I do not live there and what I know of NYC is from Robert Car is brilliant biography of Robert Moses, The Power Broker.
This very long and very passionate article could be a 2018 mirror version of The Power Broker and how reckless development has damaged the city.
New Yorkers, are you in agreement with the author? What are your experiences. It would be a national tragedy to lose the unique character of the five Burroughs.
I lived there from 1993-1998, and I do think it’s lost a lot of its character. I haven’t been back to the outer reaches of the outer boroughs, though. Bay Ridge, Sheepshead Bay, Canarsie, Ozone Park, Woodlawn, Pelham Bay, and places like that may not have lost their mom and pop places that gave them character. Manhattan? Totally not the same place.
Thank you. But it saddens me. In not sure what we can do to change this.
Well, it’s all been downhill since the electronics shops on Radio Row closed.
NYC is ever changing, ever-evolving. The Gentrification Crisis is nothing compare to real problems the City somehow survived in the 1970s or the mid 1800s until the police force really got going. The rents are spiraling up, but soon enough something will happen to arrest it. Might be a certain President sending us into yet another recession.
I think Moses did more to destroy NYC neighborhoods then gentrification is doing; and yet he also did a lot of good. In 20 year NYC will not be the NYC of today.
My parents fled the city with us kids in 1970. Going back in the 70s and 80s to visit my Grandmother and Uncles, the City was really truly dying.
Kevin Baker is full of shit, spouting the same tired platitudes about the “character” and “uniqueness” of a place he imagines through rose-colored glasses. Every old, grumpy fart who has ever lived here has been complaining about the same shit since they took the north wall down and let the injuns in.
I’m not sure why we would grieve the evolution of New York at all. It has never been as great a place as it has been built up to be. I think the only thing that really sets it apart is that much tv and theatre is based there, so it has seared itself into public consciousness to the point that we’re all much more familiar with it than it warrants.
Yeah, wrong.
It’s a hub of commerce, art, music, and food. There are endless diversions there. If you don’t think it’s one of the world’s great cities, which ones make your list?
By US standards it is easily our greatest city. Theater, Museums, Food, mass transit and of course the skyline. Hell the Bronx Zoo is the equal of any other zoo in the US and it is rarely brought up. NYC clearly has its warts but there is more to NYC than any other US city.
So what makes a city great?
For the USA:
Food, the only real rival in New Orleans, you trip over great places to eat in NYC.
Museums: The Smithsonian is the only rival and in the end, the collection of NYC Museums outweigh it.
Zoos & Aquariums: The Bronx Zoo is amazing and the Brooklyn Aquarium is at least good. Though there are clearly better ones.
Theater: No compare to Broadway.
NYC subway system better than Chicago’s and all other pale
The NYC Skyline: what compares?
Driving: absolutely terrible but hey, so is LA & Chicago.
Crime: Now the safest large city.
Cost of Living: yep, terrible, but I’m pretty sure San Fransisco is worse.
Historic Sites: OK, probably Boston wins this one, but NYC is pretty good here too.
Parks: OK, tough one, but NYC does fairly well in this category, but beat out by newer western cities and Minneapolis/St. Paul.
I’d disagree on the subway system. NYC comes dead last of the 4 multi-line systems I’ve used more than once in my adult lifetime, behind Boston, London, and DC, although with DC it is a close call and only is worse due to being less reliable and dirtier. Both the DC Metro and the Subway have either too few or too many stops, and suboptimal connections to airports. Whereas Boston and London have a good layout of stops and good connections to airports.
However, I do agree that some form of grade-separated public transportation is required to be a true metropolis. So the existence of the NYC Subway makes the city greater than if it did not exist (hmm now I am reminded of the ontological proof of God threads we had a decade or so ago.)
I’d have to say both Gettys in Los Angeles and the Armond Hammer Museum (all free) have to rival NYC. We also have great zoos (San Diego is better) aquariums and wild animal parks. We have just as good food (although spread out because of sprawl) and we have both a skyline and a beautiful coast both visible from hiking trails like Will Rogers State Park.
Americans are lucky to have several amazing cities.
I had to google Kevin Baker, initially I thought he might be a whiny millennial, but he’s just an old fart whining about his favorite corner bar or local diner closing and he wants to pay $100 a month in rent again.
LOL. What decade are you living in?
I agree with the other stuff tho.
Counter-point. The food is fine, but so is the food in pretty much every major city. New York no longer has a monopoly on such things. The parks are terrible. The zoos are fine, but not spectacular. The skyline is famous, but it’s not demonstrably different than Chicago and less distinct than DC. Public transport is horrible. The museums are not world class, only the Met and MoMA are and they are certainly can’t miss, but the others are similar to most large city museums. The theatre is the best in the world, so props for that. You also forgot that it smells like urine and the weather is miserable 8 months out of the year. The people are also known for their kindness and humility.
why does one have to have a “list?” Living in a dense city like NY would drive me insane from the noise, stench, and filth.
I disagree- unlike the other systems you mentioned (and most public transit systems in general) the NYC subway serves every station 24 hours a day. When you’re deciding which subway/public transit system is better or worse, yes, you have to consider reliability and cleanliness- but you also have to consider other issues. For example, in 2016 27.5% of Chicago households did not have access to a car. In NYC the number is 54.5%. I’m not going to guess which way the relationship runs, but clearly a city where over half of households do not have access to cars is going to need a different system than one where slightly over a quarter don’t. If I were running designing a subway to meet NYC’s needs right now, I would absolutely prioritize the over five million daily riders who are taking the subway to work at all hours of the day and night* over the ninety million a year who fly out of JFK and LaGuardia in 2016.
I’m not even sure what you mean by “too many stops” but I suspect it’s one of those things that varies by person - where the person who has to endure 10 stops between home and destination thinks there are too many stops, but the person whose stop is eliminated thinks there are too few because she now has to walk a mile to the nearest station. Which again, depends on the area the system is designed for - the LIRR can have stops miles apart because most of its passengers can drive to the train but inside NYC making the stations further apart causes more of the dreaded commutes that involve a bus ride to or from the train - or worse yet, a bus then a train then another bus.
So what?
This isn’t about you - it’s about senoy who said that NYC was overrated, which implies that he has a rating system.
The author is absolutely right about rent and housing. Here in Los Angeles its very hard to find an apartment that isn’t a bachelor in a decent neighborhood for less than 2k a month. In working class neighborhoods there are multiple generations living in one house/apartment. Luckily, we don’t have harsh winters and sweltering summers. I cant imagine being homeless in NYC.
That doesn’t make it a great city. It just makes it a city. There are plenty of things that New York has more of than most cities, but I’ve yet to find anything that New York has but that Cleveland lacks.