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How Manhattan Became a Rich Ghost Town

theatlantic.com

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Re: How Manhattan Became a Rich Ghost Town

#41

Post by ardit33 »

njn wrote: post #32
ardit33 wrote: post #18

I live in manhattan and I feel this story is a bit exaggerated, or at least I don't see the author's reality. (Him quoting a Real Estate firm, which is interested in activity, doesn't give credence to the data). The turnaround of restaurants and bars here is amazingly fast. When one fails, another one springs up. The same street will have very different storefronts each year. I once asked a restaurant owner, on how i…

Right, cause coffee is so hard to make yourself. I guess I'll never understand the point of hipster coffee shops. I'm all for cozy cafes, but all the hipster style coffee places, like 9th st. espresso, are the opposite of that: more catering to the trendy, minimalist, i3-gaps ikea aesthetics of the mainstream of /r/unixporn.

You are missing the point. If coffee places, cupcake stores, and bodegas (which are not luxury good sellers) can thrive and expand, then it is not necessary the story of: "rents pushing great businesses away", more of: Not so great Business that are not solving the right needs at the right price are dying.

Creative destruction on steroids....

Re: How Manhattan Became a Rich Ghost Town

#42

Post by Quinner »

qubax wrote: post #19

It became a ghost town because of the elites and their supporters like theatlantic. Manhattan now is just a place where people from the outer boroughs, nj, connecticut, etc come to work and then go home. For a city that pretends to "never sleep", it is just a dead city at night. Queens, brooklyn, etc is more lively and other cities around the world like prague, barcelona, seoul, tokyo, osaka, etc are far more vibrant…

Do you actually live in Manhattan? There have been some losses in nightlife, it's generally too expensive to have big nightclub spaces. But the situation is very, very far from what you describe.

Re: How Manhattan Became a Rich Ghost Town

#43

Post by ilamont »

In Boston, there was a debate recently about 50 empty ground-level retail spaces on Newbury Street, an old street in the center of town long considered a place for luxury boutiques/salons/etc. But others questioned the data:

https://www.universalhub.com/2018/lot-empty-storefronts-newb...

Re: How Manhattan Became a Rich Ghost Town

#44

Post by addicted »

blindwatchmaker wrote: post #34
ardit33 wrote: post #18

I live in manhattan and I feel this story is a bit exaggerated, or at least I don't see the author's reality. (Him quoting a Real Estate firm, which is interested in activity, doesn't give credence to the data). The turnaround of restaurants and bars here is amazingly fast. When one fails, another one springs up. The same street will have very different storefronts each year. I once asked a restaurant owner, on how i…

> The turnaround of restaurants and bars here is amazingly fast. When one fails, another one springs up. The same street will have very different storefronts each year. Is that supposed to be a positive thing? Sounds pretty unstable and a terrible detriment to developing an actual neighbourhood.

Not generally. The good stuff will stick around. The stuff that isn’t as good wont.

Most cities are about change, and while nostalgia is great, cities that look the same as they did 20 years previously usually are not successful cities.

The reason is simple. Cities tend to attract younger folks. As the generation of people they attract changes, the tastes they need to cater to also changes.

Re: How Manhattan Became a Rich Ghost Town

#45

Post by aylmao »

blindwatchmaker wrote: post #34
ardit33 wrote: post #18

I live in manhattan and I feel this story is a bit exaggerated, or at least I don't see the author's reality. (Him quoting a Real Estate firm, which is interested in activity, doesn't give credence to the data). The turnaround of restaurants and bars here is amazingly fast. When one fails, another one springs up. The same street will have very different storefronts each year. I once asked a restaurant owner, on how i…

> The turnaround of restaurants and bars here is amazingly fast. When one fails, another one springs up. The same street will have very different storefronts each year. Is that supposed to be a positive thing? Sounds pretty unstable and a terrible detriment to developing an actual neighbourhood.

+1. And not only businesses, people are also changing apartments all the time.

Re: How Manhattan Became a Rich Ghost Town

#46

Post by March_f6 »

I lived in NYC from 2009 to 2017 and can affirm the author's feeling. Over the span of those years, and mostly as of late, I saw many of my favorite brick and mortars (Rare books, sporting goods shops, record stores, etc.) all be replaced by coffee shops or juice places.

Granted each of the above mentioned places have challenges with their respective industry but the feeling still stands.

Having been born in North Texas, I can also affirm the changing topography of America due to traditional brick and mortars being ousted. My hometown was once called the "Little Austin". It's now overrun with mini-mall strips that hold duplicates of things set up on the other side of town. (How many mattress stores and Sonics does a town of 100,000 need?)

The recent bankruptcy of Sears is another example where we will likely see large buildings across the country left empty and whose re-purposing will be contingent on state/city zoning laws (Texas doesn't have any) and rent. That is, why should I pay to reuse Sears's old building when the state/city will let me build a brand new building right down the highway?

Re: How Manhattan Became a Rich Ghost Town

#47

Post by Wowfunhappy »

wgerard wrote: post #10
sarabande wrote: post #2

It seems to me like in big cities, as this article describes what eventually will happen is the rich will buy up the property because nobody else can afford it, service workers won't be able to actually live within a reasonable distance in order to work there, and the city will exist mainly for 1) wealthy professionals, 2) people who use real estate to park their money, and 3) tourists. Regular working-class folk dis…

Anecdotally, that doesn't really seem to be the problem with New York and definitely not the problem the article is talking about. Ground-level stores don't seem to be suffering from staffing issues, largely because in New York it's not uncommon to work in Manhattan but live in Staten Island or Jersey. Instead, ground-level stores seem to be disappearing because commercial lease agreements are just insanely expensive…

And, this feels like an issue that will naturally fix itself over time, as landlords realize what they're asking for isn't reasonable.

Re: How Manhattan Became a Rich Ghost Town

#48

Post by dionidium »

njn wrote: post #32
ardit33 wrote: post #18

I live in manhattan and I feel this story is a bit exaggerated, or at least I don't see the author's reality. (Him quoting a Real Estate firm, which is interested in activity, doesn't give credence to the data). The turnaround of restaurants and bars here is amazingly fast. When one fails, another one springs up. The same street will have very different storefronts each year. I once asked a restaurant owner, on how i…

Right, cause coffee is so hard to make yourself. I guess I'll never understand the point of hipster coffee shops. I'm all for cozy cafes, but all the hipster style coffee places, like 9th st. espresso, are the opposite of that: more catering to the trendy, minimalist, i3-gaps ikea aesthetics of the mainstream of /r/unixporn.

I don't usually carry an espresso machine with me as I walk around the city, so, actually, yes, if I want to drink an espresso while I'm out, then I'll probably need to buy it from a coffee shop.

Re: How Manhattan Became a Rich Ghost Town

#49

Post by clubm8 »

huehehue wrote: post #35
ardit33 wrote: post #18

I live in manhattan and I feel this story is a bit exaggerated, or at least I don't see the author's reality. (Him quoting a Real Estate firm, which is interested in activity, doesn't give credence to the data). The turnaround of restaurants and bars here is amazingly fast. When one fails, another one springs up. The same street will have very different storefronts each year. I once asked a restaurant owner, on how i…

I've noticed a lot of nail salons, barber shops, cheap takeout places, and similar somehow managing to stay afloat despite being located in low-income areas with little foot traffic (in Manhattan). They're also usually empty. Is there some common situation where store owners can enjoy extremely low rent? Or is it common for people to inherit commercial space? Or perhaps these places are changing owners behind the sce…

>I've noticed a lot of nail salons, barber shops, cheap takeout places, and similar somehow managing to stay afloat despite being located in low-income areas with little foot traffic (in Manhattan). They're also usually empty.

A lot of seemingly "empty" restaurants do a brisk delivery business, especially now that Grubhub can make it so they don't have to hire delivery drivers.

Re: How Manhattan Became a Rich Ghost Town

#50

Post by notyourday »

roenxi wrote: post #3

Is there some legal issue at play here that the article isn't drawing attention to? Why is it a better idea to leave a property vacant than to have a short-term tenant?

Owning commercial real estate allows one to depreciate it regardless of it collecting rent or not.

It is not possible to close this loophole because 322 Prince St, LLC does not have to rent the space to Joe's Boutique for $7,000 a month rather than Starbucks for $17,000 a month - it can rent that space to "JP772 Holding, Inc" out of Nevada for $10/day which would be owned by the members of 322 Price St, LLC which would satisfy the rental requirement and keep the place unoccupied until someone offers $17,000/mo in rent.

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