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Actually, we're in deep trouble: Work is changing profoundly, and NYC will not be able to adapt
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Leroy N. Soetoro
Sep 23, 2020, 2:16:46 PM9/23/20
to
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-actually-were-in-deep-trouble-
20200919-x5fuxkuvqbakrdta7vr3urvjzi-story.html#rt=chartbeat-flt
In local political circles, it’s now fashionable to scoff at doomsday
predictions and say that just as New York City came back in the 70s, came
back in the 90s, and came back after 9/11, it will now too. It’s
fashionable to say that even if some traditional office-based industries
cut back significantly, the cheaper rents will lead to an artistic and
technological renaissance that will spark new industries, trends and
energy that will make the city better than ever.
Unfortunately, that’s probably more wishful thinking than anything else.
What we’re facing now is different: the beginning of a far more
transformational shift in how we work, in many ways echoing the flight of
manufacturing from the United States in the mid-late 20th century. Until
now, there was a basic assumption that most white-collar employees would
work in an office. Only something like a six-month quarantine could have
challenged a norm so ingrained in our society.
But just like the combination of expanded capabilities and lower prices
sent manufacturing abroad, the combination of decent enough technology to
enable people to work remotely and the realization that most businesses
are not seeing their productivity plummet is causing a fundamental change
in how business owners think.
Yes, a lot of young people want to be here, to enjoy the bars and
restaurants and culture, assuming they don’t shrivel up when citizens and
many businesses uproot. But we’re now in a buyers’ market, meaning they’re
going to have to go where the jobs are.
Yes, maybe far cheaper rent is what we need for New York City to create
its first homegrown version of Google or Microsoft and maybe that might
fundamentally transform the local economy.
And yes, there’s a good chance that cheaper rents and harder times will
produce a burst of artistic production that will be fun to watch for a
period, just like the mid-late 70s produced some of the best movies ever
made about New York and some of the best bands to ever come out of New
York.
But those are hopes and wishes, not concrete plans, and they don’t add up
to a well-rounded city standing on a strong foundation. That’s what New
York City needs to remain to be the greatest city in the world, and that’s
what’s in grave danger right now.
There’s only so much erosion a tax base can take before it starts to
crumble from the inside. Great American cities like Detroit, Baltimore and
Cleveland were all decimated by the flight of manufacturing. Despite some
well-intentioned marketing campaigns to the contrary, none of them really
ever recovered.
New York has always been resilient because we’ve always been the physical
home of industries like finance and media, law and advertising and health
care. And not just one industry like some insurance towns, but many
industries.
But that’s only because the idea that you don’t have to be anywhere else
never occurred to anyone before.
We’re not going to lose every job overnight. Some industries still perform
better in person. A lot of people prefer working directly with other
people than being isolated and alone. And some big companies like Facebook
and Amazon have doubled down on New York with major leases.
But if the norms truly have changed, the economy will change with it. And
if New York City suffers through a 1970s-like deterioration in quality of
life, then many businesses will feel the pull of going remote even more
strongly, accelerating the entire process.
Short term, the answer is to do everything possible to keep the city as
appealing as possible. That means investing in quality of life measures
like trash pickup and graffiti removal. It means figuring out how to curb
abuses by law enforcement against blacks and Latinos while still bringing
down the rate of shootings.
It means making the city an attractive place to do business. If you want
to save jobs and help working people, raising taxes and adding regulations
will only have the opposite effect.
Longer-term, it means trying to use newly vacant office space to spur new
industries. It means reducing the cost of operating municipal and state
government so that spending meets what the new tax base can actually
afford.
It means having a mayor willing to personally call every major employer to
ask what she or he can do to make them happy here, rather than having a
mayor who is constantly trying to drive jobs away. And it means knowing
that none of this may be enough and having five more approaches ready to
go.
This is not 1978. It’s not 1993 or 2001. The challenges we’re facing today
are much, much deeper. The entire intellectual construct around work is
changing, and none of those changes are good for cities like New York. To
think about this as anything other than transformational change — to see
this as any different than a mirror of the destruction of the
manufacturing economy — is to misunderstand the situation at hand. And the
less we understand what’s happening, the less likely we are to
successfully do anything about it.
This is an emergency.
Tusk, a former Bloomberg mayoral campaign manager, is founder and CEO of
Tusk Holdings.
--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
President Trump has boosted the economy, reduced illegal immigration,
appointed dozens of judges and created jobs.
Senile loser and NAMBLA supporter Nancy Pelosi got "Trumped" on February
5, 2020. "President Trump, Not Guilty."
20200919-x5fuxkuvqbakrdta7vr3urvjzi-story.html#rt=chartbeat-flt
In local political circles, it’s now fashionable to scoff at doomsday
predictions and say that just as New York City came back in the 70s, came
back in the 90s, and came back after 9/11, it will now too. It’s
fashionable to say that even if some traditional office-based industries
cut back significantly, the cheaper rents will lead to an artistic and
technological renaissance that will spark new industries, trends and
energy that will make the city better than ever.
Unfortunately, that’s probably more wishful thinking than anything else.
What we’re facing now is different: the beginning of a far more
transformational shift in how we work, in many ways echoing the flight of
manufacturing from the United States in the mid-late 20th century. Until
now, there was a basic assumption that most white-collar employees would
work in an office. Only something like a six-month quarantine could have
challenged a norm so ingrained in our society.
But just like the combination of expanded capabilities and lower prices
sent manufacturing abroad, the combination of decent enough technology to
enable people to work remotely and the realization that most businesses
are not seeing their productivity plummet is causing a fundamental change
in how business owners think.
Yes, a lot of young people want to be here, to enjoy the bars and
restaurants and culture, assuming they don’t shrivel up when citizens and
many businesses uproot. But we’re now in a buyers’ market, meaning they’re
going to have to go where the jobs are.
Yes, maybe far cheaper rent is what we need for New York City to create
its first homegrown version of Google or Microsoft and maybe that might
fundamentally transform the local economy.
And yes, there’s a good chance that cheaper rents and harder times will
produce a burst of artistic production that will be fun to watch for a
period, just like the mid-late 70s produced some of the best movies ever
made about New York and some of the best bands to ever come out of New
York.
But those are hopes and wishes, not concrete plans, and they don’t add up
to a well-rounded city standing on a strong foundation. That’s what New
York City needs to remain to be the greatest city in the world, and that’s
what’s in grave danger right now.
There’s only so much erosion a tax base can take before it starts to
crumble from the inside. Great American cities like Detroit, Baltimore and
Cleveland were all decimated by the flight of manufacturing. Despite some
well-intentioned marketing campaigns to the contrary, none of them really
ever recovered.
New York has always been resilient because we’ve always been the physical
home of industries like finance and media, law and advertising and health
care. And not just one industry like some insurance towns, but many
industries.
But that’s only because the idea that you don’t have to be anywhere else
never occurred to anyone before.
We’re not going to lose every job overnight. Some industries still perform
better in person. A lot of people prefer working directly with other
people than being isolated and alone. And some big companies like Facebook
and Amazon have doubled down on New York with major leases.
But if the norms truly have changed, the economy will change with it. And
if New York City suffers through a 1970s-like deterioration in quality of
life, then many businesses will feel the pull of going remote even more
strongly, accelerating the entire process.
Short term, the answer is to do everything possible to keep the city as
appealing as possible. That means investing in quality of life measures
like trash pickup and graffiti removal. It means figuring out how to curb
abuses by law enforcement against blacks and Latinos while still bringing
down the rate of shootings.
It means making the city an attractive place to do business. If you want
to save jobs and help working people, raising taxes and adding regulations
will only have the opposite effect.
Longer-term, it means trying to use newly vacant office space to spur new
industries. It means reducing the cost of operating municipal and state
government so that spending meets what the new tax base can actually
afford.
It means having a mayor willing to personally call every major employer to
ask what she or he can do to make them happy here, rather than having a
mayor who is constantly trying to drive jobs away. And it means knowing
that none of this may be enough and having five more approaches ready to
go.
This is not 1978. It’s not 1993 or 2001. The challenges we’re facing today
are much, much deeper. The entire intellectual construct around work is
changing, and none of those changes are good for cities like New York. To
think about this as anything other than transformational change — to see
this as any different than a mirror of the destruction of the
manufacturing economy — is to misunderstand the situation at hand. And the
less we understand what’s happening, the less likely we are to
successfully do anything about it.
This is an emergency.
Tusk, a former Bloomberg mayoral campaign manager, is founder and CEO of
Tusk Holdings.
--
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party ran out of gas and got run over by a Trump
truck.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
of the Obama presidency.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
President Trump has boosted the economy, reduced illegal immigration,
appointed dozens of judges and created jobs.
Senile loser and NAMBLA supporter Nancy Pelosi got "Trumped" on February
5, 2020. "President Trump, Not Guilty."
BeamMeUpScotty
Sep 23, 2020, 3:06:32 PM9/23/20
to
On 9/23/20 2:16 PM, Leroy N. Soetoro wrote:
> https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-actually-were-in-deep-trouble-
> 20200919-x5fuxkuvqbakrdta7vr3urvjzi-story.html#rt=chartbeat-flt
>
> In local political circles, it’s now fashionable to scoff at doomsday
> predictions and say that just as New York City came back in the 70s, came
> back in the 90s, and came back after 9/11, it will now too. It’s
> fashionable to say that even if some traditional office-based industries
> cut back significantly, the cheaper rents will lead to an artistic and
> technological renaissance that will spark new industries, trends and
> energy that will make the city better than ever.
Liberalism is self destructive....
> https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-actually-were-in-deep-trouble-
> 20200919-x5fuxkuvqbakrdta7vr3urvjzi-story.html#rt=chartbeat-flt
>
> In local political circles, it’s now fashionable to scoff at doomsday
> predictions and say that just as New York City came back in the 70s, came
> back in the 90s, and came back after 9/11, it will now too. It’s
> fashionable to say that even if some traditional office-based industries
> cut back significantly, the cheaper rents will lead to an artistic and
> technological renaissance that will spark new industries, trends and
> energy that will make the city better than ever.
A little Liberalism like a little alcohol, it can be a good thing but
when either Liberalism or alcohol takes control, they become self
destructive.
--
That's Karma
*Mama'says*
47 - I'd rather be FREE and poor, than to have my life micromanaged by
these idiots.
Jim Crow
Sep 23, 2020, 6:53:14 PM9/23/20
to
Amazon to not build their second headquarters in the "big apple".
Loudmouthed New York mayors and other "officials" have constantly
credited low IQ immigrants from Hispanic failed states for being the
salvation of NYC, but if that were really true, El Salvador and
Nicaraugua would be prosperous like Singapore. The only thing worse
than living in New York City (unless you're wealthy) is having the
escapees from New York City moving to your own prosperous, un-diverse
community and ruining it by their presence.
--
If you're not looting, you ain't a Democrat.
“Biden, to me, is like having a flashlight with a dying battery and
going for a long hike in the woods,” Joe Rogan said in an interview with
journalist Matt Taibbi in November 2019. “It is not going to work out.
It’s not going to make it.”
https://www.globalgulag.us
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