overgentrification) You may enjoy it.

[blueduck37.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[curseangel.livejournal.com]

My aunt has lived in NYC for.. well, a lot of years, and worked here longer. She's told me stories about how dangerous and awful it was, and that still informs some of her view - especially when she's warning me to be careful in certain parts of town :p She hates the "Disney-fication" of Times Square, too. (So do I. Fucking tourists, go HOME! lol.)

I disagree that all the uniqueness of NYC has been priced out, though. It really, really depends on where you look. And yes, things are more expensive - the standard of living in NYC is pretty high. But our rent isn't $3000/mo., and we live in Manhattan. There are still a lot of little, unique stores if you know where to look (yes, even in Manhattan! Not everything artsy has been exported to Brooklyn). And the bodegas are still here - I live across the street from two, there's another up the road, and I pass others all the time.

Personally, I love New York. I love everything about it. I love living here more than I've liked living anywhere my entire life. I can always find something to do, somewhere to go, something to eat no matter what time it is. I wouldn't mind having more unique places to poke and shop at, especially in my area, but those kinds of places are vanishing all over. New York as it is is fucking awesome. Where else in the world can I take a short subway ride downtown, eat an incredible fondue dinner and dessert, shop at a store called The Sock Man, and get my hair cut by a stylist for the stars in his apartment for $50-- all in the same neighborhood?

I am also really glad the subways don't look like that anymore.