The NYC we love is disappearing: It's becoming a hollow city for hollow people

[BreeddekalbL]

Wherever the towers of big development rise, the rents rise with them. And as the rents hit nosebleed heights, New York vanishes. Neighborhood by neighborhood, borough by borough, this is how you kill a city.

 

From the glitzy corridor of the High Line in Manhattan, to the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood around the Barclays Center to Long Island City in Queens, where Mayor de Blasio’s buddy Rob Speyer is hoisting three extravagant slabs of glass into the sky, our city is dying. It is a victim of its own so-called success.

 

People want to come to New York. Taylor Swift urges them in, singing, “It’s been waiting for you,” as if the city had nothing better to do but anticipate the arrival of newcomers. Bloomberg filled the whole town with tourists until we were bursting at the seams. Global oligarchs come to stash their dirty money in empty penthouses atop sky-high splinters, giving us nothing in return but long, dark shadows.

 

Meanwhile, New Yorkers hurry from job to job, hustling to make enough to cover the rent. Median rent for vacant apartments is nearly 60% of median income, by one measure. If you make $100,000, a solidly middle-class sum in most places, you might qualify for low-income housing, but you’ll have to enter through a metaphorical poor door.

 

In between all this hustling, God forbid we should need our shoes repaired or shirts cleaned. Small businesses are being decimated. Every month, we lose another thousand mom-and-pops .

 

They’re not closing because business is bad. They’re closing because the landlords are doubling, tripling, even octupling the rents — or simply denying lease renewals. With no penalties to stop them, landlords leave the spaces vacant for months or years, waiting for a national chain, a bank or a high-end business to pay the asking price of $40,000, $60,000, $80,000 a month.

 

Small businesses in New York City have no rights. You’ve been here 50 years and provide an important service? Tough luck — your space now belongs to Dunkin’ Donuts. You own a beloved, fourth-generation, century-old business? Get out — your landlord’s putting in a combination Chuck E. Cheese and Juicy Couture.

 

And despite de Blasio’s rhetorical fears about gentrification, his progressive pro-development push may well only hasten the trend.

 

That’s why I started the #SaveNYC campaign. We’re collecting video testimonials from New Yorkers and out-of-towners, celebrities and small business owners, asking City Hall to preserve the cultural fabric of the greatest city on earth.

 

First, we must pass the Small Business Jobs Survival Act. This bill, languishing for decades and quashed by Christine Quinn when she was City Council speaker, would give small businesses a fair chance to negotiate lease renewals and reasonable rent increases. It would keep our neighborhoods cohesive, helping to slow the tsunami of chain stores and put an end to landlord warehousing of empty, blighted spaces. It is our best hope.

 

Imagine a city filled with empty super-condos, money vaults in the sky. Our streetscapes will be sleek windows on the dead space of bank branches and real-estate offices.

 

There will be no more bookstores, no more theaters, no more places for live music. No more places to sit on a stool and drink a beer with regular folks.

 

When that day comes, and in some ways it is already here, what city will this be? It will be a hollow city for hollow men.

 

In a poem, John Updike warned: “The essence of superrich is absence. They like to demonstrate they can afford to be elsewhere. Don’t let them in. Their riches form a kind of poverty.” He was right.

 

 

It is late, but it’s not too late.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/jeremiah-moss-nyc-love-disappearing-article-1.2140330

 

Read and debate. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Interesting... I do agree that we're losing some of the flavor I grew up knowing. I'm fortunate to live in a neighborhood that has a unique mix of mom-and-pop shops and some chains, but the skyrocketing rents are definitely leading to a lot of empty storefronts on Johnson Avenue. Part of the problem is that some landlords like Friedland Properties have a monopoly of sorts. They own most of the storefronts along Johnson Avenue and also along West 235th street, and as a result, I've seen quite a few stores go under, including chains like Radioshack.  Of course Radioshack is closing stores around the country due to poor performance, but still.  I make an effort to support mom-and-pop stores in my area, but they have to earn my business. I am not going to throw my money away just because mom-and-pop stores are fading.  The other thing that irritates me is several small businesses in the area don't take debit or credit cards... It's 2015... If I need to go schlepp to the bank just to patronize your business, then I'll take my business elsewhere.

[DaTransitMan4608]

Interesting... I do agree that we're losing some of the flavor I grew up knowing. I'm fortunate to live in a neighborhood that has a unique mix of mom-and-pop shops and some chains, but the skyrocketing rents are definitely leading to a lot of empty storefronts on Johnson Avenue. Part of the problem is that some landlords like Friedland Properties have a monopoly of sorts. They own most of the storefronts along Johnson Avenue and also along West 235th street, and as a result, I've seen quite a few stores go under, including chains like Radioshack.  Of course Radioshack is closing stores around the country due to poor performance, but still.  I make an effort to support mom-and-pop stores in my area, but they have to earn my business. I am not going to throw my money away just because mom-and-pop stores are fading.  The other thing that irritates me is several small businesses in the area don't take debit or credit cards... It's 2015... If I need to go schlepp to the bank just to patronize your business, then I'll take my business elsewhere.

Oh you can say that again. That's the reason these mom-and-pop businesses are failing as a whole. Which is bad as these stores seem to be the only ones let you walk in buy what you need and go without being pressured into buying something else.  Almost everyone nowadays uses debit/credit/EBT and the fact that you have to spend a least $5, $10 just to buy a damn soda without paying a fee is ridiculous. But then again, those fees probably help them with operating costs so it's really a win/lose situation.

[Orion VII 4 Life]

Interesting... I do agree that we're losing some of the flavor I grew up knowing. I'm fortunate to live in a neighborhood that has a unique mix of mom-and-pop shops and some chains, but the skyrocketing rents are definitely leading to a lot of empty storefronts on Johnson Avenue. Part of the problem is that some landlords like Friedland Properties have a monopoly of sorts. They own most of the storefronts along Johnson Avenue and also along West 235th street, and as a result, I've seen quite a few stores go under, including chains like Radioshack.  Of course Radioshack is closing stores around the country due to poor performance, but still.  I make an effort to support mom-and-pop stores in my area, but they have to earn my business. I am not going to throw my money away just because mom-and-pop stores are fading.  The other thing that irritates me is several small businesses in the area don't take debit or credit cards... It's 2015... If I need to go schlepp to the bank just to patronize your business, then I'll take my business elsewhere.

Riverdale isn't gentrifying though, high rent doesn't always mean the hipsters are coming. Down here though we've lost so many small businesses last year I can't even count. 7-11 and a sh*tload of chain restaurants all showed up out of nowhere and then there goes the neighborhood. It's pretty sad there isn't even a non-chain pizza place that's been here for years for blocks and blocks, 2 of them at least shut down over last year as the chains kept coming in. My family knew the owners of one of them and they were being kicked out of the building because the management had a deal with the owners of Keyfood (in the same building/property) to put in some Starbucks like crap that isn't even doing that good now that it's open. I don't think it's as big of a problem as it is in Manhattan in places like Williamsburg or Astoria, not to say it's not an issue but I can walk around in both those places and still see plenty of small business around but here pretty much everything's a chain now.

 

I can understand why the small guys can't take a credit card for a small order. They gotta pay that rent! If I don't have money in my pocket I just go to 7-11 or whatever to get what I need.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Oh you can say that again. That's the reason these mom-and-pop businesses are failing as a whole. Which is bad as these stores seem to be the only ones let you walk in buy what you need and go without being pressured into buying something else.  Almost everyone nowadays uses debit/credit/EBT and the fact that you have to spend a least $5, $10 just to buy a damn soda without paying a fee is ridiculous. But then again, those fees probably help them with operating costs so it's really a win/lose situation.

I don't mind a minimum, but I do mind stores that don't take any credit or debit cards at all.  There are several places in Riverdale like this... Really annoying.

 

Riverdale isn't gentrifying though, high rent doesn't always mean the hipsters are coming. Down here though we've lost so many small businesses last year I can't even count. 7-11 and a sh*tload of chain restaurants all showed up out of nowhere and then there goes the neighborhood. It's pretty sad there isn't even a non-chain pizza place that's been here for years for blocks and blocks, 2 of them at least shut down over last year as the chains kept coming in. My family knew the owners of one of them and they were being kicked out of the building because the management had a deal with the owners of Keyfood (in the same building/property) to put in some Starbucks like crap that isn't even doing that good now that it's open. I don't think it's as big of a problem as it is in Manhattan in places like Williamsburg or Astoria, not to say it's not an issue but I can walk around in both those places and still see plenty of small business around but here pretty much everything's a chain now.

 

I can understand why the small guys can't take a credit card for a small order. They gotta pay that rent! If I don't have money in my pocket I just go to 7-11 or whatever to get what I need.

lol Riverdale doesn't need to gentrify because it's already an upper middle class to upper class community, and always has been.  Before the 60's when they started building apartment buildings along the Henry Hudson Parkway and converting them into co-ops you had large estates (similar to what you can find in the historic district in Fieldston and the estate area west of the Henry Hudson Parkway).  Land here is expensive, which is why everything new being built here consists of luxury apartments.  There have been at least three or four new buildings here in Central Riverdale either built or being built since I moved here almost four years ago, and they are all luxury buildings because the developers can't recoup their costs and turn a sizable profit otherwise.  Examples include the Solaria (luxury condo building) which has condos selling well into the millions, the luxury apartment building purchased by Columbia University for its graduate students, and another new building very close to me with apartments renting north of $2,600.00 a month and going up to $4,300.00.  Riverdale is only slightly less expensive than Manhattan in some cases, and when you factor in the express bus or Metro-North the advantage you receive is more space for the money.

 

I believe my landlord owns quite a few buildings in Central Riverdale, including the building that Starbucks uses on 235th & Johnson, and the broker I dealt with told me that they're charging a fortune for that space.  Several small businesses along Johnson have closed shop just after opening, which is a real shame as I would like to have a brunch spot on weekends when I don't feel like going to the city or Westchester.  There are quite a few small businesses that I patronize that are doing well.... (Riverdale Vintner (local wine store), Aoyu (Japanese restaurant) and Greek Express (Greek restuarant) for starters).

[Orion VII 4 Life]

I don't consider an upper class neighborhood gentrified. Its gentrified when hipsters from Oklahoma trying to "find themselves" move in and there's a Starbucks or other typical hipster chain sh*t on almost every block. Williamsburg and Astoria are gentrified. Riverdale, SI etc. are just upper class areas where most of the people have been there or in NY for decades.

[BreeddekalbL]

I don't consider an upper class neighborhood gentrified. Its gentrified when hipsters from Oklahoma trying to "find themselves" move in and there's a Starbucks or other typical hipster chain sh*t on almost every block. Williamsburg and Astoria are gentrified. Riverdale, SI etc. are just upper class areas where most of the people have been there or in NY for decades.

 

heck did you hear spike lee's thought on gentrification? 

[B35 via Church]

It's already a hollow city for hollow people... I'd argue that it's been a hollow city for hollow people....

All you have to do is study the AM Rush of people getting to work in the morning! Very zombie-like.....

 

As far as this city becoming a haven for the rich, I don't see that happening... NYC is too large, and on top of that, the rich whites that live out in some suburb isn't, or aren't gonna come here in droves to minimize w/e commute they have for "Noo Yawk".... That arrogance is one of the very things out of towners (or whatever you wanna call 'em) this city is so hated now.... And as far as threats of tearing down projects (or forcing current residents out of them on a wide-scale), LMAO....

 

The low class is going nowhere... The low middle class is going nowhere... Somebody's gotta take out the trash, somebody's gotta do maintenance on that S-Class... limo... helicopter... shit, somebody's gotta change the shitty diaper off little baby Richie Rich's ass while rich mommy & rich daddy are out obtaining riches..... And these somebodies will NOT be driven out of NYC to reside in the same damn suburbs that the rich are occupying now..... The middle class folks (they may have their reasons, but they are not) moving out of here because they are forced to leave NYC... I hate when you get these people that leave NYC that act like they were driven out because they had no other choice... No, you infact did so by choice, or out of fear (nobody wants to talk about this part of it though).....

 

Sorry, but I'm not buying into the hysteria.... Might funny how you get some middle class families leaving NYC for a couple months, years, whatever - but some how someway they find their asses back here.... Just like a frisbee....

[46Dover]

On the subject of "Zombies" (my favorite), I was about to turn my bus onto Madison Ave from 34 Street, then this woman straight walked in front of me across 34th, and I get the feeling if I opened the doors while in her "path of travel", she would've walked right up the stairs and into my lap (still walking)

[trainfan22]

I'm an NYC native and even I get annoyed by the arrogance of NYers, I always hated the "If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere" slogan, doesn't even make no sense, not to mention its the safest big city in America. I'll never forget seeing a video of this guy trying to scare some people out west by saying "He from New York" then proceeded to get beat up.

 

 

Using the TWD as an example, some people really believe that, New Yorkers = Rick's Group, Rest of the country = Alexandria.

 

 

And the native areas where people own there homes will never get gentrified, so NYC will always have some culture to a certain extent.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

I don't consider an upper class neighborhood gentrified. Its gentrified when hipsters from Oklahoma trying to "find themselves" move in and there's a Starbucks or other typical hipster chain sh*t on almost every block. Williamsburg and Astoria are gentrified. Riverdale, SI etc. are just upper class areas where most of the people have been there or in NY for decades.

Riverdale, does have some yuppies... Not a lot of them but there are definitely some here. Some of them attend Columbia University or the other expensive private schools nearby in Fieldston.  The difference with Riverdale is that it will NEVER be hip like Williamsburg because it's very suburban, there is no subway, and it's a bedroom community, with the prime transportation being the express buses and Metro-North.  The realtors tried coining it "NoMa" (North of Manhattan) to jack up the prices, and that didn't work because Manhattanites that moved here either loved it or hated it and moved back to Manhattan or have stayed here for DECADES.  I once met a lady on the M50 bus who moved to Riverdale for a short time from Manhattan.  She was the SAKS 5th Avenue type and said that the shopping in Riverdale was not what she was used to, so she moved back to Manhattan. LOL  I told her yes, Riverdale may be above Manhattan, but people don't move there to live in Manhattan.  They move there to ESCAPE Manhattan, be close to it and live a clean, relaxed suburban lifestyle.

[CenSin]

Even in Coney Island, new buildings going up are all multi-story, multi-tenant buildings. One of the houses nearby mine is about to go down soon. It was old and probably done in by Hurricane Sandy. My bet is that it'll be taken down and some tall apartment building or condominium will be built in its place. I get a lot of cards on my doorsteps offering to buy my house, but with property prices rising, I'm not moving anywhere and definitely not selling to some rich snobs.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Even in Coney Island, new buildings going up are all multi-story, multi-tenant buildings. One of the houses nearby mine is about to go down soon. It was old and probably done in by Hurricane Sandy. My bet is that it'll be taken down and some tall apartment building or condominium will be built in its place. I get a lot of cards on my doorsteps offering to buy my house, but with property prices rising, I'm not moving anywhere and definitely not selling to some rich snobs.

lol.... Well you either cash in while you can or lose out.  I'm sure some folks in Park Slope are kicking themselves for not taking advantage and selling while they could make a nice profit.

[CenSin]

lol.... Well you either cash in while you can or lose out.  I'm sure some folks in Park Slope are kicking themselves for not taking advantage and selling while they could make a nice profit.

If I move anywhere, the subway service must be good, and it must not cost more than the place I just sold.

 

I guess after cashing in, I could head over to Brownsville and live there for a decade. The area is rich in subway service with the , , , , , and . If I don't get shot first, I might make it to the point where the whole place is overrun with hipsters. Then profit!

[Via Garibaldi 8]

If I move anywhere, the subway service must be good, and it must not cost more than the place I just sold.

 

I guess after cashing in, I could head over to Brownsville and live there for a decade. The area is rich in subway service with the , , , , , and . If I don't get shot first, I might make it to the point where the whole place is overrun with hipsters. Then profit!

lol.. You can't stop gentrification. It will takes its course...

[MHV9218]

I don't consider an upper class neighborhood gentrified. Its gentrified when hipsters from Oklahoma trying to "find themselves" move in and there's a Starbucks or other typical hipster chain sh*t on almost every block. Williamsburg and Astoria are gentrified. Riverdale, SI etc. are just upper class areas where most of the people have been there or in NY for decades.

 

The first example you gave is a gentrifying neighborhood. An upper middle class neighborhood has gentrified. 5th Ave in Park Slope was a rough spot in 1970, gentrifying through the 1990s, gentrified by the 2000s, and now an upper middle class neighborhood like the Upper West Side.

[Orion VII 4 Life]

The first example you gave is a gentrifying neighborhood. An upper middle class neighborhood has gentrified. 5th Ave in Park Slope was a rough spot in 1970, gentrifying through the 1990s, gentrified by the 2000s, and now an upper middle class neighborhood like the Upper West Side.

Right but just being upper class doesn't make it that.

[BreeddekalbL]

also im gonna post spike lee's gentrification "rant" which is not racist

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/spike-lee-amazing-rant-against-gentrification.html

and here is hipster saying what he said is racist