i read this article the other day, linked from zero hedge, and i was struck, as some other commenter above are, at how divorced from reality this piece is. i li

i read this article the other day, linked from zero hedge, and i was struck, as some other commenter above are, at how divorced from reality this piece is. i live in new york, grew up in new york, left for college, came back in jan 2007, just as the wall street obliteration of everything in the city reached its peak, and am still here. with that said, things have changed...every wall street job lost is 3.3 other jobs lost (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aQJzd0DkdWuQ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aQJz...), and rents/prices have moderated on the high end, especially in door man buildings. the vancancy rate on rental apts in many neighborhoods has moved from fractions of a percent to a couple percent...hardly a crisis. of course something dramatic happened in nyc--it being the epicenter of the credit crisis--but this author simply doesn't know the city he is writing about, so he has turned anecdotes into broad generalizations. "Stores are closing or barely scraping by, offering "three suits for $250." No one is buying. "Food traffic" -- taxis ferrying people straight across Manhattan to the coolest restaurants -- has dwindled to a trickle. Theft, violent and drug crimes are on the rise. There are New Yorkers who pretend to be surprised if a bar only accepts cash, say they're going to an ATM, and never return. "Impulse shopping," the practice of popping down to a boutique over lunch, has died a death." I would guess that the author saw a) one store advertising a suit sale, b) someone told him about perhaps taking the subway over a taxi to dinner, c) someone else who slipped out of a bar, and d) someone else who isn't shopping on impulse any more. He then interpreted them as broadly occurring trends. The Times does this all the time for 'trend' pieces. He just took it to a crazy hyperbolic extreme. i could pick apart a lot more, but i think the example of Virgin closing is the best example of why this author is so off. 1) Music/Movie retailers are suffering not because of a downturn in NYC....they have other structural issues to their business. Tourist visits have barely dropped, and Broadway had its most successful year ever (http://www.eturbonews.com/11665/new-york-city-welcomes-new-broadway-season-following-most-succes http://www.eturbonews.com/11665/new-york-city-welcomes-new-b...). and 2) The Virgin chain was bought by real estate companies in 2007, primarily b/c NYC's Times Square and Union Square locations had long term leases at below market rents. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/arts/music/15virgin.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/arts/music/15virgin.html