We moved out of NYC in December 2015. My old team in the Chelsea Market office had gone through a dysfunctional re-org. Trump had won the primary. Star Wars: The Force Awakens had just landed in theaters. We skipped the Google holiday party and chose to line up for the
Singapore opened our eyes to a much much much bigger world out there. London was truly cosmopolitan the way New Yorkers sometimes claim their city to be. But no one does culture better than NYC. California may tell the best stories out of LA, but they’re all about NYC. It’s good to be back in the city - in its eateries, its parks, its bookshops, its cafes and walking its blocks. Our step count instantly doubled!
For this week’s art habit, I chose this Colorado University student building.
Here are the finds for this week:
- SUBPAR SUBWAY I love the MTA (NYC’s subway system). I think it’s the most under-appreciated part of NYC. New Yorkers love to complain about it - but keeping this beast running and breathing is a mean feat! But Why does the MTA operate at a loss while Tokyo Metro is profitable? WSJ explains how Japan’s transportation system got so far ahead and runs so smoothly.
- SAFE PEDESTRIANS New York City just had its safest-ever year for pedestrians. What went right? Ten years after New York became the first US city to adopt the “Vision Zero” traffic safety model, transportation authorities and activists see progress and frustrations.
- BRUTAL RENT Rent in New York City is at an all-time high. The median asking rent in Manhattan reached $4,100 in June 2022. CNBC Make It spoke to three New Yorkers whose rent increased by up to $2,100 a month. But are New Yorkers willing to pay up? One challenge for renters is that they must earn at least 40 times the rent. With the median asking rent in Manhattan at around $4,000, the minimum income to qualify for an apartment at that price is $160,000. The median household income in New York City is $67,000.
- SKY WHY? New supertall skyscrapers planned for Manhattan will reduce the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building to the scale of souvenir tchotchkes. With the current glut of unoccupied office space, they may be the last of their kind.
- IN & OUT The people leaving New York at the fastest rate last year were families making between $32,000 and $65,000. A disproportionately high share of these movers were Black and Hispanic. They were followed by people earning $104,000 to $172,000 a year and above average income in many parts of the country, but a more modest one in New York City.