Midterm
3. There are many factors that explain details on the brink of bankruptcy in the 1970’s as
well as why it why New York City is so successful today. These factors include but are not
limited to peaking in population, the city began to feel the effects of white flight to the
suburbs, a downturn in industry and commerce as businesses left for places where it was
cheaper and easier to operate, an increase in crime, and an upturn in its welfare burden. New
York today has higher minimum wages, which promotes spending. When people make more
money, they spend more money. It also has more affordable housing, as well as more prime
property. According to an article in the NY Times Magazine, “Mind the Gap Why Mayors
Can’t Combat Income Inequality” A large proportion of the buyers likely won’t live in New
York; they will keep the units as decadent pieds-à-terre. I initially felt anger and disgust at
the idea of absentee billionaires hoarding Manhattan real estate, making the city even more
unaffordable while they live like princes in Moscow or Hong Kong or wherever. But then I
did the math. Assuming that their money has to go somewhere, it’s not so bad that these
billionaires choose to put a chunk of it here”. Bill de Blasio’s called for higher taxes on the
rich to finance better education for the poor. This Robin Hood-like effect ensures that
everyone is taken care of. Housing remains affordable for poorer people because the rich are
helping to fund it. More people move into the city because as more buildings go up, so does
the need for more people to fill the job of building them and working in them.
Detroit is in bankruptcy now, but it used to be a thriving city with cheap rents and
numerous factory jobs. According to the Huffington Post’s article “What Detroit Should
Learn From NYC’s Near-Bankruptcy” Detroit and New York’s situation is similar, “Both
cities have experienced job loss due to a declining industrial economy, and the exodus of
moneyed whites to their suburbs. In each instance, these larger transitions were compounded
by a recession (New York in 1973, Detroit in 2008) that dramatically increased the city’s debt
liabilities in the face of shrinking revenues”. It seems that the inability to improve its
situation lies solely on the fact that everybody is leaving Detroit, jobs are dwindling and the
