The 'New' New York

[KB0679]

The 'New' New York (http://travel.msn.com/Guides/article.aspx?cp-documentid=411260)
Today’s Manhattan is more exciting than ever. But has a safer, cleaner Big Apple lost some of its flavor?

By John Rosenthal

When Wall Street sings, New York dances, and since the beginning of 2006, Manhattan has been doing the jitterbug. Seven-figure bonuses for the city’s brokers and traders translate into six-figure commissions for architects and designers. They in turn spill into restaurants and bars, where they run up three- and four-figure tabs celebrating and sharing their good fortune with friends, family, waiters and bartenders. On practically every corner, a barbershop or candy store has been replaced by yet another bank just to handle all the money flowing about. Nobody lights their cigars with $100 bills, but that’s only because there’s hardly any place where smoking is legal these days.

It’s been nearly six years since the attacks of Sept. 11 shook New York City to its core. But while many Americans still gaze back in anger, fear or sorrow, New York has never been a place for rumination. The City That Never Sleeps is up all night as ever, thrumming to the sound of cash changing hands. The joint is jumpin’ and there’s a line out the door.

The Manhattan of 2007 is even more torn up than it was in the limping weeks after 9/11, but these days construction—not destruction—is the reason. In nearly every corridor where it’s possible to raise a finger toward the heavens, a massive crane is erecting yet another addition to the skyline. Both the Yankees and Mets have broken ground on new baseball stadiums due to open next year, and the NBA’s Nets are being lured to Brooklyn in 2009 by a shiny Frank Gehry-designed sports arena/housing development/office tower/retail extravaganza.

In April, Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled an ambitious 25-year plan to minimize the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and put a park within 10 minutes’ walk of every resident. More than 1 million trees will be planted citywide. “Our economy is humming, our fiscal house is in order, and our near-term horizon looks bright,” said Hizzoner at a press conference. “If we don't act now, when?”

New York’s good fortune is, almost in and of itself, the premier attraction for visitors. The city is at its vibrant best when guests from a hundred different countries go there to play. The people-watching is professional grade, and there’s an air of international sophistication that befits a city that fashions itself the Capital of the World. There’s not a cuisine on the globe that isn’t done to perfection; even authentic Mexican food has finally established a foothold.

New York City has historically taken its cues not from the rest of America but from across the pond. And today is no different. With the euro and the British pound trading at all-time highs, New York is a bargain for Europeans, who shop to their hearts’ content and still have a fistful of dollars left over for plane fare home. The city crawls with so many European tourists that it feels downright Continental.

And many foreign visitors have decided to put down roots, fueling a real estate boom. Desirable apartments still create the kind of bidding wars the rest of the country hasn’t seen since 2005; even studios no larger than a walk-in closet continue to bring top dollar. And why not? Even a New York apartment feels spacious compared to a London flat, and—considering the price of a pound these days—costs little more than dinner and a show in the West End.

Downtown: Everything’s waiting for you

As it was a century ago, Lower Manhattan is again the most dynamic neighborhood in the city. For visitors coming for the first time since Sept. 11, the giant hole in the ground where the Twin Towers once stood is a place to bear witness. For residents and business owners, it’s a scar that can’t go away soon enough.

Much of downtown is still under construction, but there’s a palpable optimism in the air. One of the most hopeful signs is Santiago Calatrava’s marvelous transportation hub, which will spread its wings above Ground Zero in early 2010. On the downside, it seems as if every other office building has been converted into residential condominiums or luxury rentals. The neighborhood’s grand redevelopment blueprint once aimed to include a raft of cultural institutions. But in an apt metaphor for the city, the plan now cuts the arts back to a supporting role, upstaged by millions of square feet of more office space.

Meanwhile, pretty public plazas have sprouted up all over the neighborhood, offering sunny spots for wolfing down lunch or sneaking in a power nap. Hermès and Tiffany have placed bets on the neighborhood, and several upscale hotels are preparing to open in the next few years.

Big boxes in the Big Apple

But all this excitement has not been without its costs. New York City today is safer and cleaner than ever, but also more generic. The head shops and XXX theaters of Times Square have long since gone the way of the Checker cab, replaced by family-friendly entertainment and dime-a-dozen chain restaurants. Columbus Circle, where the homeless once mingled with people catching buses that would take them upstate to visit relatives in prison, is now home to a massive Whole Foods Market, a staggeringly expensive Mandarin Oriental hotel, quotidian staples such as J. Crew and Jamba Juice, and the stunning but sterile Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Even the residential parts of Manhattan have become more like the rest of America. New Yorkers who once prided themselves on patronizing unique boutiques and specialized butchers, bakers and candlestick makers now shop at the same big-box stores as everybody else. An entire block of Chelsea has been turned into a suburban mall, complete with a Best Buy, a Home Depot (can you take lumber on the subway?) and an Outback Steakhouse.

The city also has lost some of the edginess that gave it character. In the erstwhile Meatpacking District, you’re more likely to find vegan menus and cruelty-free handbags than to slip on entrails. And in SoHo, lofts have gotten too expensive for starving artists; these high-ceilinged spaces are increasingly occupied by investment bankers and white-shoe lawyers.

It’s not a kinder, gentler New York City by any means. People can be just as gruff and impatient as ever (though for some reason New Yorkers love to give directions to out-of-towners). But there’s a real swagger in the city’s step and a special brand of energy that just can’t be found anywhere else in the nation. As long as you bring your wallet, the sky’s the limit.

John Rosenthal lived in New York City for 30 years before moving to Santa Monica, Calif., in 2003. He returns to Manhattan annually to visit family and friends, or whenever he needs a decent slice of pizza.

[PhillyRising]

New York may not be as interesting as it was in the 70's or as fun...but I will say it's prosperity is a good thing for the Northeast and Philadelphia is starting to feel the effects of it as the tidal wave moves south.

[Young Gun]

:previous: I agree. People even wonder into my city from NYC on the weekends. They spend lavishly on food, drinks, and entertainment, well lavishly for Harrisburg at least Harrisburg is a transportation hub for the East Coast and as long as we are sending goods to the cities it will continue to improve and thrive.

[krudmonk]

http://www.futurama-madhouse.com.ar/miscpics/New_New_York_Cityscape.jpg

[ginsan2]

Even the residential parts of Manhattan have become more like the rest of America.

Wow. Well. I suppose that no matter how much NYC may try to change, this little slap to the face is always going to be a reminder to the stark provincialism that finds it's home in the Big Apple.

[Kent76]

Fantastic New York and in 2010-12 more population, more high towers, more stations, a new soccer team and I hope a new soccer stadium in Queens!!!

[sf_eddo]

I just finished reading this (http://www.papress.com/bookpage.tpl?isbn=1568986785) -

Suburbanization of New York, The: Is the World's Greatest City Becoming Just Another Town?

It's a collection of essays which can be just as irritating as it can be agreeable. Anyways, it's a fascinating and enjoyable read and I highly recommend it.

[krudmonk]

Fantastic New York and in 2010-12 more population, more high towers, more stations, a new soccer team and I hope a new soccer stadium in Queens!!!
Ugh, if no one goes to see RBNY, then there shouldn't be a second team there.

[Upward]

The first time I went to New York was 2000. When I was there this January, I definitely felt that it had become more generic and corporate since then. It no longer had quite the same feel as it did 7 years before, which had been the way I'd expected it to be back then. And I didn't even set foot in Times Square...

[Stratosphere 2020]

I like the fact that New York City is much more safe and clean today.

I have been to NYC for the first time in de mid 1980's and I remembered hearing gun shots frequently, constant sirenes, grit and lots and lots of grafiti and prostitutes.

I am happy to walk in the city at 3:00am without having to watch my back at all times.

However it is a pitty, it is losing on good night clubs.

[amel70]

"Even the residential parts of Manhattan have become more like the rest of America. "

Could it be because so many people from the rest of America have moved to NY and are making it this way?

I live in LA and it always amazes me when people talk about everything in between NY and LA as being "less" when from what I can tell there are a lot of people from "in between" that have moved to LA - so LA is like a great big Midwest :)

[Jularc]

NYC is doing fine. Yes there are streets obsessed with the starbucks, banks and drugstores phenomenum, but NYC is a big city and there are still alot of unique stores. Also just travel on most of Upper Manhattan and right outside of Manhattan and you will it still find alot of 'Mom and Pop' kind of places.

Also the other night I notice how 9th avenue between 42nd and 54th street has become restaurant row. I haven't walk in that street for a long time, but now there are so many new restaurants that I never seen before. It is like a boom on that avenue. Back in the day in the 80's landlords were strugling to get that type of retail on that location. Some store fronts were empty for a long time. In NYC many 'non-chain' retail just move or new ones open in other locations.

[miketoronto]

It is a shame NYC is losing its unique vibe, because that is what makes NYC and all cities special.

Although things will go in cycles. Manhattan will become to suburban with all the chains, and people will stop going, and then stores will close, and unique places will come back. Its the cycle I learned about in college, with tourism.

But I think its sad you have to basically commute to the outter parts of NYC to get unique NYC anymore, with people saying "ohh just go out to Brooklyn or the Bronx". Its not the same as having all those great places centred in Manhattan and then having Brooklyn etc to visit.

When my parents lived in NYC in the 60's-70's, they had a blast. My mom talks about the places they went to in Manhattan, and Manhattan was not just for the rich. Everyone went and had fun. And they had something for everyone. And it was all local places.

A shame NYC is turning bland in a way. Best Buy and some chain jazz club, is not what NYC is about.
To be honest NYC should have some bylaw limiting chains in the city. Otherwise the city really will risk losing what makes it great.

[waterloowarrior]

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Racheldratchdebbie.jpg

[NewYorkYankee]

I don't know where people get this "New York is becoming like America" buisness. So, there's a chain store here and a family with kids there. I personally love what NY has become, which is a much better place to live. We could go back to the 1970s, but then none of you would come to NY in the first place.

[Fusey]

I visited New York every summer to see family since I was born, and from 2002-2003 I lived in Queens. In my opinion, New York is incredibly better than it used to be. During the 80's and early 90's my grandpa wouldn't let us stick around past 6 pm, then it was indoors until the sun rises. Even with chain stores moving into the city it will always have unique places to shop and dine. I've been to plenty of jazz and blues clubs in formerly bad neighborhoods and felt perfectly safe at 2 AM. There will always be an endless supply of character in cities like NYC, but right now it's simply less grit.

[pico44]

To say New York is losing its unique vibe or is becoming bland is ridiculous. Trust me, New York has all of the world class cultural institutions it has always had. It is still the best place to eat in the Americas. Last time I checked, only London could claim a comparable theater district. And the energy on the street has never been better. Yes, CBGB has closed down and The Second Avenue Deli has been replaced by a bank, so everything is not perfect; but trust me, New York is very alive and very well.

[miketoronto]

Its funny I was just talking with a friend last night, and out of the blew he talked about his trip to NYC not long ago, and how it almost brought tears to his eyes, because so much of the vibe in Manhattan has been killed by corporate chain take overs.

NYC may not have been perfect crime rise in the 70's, but it was probably more real and had more culture.

My parents lived in NYC in the 60-70's, and they have amazing stories of the city. My mom could find whatever she wanted in Manhattan from rich to cheap, and everywhere in between, plus all the culture, cafe's, etc. Try finding that today. Its all expensive for the most part.
We are killing the vibe in cities like NYC, because all we are building for are corporations now and rich people.
When you cater just to the rich, you lose alot of the vibe in the city.

Infact our cities may be in their most dangerous time. They may have had crime and some decay before. But they where real and had substance.
If we continue on the path we are going with covering everything in Best Buy and the House of Blues, there really will be no reason to visit our cities anymore, and people will just stay in the burbs. Whats the point of going into Manhattan, if its all the same crap you got at your mall or power entertainment strip mall?

I think it is time cities like NYC put up bylaws limiting corporate chains, and put moer focus on housing for all incomes.

[Kent76]

#8 07-06-2007, 11:06 AM
krudmonk
Sur de la Bahia Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SJCA
Posts: 52



Quote:
Originally Posted by Kent76
Fantastic New York and in 2010-12 more population, more high towers, more stations, a new soccer team and I hope a new soccer stadium in Queens!!!

Ugh, if no one goes to see RBNY, then there shouldn't be a second team there.

RBNY is only a New Jersey soccer team!!!
Now that soccer in USA is great ( to see Gold Cup and fantastic USA under 20 in FIFA UNDER 20 WORLD CUP in Canada : USA- BRAZIL = 2-1 great Altidore and fantastic ADU ! ) it is absolutely necessary to create a NEW YORK CITY soccer team and a soccer stadium in the Queens.

[fflint]

NYC may not have been perfect crime rise in the 70's, but it was probably more real and had more culture.
This again? You may have a romanticized vision of "real" "cultured" people sharing stories and warm milk around a crackling apartment-block fire in a bankrupt, crumbling, riot-torn, quasi-abandoned, squatter-infested, crime-riddled, job-exporting Valhalla, burning arson-orange well into the night--but the minute you start pushing that dreamy romanticized vision of the bad old days as some sort of universal truth about "realness" and "culture" on those of us who did know the city then, you're crossing the line into lunacy. Every member of my family who lived in New York City in the 1970s had left by 1980, never to return, because they were afraid for the health, safety and well-being of themselves and their family members.

And your parents may have fun stories about childhood in New York, but you know what? Your parents fled the city forever, too.

Infact our cities may be in their most dangerous time.
Nah--if that were really true, you'd be romanticizing it.

I think it is time cities like NYC put up bylaws limiting corporate chains, and put moer focus on housing for all incomes.
They do that in San Francisco. The result: higher prices for everything, from groceries to hardware to liquor to books. Perhaps you think higher prices are worth it--most of my fellow San Franciscans do--but consider this: higher prices for ordinary items only further incentivizes a move to the cheaper suburbs for working- and middle-class people.

[miketoronto]

It is not a romanticized view of NYC. My parents lived in NYC in the 60-70's. They did not have problems with crime thank goodness. And they enjoyed a lot of things in the city. My mom worked in Manhattan, and had no problems. They shopped at amazing local stores in Brooklyn, and Manhattan. Went to shows at the theatres in Manhattan, etc. There was a real community spirit in their hood, and it was not overpriced and hyped. It was just a normal city neighbourhood and a normal Manhattan :)

That is not being romanticized. That is just stating what it was like. And alot of that is being killed off. You think most people walk a block or two from their homes to go to the butcher shop, and fruit market anymore. No. They go off to Whole Foods and pay double the prices to be trendy.

What made these cities unique is being killed a little at a time by corporate America.

And for your information. NYC is the only city I have family in where relatives still and have always lived in the inner city. I have family in dozens of American cities. Not one of them lives in the inner city, except in NYC, where I would say 90% of them have stayed in NYC city limits, even in the big bad 70's, 80's time.

And my parents only left NYC to move to Toronto for other reasons. Not because the city was bad. They had a very good life there and had no problems living in inner NYC, during the so called bad times.

[miketoronto]

They do that in San Francisco. The result: higher prices for everything, from groceries to hardware to liquor to books. Perhaps you think higher prices are worth it--most of my fellow San Franciscans do--but consider this: higher prices for ordinary items only further incentivizes a move to the cheaper suburbs for working- and middle-class people.


The only reason the prices are higher is because the urban economy has been killed.

My mom for example when she lived in NYC knew every store from cheap to high end in Manhattan and Brooklyn. She could get anything at good prices, and it was all from local stores, not chains.

Why could you do that back in the old NYC? Because the city had the real urban economy that crossed all income levels and did not just cater to the rich.
We have killed off that kind of economy with chain stores, suburbanization, etc.

But to act like chains are the only place to get a deal is so not true. Infact when you have nothing but chains, they can fix the price to whatever they want.

If you want cheap prices, restore the kind of urban shopping we use to have, that catered to everyone, and not just the rich.

Amazing how normal middle class families use to survive very well shopping at local city stores. And now all of a sudden you can only life well if you have a Safeway to so call save you money.

The best thing NYC can do is cultivate and protect the organic homegrown business again in the city. Because I am sorry. Best Buy, Whole Foods, House of Blues, etc, are not what NYC is about.

[fflint]

The only reason the prices are higher is because the urban economy has been killed.
You've made this ignorant statement before, so I will again remind you of the blatantly obvious: San Francisco's urban economy isn't ruined AND the corner stores, food marts, and produce shops charge more for comparable items than the existing Safeway and Costco stores do. Small stores are "convenient" and so they charge for the "convenience." There are as many non-chain stores today in SF as there have ever been. They haven't gone anywhere. They're still open late into the night, full of Lebanese pop music and Chinese television shows and petulant adult children trying to study behind the cash registers, and they STILL charge too much for everything--way too much. I don't suppose you'll understand what I'm writing this time, or acknowledge it in any case--but there it is.

[Patrick]

The first time I went to New York was 2000. When I was there this January, I definitely felt that it had become more generic and corporate since then. It no longer had quite the same feel as it did 7 years before, which had been the way I'd expected it to be back then. And I didn't even set foot in Times Square...

I tottaly agree. New York City is just becomeing another bland city, dont get me wrong, I love NYC well, 90's NYC, anyways, New York will always be a great city compared to the rest, but I dont think you can ever beat NYC's booming 80's and 90's.

[NewYorkYankee]

:previous: Sorry mike, it is romanticized. Drugs and crime were very real back then. Granted, NYC wasn't all bad back then, a lot of it stayed nice. But to even try to yearn for the social state of the city in the 1970s vs today shows A) you didn't live through that time and place and B) You really don't understand what it takes to make a place liviable.

[miketoronto]

I did not say drugs and crime were good.

But the things that made NYC what it is, are from the era before the 2000's. People moved back and restored NYC because of all the great culture created during those times.

If NYC was filled with Best Buy and every chain restaurant you can think of, from the 60's, I doubt many people would want to have moved back.

What is the point of living in NYC if it is just a bland walkable carbon copy of the suburbs.

North American cities are in a very weird time right now, where they are all becoming carbon copies of themselves almost. So what is the point of even visiting, if it is all the same national crap.

And I can see why people are upset. I have not talked with one person who has visited NYC in the last couple years, and not been just a tad sad at how bland the city is becoming in a way, because it is losing its cultural, shopping, and dining landmarks and local spirit.
My neighbour was just in NYC exploring Manhattan, and a local they met there basically told them to not even waste their time with Manhattan and to go out to Brooklyn to see what is left of the "real" NYC.

That to me is sad. Want a jazz club, forget Manhattan, you gotta go out to the outter boroughs is basically what the local was saying for example. That is just one thing.

[miketoronto]

You've made this ignorant statement before, so I will again remind you of the blatantly obvious: San Francisco's urban economy isn't ruined AND the corner stores, food marts, and produce shops charge more for comparable items than the existing Safeway and Costco stores do. Small stores are "convenient" and so they charge for the "convenience." There are as many non-chain stores today in SF as there have ever been. They haven't gone anywhere. They're still open late into the night, full of Lebanese pop music and Chinese television shows and petulant adult children trying to study behind the cash registers, and they STILL charge too much for everything--way too much. I don't suppose you'll understand what I'm writing this time, or acknowledge it in any case--but there it is.

Maybe for you guys that is how it is. But I shop at many local stores here in Toronto, and the prices are for the most part the same as the chain stores, or cheaper. Sometimes they may be a couple pennies higher. But overall the prices are the same or cheaper.

The reason many cities have expensive local stores, is because they are being killed off by corporations and their chain stores.

If residents do not support the local economy, how are the prices suppose to be good and all that?

Actually I was just talking with my sister, and she was telling me how she got a whole can of these expensive nuts for 15 bucks at a local family owned store here in Toronto. That same can of nuts is going for about 20 bucks in the famous so called "cheap" chain supermarkets.

Sorry but I believe in supporting local. And if more people did that, the prices would be fine.

My family has always shopped about 50% local stores, and 50% supermarket. And we don't have issues with the prices at the local stores for the most part.

Cities are losing out by falling to the feet of the chain stores. You are losing the selection, etc that are cities are all about.
And it is a shame if it is not like that in SF anymore, where you have amazing neighbourhood commercial strips full of well priced fruit, veggies, meat stores, bakeries, etc. Because that is what a city is about. Not getting your mass produced bread from Safeway. :)

[Crawford]

Mike, you simply don't know enough about NYC (or other American cities) to make any insightful comments. All your alleged cousins that happen to live in whatever city happens to be discussed are not representative samples of city dwellers. Whether or not your cousins thought the 70's in NYC were great is anecdotal and irrelevent.

Also, what's with the constant Skyscraperpage refrain that chain stores = suburbia? I never got that one. Tokyo, Paris and London are filled with giant chain stores, IMO all to a greater extent than New York. Does that mean Tokyo, Paris and London are "suburban"? I don't get it.

[NewYorkYankee]

:previous: I thought I was the only one who picks up on the fact MikeToronto has these "cousins" everywhere?:jester:

[Jularc]

That to me is sad. Want a jazz club, forget Manhattan, you gotta go out to the outter boroughs is basically what the local was saying for example. That is just one thing.

Obviously you don't know what you are talking about. :rolleyes:

[fflint]

Maybe for you guys that is how it is.
Wow, that's *almost* an acknowledgment of the reality on the ground here!

But I shop at many local stores here in Toronto, and the prices are for the most part the same as the chain stores, or cheaper. Sometimes they may be a couple pennies higher. But overall the prices are the same or cheaper.
Right, but for the millionth time, your personal experience is not universal.

If residents do not support the local economy, how are the prices suppose to be good and all that?
If residents do support the local economy and prices nevertheless remain high in the independent stores, how will miketoronto adapt to that reality, if at all?

And if more people did that, the prices would be fine.
That is merely an article of faith, and San Francisco's experience shows your faith is misplaced. Banning new chain stores in New York, as you propose, might not artificially inflate the cost of ordinary items for average New Yorkers--but then again, it just might. It has here.

And it is a shame if it is not like that in SF anymore, where you have amazing neighbourhood commercial strips full of well priced fruit, veggies, meat stores, bakeries, etc. Because that is what a city is about. Not getting your mass produced bread from Safeway. :)
This city is about getting whatever you want from wherever you want. It is about choices, not about fidelity to miketoronto's purity patrol or official prescribed economic lifestyle. Safeway is based here; it is a "local" company that became a huge continental chain; this city, of which you remain embarrassingly ignorant, is none the poorer for the fact that Safeway has operated here for decades. Deal with it.

[pico44]

That to me is sad. Want a jazz club, forget Manhattan, you gotta go out to the outter boroughs is basically what the local was saying for example.

You gotta be fucking kidding me? You are a troll.