New York Skyline Marred by Gentrification
April 4, 2016
When my father and I toured different colleges last year, we surmised that each major city in the United States could be boiled down to a single word. For Washington DC, it was “stately,” for Los Angeles, it was “hype” and Chicago was “work.” New York could be summed up as “attitude,” but my time in the city has taught me that the key word is actually “wealth.” In this city, the size of personality is dwarfed in importance to the size of one’s wallet.
After decades of relentlessly revitalizing neighborhoods and cracking down on crime, New York City has attracted a new demographic in recent years: the wealthy. This takeover is furthered everyday with the rapid ascension of luxury skyscrapers in Midtown and the dwindling of historic neighborhoods. Chinatown, which over decades swallowed Little Italy, is now itself suffering the effects of gentrification.
These luxury skyscrapers, which promise to raise the price of New York real estate even higher, will only degrade the culture of the city. One building in particular, 432 Park Ave., located in Midtown, exemplifies this trend. This bare, unattractive superstructure is usually empty, a capital investment for its distant patrons. As if the construction of hollowed eyesores for the mega-wealthy isn’t enough, current New York legislation allows some luxury high-rises, like the Midtown One57, to receive massive tax breaks of up to 95 percent. These are not apartments, but assets controlled by a class capitalizing on the soaring price of real estate in the city. They offer little value, as community hallmarks or tax-generators to the vast majority of New Yorkers. Instead, they are used to sequester money from the average person, offering only an outrageous price tag to gauge the market and an ugly exterior to mar the skyline.
In the 1988 documentary “The Power of Myth,” Joseph Campbell claimed the tallest building is the greatest indicator of a city’s goal. For decades in NYC, the Empire State Building broadcasted American idealism and ingenuity, and its successor, the original World Trade Center, largely upheld those beliefs. But now, for all the grandiosity of the new World Trade Center complex, it too has been passed by the growing avarice of New York. At 1,396 feet tall, 432 Park Avenue is 10 feet taller than one WTC, and it is no anomaly. At least four more residential towers over 900 feet will be opened within the decade. We now live in a city where wealth has eclipsed the value of work. In times like this, New Yorkers must realize that their present complacency towards wealth is undermining the city’s legacy. The rise of America’s wealthiest past the height of the WTC should only encourage Americans to dream bigger and set their sights higher: to take back New York.
Opinions expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of WSN, and our publication of opinions is not an endorsement of them.
A version of this article appeared in the Monday, April 4 print edition. Email Haven Williams at [email protected].
empty skyscrapers • Apr 4, 2016 at 12:45 pm
‘The tax incentives all have time limits and are used to entice development’……So these developers would just pack up and say “oh lets scrap that nyc idea boys! they wont give us tax abatements!” yeah right. its lawmakers getting paid under the table to give tax breaks to their top political contributors. its corruption 101. thats why the average New Yorker cant afford to live here anymore. definitely agree with astro turf. it costs next to nothing to for the real estate industry to create shill accounts to promote their cause. they do it on virtually every message board. and don’t tell me they can change the nyc skyline but could never influence the internet. if you think that then you are in denial
astro turf • Apr 4, 2016 at 12:38 pm
@Brian. What would motivate you to speak in favor of these real estate projects? What would possess another human being to go online and feel the need to defend what is obvioiusly not a contribution to the city but a sponge and a cultural void? Oh thats right you are a shill account for the real estate industry! silly me
Brian • Apr 4, 2016 at 10:32 am
Not sure where you’re originally from Haven, but while your thoughts aren’t completely wrong, the concept that the shift of wealth to NY is a recent change is. NY has always represented wealth. What do you think builds a grand island of concrete and glass? It’s an economic power house that churns out millionaires by the dozen. New money has always flocked to the city.
I also disagree with your assessment on the recent boom of super tall luxury high rises. First of all, I think 432 Park is a beautiful building. It is unrelenting in its objective stance against the glassy towers it comes to dominate. 58th Street isn’t Dubai, while there are foreign investors parking some money in these units, that’s not the whole story. A building like 432 Park will exist for a long time. If the rest of Manhattan is any measure, it could last 100 years or more. The tax incentives all have time limits and are used to entice development now while the iron is hot, with the promise of continued revenue for years to come. It’s not like when the tax breaks end the building is just going to empty.
While you’re certainly welcome to speak out and critique the city you now call home, I think your “this is a new issue, omg, rich people ruining my culture” argument is tiring.