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Secondly, tourism is almost at the level it was during the pandemic, although this month is fortunately quiet. The challenge, he says, is creating — and supporting — enough affordable housing.
Which takes us to the core. money. When Fran Lebowitz was recently asked what she would advise her 20-year-old self if she moved to New York City now, the answer was “Bring money.” This was never true. The city is getting richer.
While a wide range of people have left the city during the COVID-19 crisis, the bulk of them have been mostly low-income. Between 2020 and 2022, 2,400 millionaires moved abroad, while 17,500 moved at home.
Since 2020, the unemployment rate in all five boroughs has been just under twice the national average. The hospitality industry has been hit hard. Many of my favorite restaurants have closed. But the higher levels thrive. Data from the New York City Comptroller's Office found that the adjusted gross income of New Yorkers who earned between one and 25 million rose 21.3 percent in 2020 — while the income of those earning more than 25 million increased 84.5 percent.
The inequality gap is widening and getting angry.
In early 2020, one million jobs evaporated, and unemployment rose from 3.4% to 18.3% by May. Since then, the unemployment rate has remained at nearly double the national average. The US Census Bureau estimates that about 17.2 percent of New Yorkers live below the poverty line, compared to 11.6 percent of all Americans.
To afford childcare, couples need to earn at least US$300,000. It's a little difficult when the median household income in New York City is $74,694, according to the Census Bureau.
Housing costs also remain high. Co-op and condo board fees have risen at nearly three times the inflation rate. Figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show there has been a 19 percent increase in consumer prices since 2020, but a 54 percent increase in co-op bills for utilities and maintenance. Previously, rents were expensive, but the cost of daily living was affordable. Now, the cost of basic goods and services has risen significantly in the past three years.
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The only thing that caught my attention when I first stepped into the fresh air was the smell of weed on every street corner. The city is filled with signs of glowing green weeds. In 2021, a year into the pandemic, New York became the 15th state to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults 21 and older. The bureaucratic obstacles to opening smoke shops were so complex that there were only a dozen legal shops in the city, and about 1,500 illegal ones, which the authorities were unable to eliminate.
Sometimes there are three in one building – and they are everywhere.
It is a quieter, more colorful city, distancing itself from the shocks of the coronavirus and bracing itself for the uncertainty of a fraught election period.
It still feels like a place where anything is possible, where art is made, books are written, and songs are sung.
In the words of The National: “New York is shedding its skin again; “It dies every 10 years, and then it starts over.” So, when it starts again, this time, who will be able to survive?
New York will always be colorful, which is partly why I love it. Change is at its core, intrinsically dynamic – and therefore electric, it changes those who come here too. Its flexibility
It's what makes it a truly great city. It rolls on and on, absorbing decisions and disappointments
And the dreams of those who come here, then shed their skin, and then start again.
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