Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The changing face of post-pandemic New York City

osc.ny.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 391 posts

Re: The changing face of post-pandemic New York City

#81

Post by pastor_bob »

4death4 wrote: post #24
cglan wrote: post #12

I live in NYC. The problem is that there’s literally 0 housing. That’s it. Literally so many people want to move here, but you look on all of streeteasy on a given day and there’s like 500 apartments. In a city of millions. Sure you can pay more and get something. But it used to be that you traded a lot of quality of life (in unit washer dryer, dishwasher, ac, no walkups, cars, space, etc) for a lower price and the s…

This would make sense if the population growth was increasing but at a slower rate. But, the population is actively declining. Somehow, 5.3% of people went from having housing to leaving, so I don’t think housing is the only story here.

Remote work has made people pursue more space. I live in NYC in an 8 apartment building. 7 are 2 bedrooms, yet only 2 apartments have more than 1 person living in them.

Somewhat ironically, you have people choosing to stay single and not have kids, which gives them more money to spend on themselves for more room, which eats up housing and drives up prices.

Re: The changing face of post-pandemic New York City

#82

Post by wing-_-nuts »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #74
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

covid spread through kids like wildfire, often via asymptomatic infections which then spread to, and killed, elderly who just wanted to see their grandkids. The amount of pushback these measures got, when we were literally just trying to save lives and prevent disability through long covid absolutely staggers the mind and erodes my faith in humanity.

[flagged]

As well they should have. You realize you don't need a gym to exercise right? Walking and body weight exercises are totally sufficient and free.

Re: The changing face of post-pandemic New York City

#85

Post by wolverine876 »

jjulius wrote: post #32
cglan wrote: post #12

I live in NYC. The problem is that there’s literally 0 housing. That’s it. Literally so many people want to move here, but you look on all of streeteasy on a given day and there’s like 500 apartments. In a city of millions. Sure you can pay more and get something. But it used to be that you traded a lot of quality of life (in unit washer dryer, dishwasher, ac, no walkups, cars, space, etc) for a lower price and the s…

>I live in NYC. The problem is that there’s literally 0 housing. That’s it. >Literally so many people want to move here, but you look on all of streeteasy on a given day and there’s like 500 apartments. In a cities of millions. I'm currently in my mid-30's. Throughout all of my 20's, I thought it would be a blast to live in NYC. Then I had a good stretch where I visited it a whole bunch of times, hanging out with fri…

> life in NYC is largely spent just trying to figure out how to have a place to live

There's a lot going on in NYC, possibly more than anywhere in the world. And in fact, that's why people want to move there.

Re: The changing face of post-pandemic New York City

#86

Post by gotaran »

CydeWeys wrote: post #47
bequanna wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s still great. I’ve been to NYC many times and have friends in their late 30s that live there. The ones that live there say the same (“it’s great”) but never elaborate. From the outside, it honestly looks like a dirty, difficult, chaotic city. Many restaurants, but all seem to be copy+paste coffee shop, Italian, etc or very low quality cafe/deli. Coming from the Midwest, it feels very old, dirty and poor yet som…

It's entirely possible that you aren't missing anything, that you aren't cut out for this kind of living. But many people are and find it highly desirable, many millions more than can currently afford to live here. Also, I moved here for a job at a FANG. This is a top tier tech city, with salaries matched only by the Bay Area and Seattle. Compared to those other two I find NYC obviously superior.

If you’re at a FAANG, especially at a $300k+ total compensation, NYC is very livable. In unit washer/dryer might be a stretch, but you can comfortably get a 1BR luxury apartment without much effort in a nice part of Manhattan.

Re: The changing face of post-pandemic New York City

#87

Post by pclmulqdq »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #69
luxurytent wrote: post #14

Cities are amazingly resilient and it feels like every generation has a moment in which the city largest and most local to them is having a revival. Seems most large metros are going through some post-COVID pains: Increase in crime, extreme high cost of living, etc. New York will, like always, come back. But! The benefit to our mid size cities is great. We need these mid size cities to grow, and from my understanding…

That assumption obviously has an availability heuristic bias / selection criteria bias, like speeding down a road is safe because you haven’t died yet. NYC no doubt has a lot of things going for it, I think being the financial center for the hegemony is the deciding factor. In my view survival of NYC probably has less to do with local crime than the outcome of future wars.

Detroit was the center of manufacturing for "the hegemony," which is currently in the process of losing its control of the financial markets, just like they did in manufacturing.

Re: The changing face of post-pandemic New York City

#88

Post by jghn »

bequanna wrote: post #21
cglan wrote: post #12

I live in NYC. The problem is that there’s literally 0 housing. That’s it. Literally so many people want to move here, but you look on all of streeteasy on a given day and there’s like 500 apartments. In a city of millions. Sure you can pay more and get something. But it used to be that you traded a lot of quality of life (in unit washer dryer, dishwasher, ac, no walkups, cars, space, etc) for a lower price and the s…

> It’s still great. I’ve been to NYC many times and have friends in their late 30s that live there. The ones that live there say the same (“it’s great”) but never elaborate. From the outside, it honestly looks like a dirty, difficult, chaotic city. Many restaurants, but all seem to be copy+paste coffee shop, Italian, etc or very low quality cafe/deli. Coming from the Midwest, it feels very old, dirty and poor yet som…

> Coming from the Midwest, it feels very old, dirty and poor yet somehow expensive and desirable. What am I missing?

A counterpoint.

I don't live in NYC but do live in a similar major "coastal elite" type city.

When I visit the downtown areas of cities in the Midwest I'm always flabbergasted at how bad they are. Car culture reigns supreme, there's sprawl, while there's usually some portion of the inner downtown core that's seen a renaissance for the most part it's just empty buildings, especially at night.

Sure I can hop in a car and drive to some other area of the city limits, but that sucks. I'd rather be able to walk or take a short metro ride to my next thing. And my next thing. And my next thing. Similar, sure there are (usually) good restaurants. But they're also often a car ride away.

I'll grant that NYC is *so* large that it has similar issues. If one is in lower Manhattan and wants to get to Queens, good luck with that. But there's always something to do in a walkable radius.

Re: The changing face of post-pandemic New York City

#89

Post by NickM »

cglan wrote: post #12

I live in NYC. The problem is that there’s literally 0 housing. That’s it. Literally so many people want to move here, but you look on all of streeteasy on a given day and there’s like 500 apartments. In a city of millions. Sure you can pay more and get something. But it used to be that you traded a lot of quality of life (in unit washer dryer, dishwasher, ac, no walkups, cars, space, etc) for a lower price and the s…

People don’t believe it, but cities used to be cheap.

I wasn't really aware of this, but was just wondering about it the other day, as it seems like logically they should be cheaper; economies of scale ought to help for both housing and infrastructure, I would think. Interesting to hear that expensive cities aren't necessarily inevitable.

Re: The changing face of post-pandemic New York City

#90

Post by david38 »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #53
gandalfgeek wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "resilience" argument was misused and misapplied during the pandemic. You also saw it used for school closures -- "kids are resilient". It seems to justify inflicting known harms by having faith in "resilience".

covid spread through kids like wildfire, often via asymptomatic infections which then spread to, and killed, elderly who just wanted to see their grandkids. The amount of pushback these measures got, when we were literally just trying to save lives and prevent disability through long covid absolutely staggers the mind and erodes my faith in humanity.

A large percentage of the population relies on school for childcare. No childcare = no work = no money. A large percentage of those families didn’t have elderly in the home or visiting. For them, in-person school was critical.
Post reply on HN