Hearing so much about the economic "devastation" right in New York City, I checked in this weekend to a Manhattan hotel to get the "real feel" myself ...
Hearing so much about the economic "devastation" right in New York City,
I checked in this weekend to a Manhattan hotel to get the "real feel" myself on what's happening in the once bustling financial capital of the world.
Here's the firsthand list:
--- Taxi drivers are complaining they cannot make a living because tourism is down sharply. As one yellow cab driver told me, "...it's like since January the bottom has fallen out."
--- Once "hot" restaurants that needed reservations weeks in advance...you can just walk into them now. The immensely popular Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Centre has closed. The restaurant was opened in 1934. Fifteen Broadway shows have closed.
--- Retail space is becoming more and more readily available in and along Fifth Avenue. It was once rare to see prime Fifth Avenue retail space empty...today more and more "for lease" signs are popping up along Fifth Avenue.
--- Most hotels, hurting for business, are either lowering their rates or are offering the third night free on a three-night package (previously unheard of at the top hotels).
--- Most startling for me was the amount of empty office space. From the hotel room where I was staying, you can look through a window right into a first-class office building and all you see are empty or abandoned offices. The "for lease" signs for office space do not merely say 5,000 or 10,000 square feet for lease, they say 500,000 square feet for lease.
--- Rumors persist that the City itself is getting tight financially. Rumors have it that the police force has been trimmed and that 15,000 school teacher jobs are at risk.
I would not call what is happening in New York City "devastation," as most new sources and people do. I remember vividly in 1974 when the city did teeter on the brink of bankruptcy. (Back then, the City of New York asked the federal government for a life line, at which time then President Ford basically said "You are on your own.")
From what I see, we are dealing more with a city coming back to economic reality. The forty-million-dollar apartments (yes, they did get that high) could not be sustained. Here is another way to look at it, from a devil's advocate point of view:
It wasn't until 2008 that was I able to immediately flag a yellow taxi down in New York City. Prior to that, I needed to spend 20 minutes getting a cabby, because they were so busy. It is not normal to wait one month for a restaurant reservation... Retail space at $100.00 a foot could not go on for ever... You still can't find a decent Manhattan hotel for less than $500.00 a night... What can you expect for tourism when the cab ride from the airport to Manhattan is about $80.00, because it costs about $14.00 in toll fees?
No, this is not a city on the brink. Crime is not up. I didn't see more homelessness than I usually do. The popular stores are still packed. I see the current transformation of New York City as a coming back to economic reality.
Profit Confidential
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