For those who don't read the Times regularly, this article confirms what we Gothamites have been feeling for a while. Yes, things are worse off here. If New Yorkers seem particularly incredulous when we get word from the national news that the recession is ending/ended, there's a good reason.
As someone in a pure service business, I was...um, gratified to see the article confirm the timetable I've felt instinctively - that things didn't get really bad until after 9/11, that even that disaster's economic effects were long delayed, and that 2002 was a much worse year than 2001.
Yesterday (Tuesday) I had a meeting with someone visiting from Seattle, and she said she was surprised that New York didn't seem to be in more of a funk. (She was also still shocked by what her host's apartment cost.) I explained to her that we've been in a kind of suspended animation mode for a while, waiting for the inevitable malaise Bloomberg et al. keep talking about to hit us with gale force: services are just starting to get cut; real estate is just starting to devalue; the real-estate tax hike is just kicking in and the subway fare isn't hiked yet; etc. Amazingly, this article managed to make our prospects sound even worse.
Final sad thought I had reading this: I guess we can forget about the creator of this blog and his lovely family sticking around this declining 'hood for much longer.
Well, we haven't left yet. The good news is that I'm now re-gainfully employed, doing some grantwriting (on a contract basis) for... Project Renewal, my old employer. So we can keep a roof over our head, even if the roof is massively overpriced. It's sort of a strange thing -- I lose my job because of the city fiscal crisis, but the same fiscal crisis means Project Renewal needs to step up the grant writing, and so here I am again. Go figure.
Greg, I think the elimination of basic services, and their replacement by boutiques (the debodegazation process) is part of a plan to turn Manhattan into a film set.
What bites is that all of this occurs as my own beloved neighborhood, the far West Village, seems to become ever-more unfriendly toward everyday people who want to spend everyday dollars on everyday items.
The two closest video rental stores and the two closest delis have closed due to increased rents -- two of those storefronts remain shuttered while the other two have become a pricey botique and a rental office for pricey real estate.
Ugh.
Hey — look at it this way: If real estate truly does devalue, then la famille Everett-Lane might be able to get cheaper rent. Of course, I say that as we continue our efforts to blow this taco stand entirely. :-)
Comment #3 :: link :: February 20, 2003 9:00 AM :: homepage
