Wat informatie over New York.
But let’s look at the facts — again:
Apartment vacancies are at an all-time high right now. That’s 13,117 vacancies. This number will rise: 1 in 4 residents haven’t paid rent since March.
Deficits are at all-time highs. The city is drowning in $9 billion of red ink — $1 billion more than expected. And tax revenues will see their steepest decline in city history.
More companies are leaving New York than ever before. They aren’t leaving because I wrote an article, but because corporations are serious about reality. Citi. JPMorgan. Google. And hundreds of other large companies. All either leaving or going remote.
Why can they go so easily?
Because for the first time in history, internet bandwidth allows all or nearly all white-collar employees to work remotely. Back in 2008, average bandwidth was 2.5 megabits per second (not enough for video). Now it’s more like 30 megabits per second (more than enough for video).
Does this mean people like remote work? No. But most studies agree: Remote is more productive. Again, this isn’t my conjecture. Thousands of firms that make up New York’s tax base have concluded so.
The knock-on effects, combined with those from the needlessly protracted lockdown, are devastating.
Thousands of restaurants have shuttered their doors permanently. Yelp has said up to 50% of the restaurants it tracks are out of business. A study by Partnership for New York City found that up to one-third of Gotham’s 240,000 small businesses may never reopen.
What does this mean? It means more revenue declines and even higher deficits. It means the choking death of the tourism industry. It means eerily empty office buildings.
We are just beginning to see the beginning. The beginning! A city spokesperson said that up to 22,000 layoff notices will go out August 31. These layoffs will hit emergency workers (who risked their lives at the height of the pandemic), garbage collectors, teachers and police officers. That last group’s loss will be especially tragic, given the 130% increase in shootings this year.
A city can’t survive blows like this.