Indeed - but even "rich" cities aren't totally isolated. I'd encourage people to watch some of Louis's other videos where he roams the streets and even the national brands have pulled out of NYC - but the amount of vacancies overall is pretty astonishing. Between the "summer of LOVE" and COVID it's been a pretty harsh one/two punch and there is already a significant momentum that has started of resources pulling out of the city - and once these trends start they are pretty damn hard to reverse. NYC is only rich if there is commerce for them to tax.
I'm not trying to make a pro/con debate; I'm only pointing out that there are 8 million people living here, the vast majority of which are assuredly not billionaires. The original comment really provides no value by stating "I know some people in New York and they want to leave because they can't enjoy it without being billionaires."
This article seems to be saying the rich are leaving New York. And the world that caters to them (expensive restaurants, etc.) is suffering. This is true.
But as you say falling rents offer more opportunities for the culture and lifestyle aspects of the city.
Also, this post rattles off a bunch of negatives, but fails to offer any alternative to rival NYC. South Florida or Phoenix? Maybe one, but certainly not yet.
That's true of Manhattan but much less so for other boroughs. And rich people still tend to occupy only one unit. Foreign buyers remove units from the pool entirely while contributing less to the local service economy, mad there have been large new luxury buildings where most of the units lack full time residents. That's unhealthy for the city.
Most of Manhattan got too pricey for working class families a decade or more ago (unless hey have rent control.) it's a much bigger crisis that large portions of the other boroughs might head that way.
Louis Rossman said it in many of his recent videos.... new york has everything, but also costs alot. You have cinemas, broadway, restaurants, everything.... and you pay for that privilige.
Now, when all that is closed, you have only the "bad" parts (the homeless, crime, noise, bad smells... all that with a "premium price")... so, why stay?
Poor people have no jobs, have to move out.... rich people don't have anything to do there, and move out because they can.
We are agreeing that NYC is not at a moment of urban collapse. The processes that drives away the tax base includes policies and social and market forces that erode the city's effectiveness as a sustaining economic and social hub.
The 1960s and 1970s crisis had a lot to do with the end of NYC's industrial epoch. Suburban development and globalization eliminated manufacturing and pulled workers and residents out of the city. The recovery of NYC was bringing high-value services, retail, and tourism back along with arts and culture.
In the time since, NYC has become increasingly a luxury experience, which is indeed part of its strength but also its weakness, since it accelerates decline when people can up and leave without having roots.
Funny, we saw this exact same article come through a few months back about Paris.
It's the same story: All the trendy rich people that displaced the poor bohemians and gentrified the neighborhoods are now being displaced by even richer people.
It makes for good ironic commentary, so it plays well here. I suspect we'll see the third part of the trilogy about New York come through by the end of the year.
As Louis has shown a number of store fronts have simply closed shop, and the landlords don't care to fill the spot. Some have just outright sold their buildings and they just sit there without occupancy for years. It's a very unnatural market that shoos away normal people that don't have a few million lying around.
I don't believe NYC will ever become a "ghost town" but it certainly will look more like a pale grey image of brick and mortar where you just live in a box, go to the office, and repeat.
On the other hand, without the billionaires and millionaires crowding into manhattan, it might give ordinary people a shot at ever owning property in New York.
Unless you're in a cushy rent-protected situation, all the municipal services in the world don't mean jack when you get kicked out because you can't afford it. And manhattan stopped being affordable a long time ago, with large parts of the other boroughs well under way to the same.
Our society is much more complex and populous than Rome was at that time. Sure the idle rich could and did vacate but it's hard and expensive to move the massive investment in social infrastructure that any organisation that feels a need to be in New York City has made.
NYC is our city. It's for everyone. If the wealth is too concentrated there, split it up. You'd want to turn my hometown into some kind of apartheid disneyland for the rich.
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