No, New York City isn’t dying. But it needs more help than its cheerleaders want to admit.

Is the city doomed, like author and former hedge-fund manager James Altucher claimed in a now-viral LinkedIn post last week? Well, no. But dismissing him and his case as one put together by “some putz” — as Jerry Seinfeld did in the New York Times earlier this week — isn’t helpful either. It will take a lot more than “tough” New Yorkers staying put to make this rebuild happen.

The city’s midtown business core remains all but deserted, despite the fact that offices can now open with limited capacity. There is seemingly little reason for many to return. Technological advances make it easy, if lonely, to continue to work remotely. The amenities that make city living more pleasant — fine dining, theater, plentiful live music and opportunities to socialize — remain limited. A recent report estimated up to 1 in 3 of the city’s small businesses is likely to close its doors permanently.

It goes on. City schools are scheduled to reopen in two weeks, the city and the teachers and principals unions remain at loggerheads, and the concerns of parents and children appear to be an afterthought. It’s not even clear if classes will be held in a hybrid model or fully remote. When New York Mayor Bill de Blasio asked school authorities to look into outdoor learning, a number of principals in the Bronx responded by claiming it was too dangerous. “How are we going to safeguard our students and staff from events that are out of control due to high crime in the neighborhood?” they asked.

Leadership is desperately needed if this spiral is going to be reversed. But this is something that is, frankly, in short supply. The relationship between New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) and de Blasio is dysfunctional at best. Even separately, de Blasio can come across as disengaged while Cuomo apparently values his tough reputation more than actually helping the city’s businesses and residents. Cooperation with each other and outside stakeholder residents (other than the wealthiest taxpayers, whom Cuomo is begging to return to New York City) is often nonexistent.

The situation of the city’s restaurants, 40 percent of which did not pay one cent of rent last month, is instructive. Indoor dining is now permitted in nearby Westchester and Long Island, but not in New York City, despite the city’s less than 1 percent coronavirus positivity rate. Instead of offering help, Cuomo is threatening to revoke permission for city restaurants to offer outdoor dining, one of their few financial lifelines, to counter a possible second wave of the virus. Meanwhile, de Blasio is now suggesting indoor dining will not resume in any capacity until next year. An estimated 50 percent of workers in the sector remain unemployed, and the New York City Hospitality Alliance is threatening to sue.

It’s worth noting that all of this could be said to be an extension of existing trends that next to no one was taking seriously before the covid-19 crisis. The city’s famed restaurants were already operating in a financial vise: The New York Post predicted “hundreds” were on the verge of closing permanently in early January, when many Americans still didn’t know there was a city called Wuhan in China. Soaring commercial rents resulted in sky-high commercial vacancies across the city prior to the pandemic. The city’s population was falling before the shutdown, too. Residents were grousing, but no one in a position of authority seemed much inclined to offer any help.

New York City has always been a tough and expensive place to live, but there’s always been an unspoken deal: Put up with it, and you’ll get a front-row seat to the most vital city in the United States, with round-the-clock entertainment and unparalleled opportunities. But that’s gone, and the date of return is still to be determined. No wonder home sales are soaring in the nearby suburbs while Manhattan apartment vacancies are at a record high. Instead of insulting Altucher, those of us who love New York City might want to take his words as a warning — and a call to action.

Read more:

Source:WP