NYC Cultural Change and the Escape

How NYC Tax Breaks to Developers is Killing the Character and Style of the City 

De Blasio, unchain the city now (NYDN) Save NYC's character During the Bloomberg years, New York City lost a staggering number of small businesses, many of them long-lived cultural touchstones, including CBGB’s, Bleecker Bob’s, Bill’s Gay Nineties, the Stage Deli, McHale’s bar, Lenox Lounge, restaurant Gino, Carmine’s at the Seaport, Coliseum Books and the list goes on.Combined, thousands of years of business history were quickly wiped out thanks to the massive rent hikes and skyrocketing property values of corporate-sponsored hyper-gentrification. In countless cases, rents doubled, tripled and more. Colony Records had thrived in Times Square for 60 years, until its new landlord reportedly quintupled the rent . After 24 years in the once-gritty, now glamorous Meatpacking District, ever popular Restaurant Florent had its rent shoot up nearly tenfold, from $6,000 to $50,000 per month.

NYC Has Changed Puts New Yorkers Last

Baldwin: "In NYC politics, rich people come first, unions second, and rank-and-file New Yorkers come dead last." 
Larry King (@kingsthings): I'd come back (Politico)

Is de Blasio's Breaking the NY Style?

De Blasio’s anti-rich policies are driving wealthy people out of NYC(NYP) One friend says 10 wealthy people have told him they are leaving and another says disgusted New Yorkers bought $1 billion in residential property in Florida since the November election. The Sunshine State confers an automatic tax cut of about 12 percent because it has no city or state income tax, nor does it have an inheritance tax. Beyond taxes, the mayor’s open hostility is a factor. His insulting treatment of former Mayor Bloomberg at the inauguration remains a cloud over him. As one affluent woman, a self-described liberal, told me, “De Blasio hates me, so I hate him.” She doesn’t personally know him, but draws her conclusion from his words and deeds.*  Billions in philanthropy support the arts, ranging from local dance groups to the flagship institutions that define New York as a world-class city. Nearly half of the Metropolitan Opera’s operating fund comes from donations, which last year reached $143 million. The biggest change in the Bloomberg era was an explosion of charitable dollars to help fund the charter-school movement, and that seems to infuriate de Blasio. One reason might be that it threatens his political base. Charters teach 70,000 kids, and if they keep expanding and succeeding, they will be an existential threat to the unions that back him.