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The article has nothing to do with what we're talking about. It's about one group of wealthy arguing with another group of wealthy.
The article talks about a few fancy buildings in Manhattan where there is a property tax abatement from many years ago, and some of the buyers are foreign entities, and are entitled to the property tax abatement, just like everyone else. Yeah, obviously a super fancy building in a big city will have buyers from all around the world.
But you were claiming something totally different- that there was some phenomenon of absentee billionaires in NYC. The opposite is true- there is an issue of billionaires who live in NYC but who claim residency in lower tax jurisdictions.
NYC isn't a tax haven- it's exactly the opposite. Places like Bermuda are tax havens, but the billionaires who live in NYC and who declare NYC residency pay massive taxes. Something like the top .5% of NYC taxpayers pay 70% of city income taxes.
The article has nothing to do with what we're talking about.
How do you interpret the first paragraph of the article?
"Just how bad is New York City's second-apartment-as-foreign-tax-shelter problem? The New York Times looked at the number of Midtown apartment owners who use the City's resident-only 17.5% tax abatement, and found that 57% percent of the units from East 57th Street to East 59th between Park and Fifth Avenue are empty for at least 10 months out of the year. From East 59th to East 63rd, 628 out of 1,261 homes are vacant most of the time, and at the Trump Tower on 721 Fifth Avenue, less than half of the units are occupied by New Yorkers."
Dubai is "mysterious and little known"? Is that why it's in every other commercial and blockbuster movie?
thanks for repeating what I just said. It's little known and hence the movies like to spread false info about it.
You think it's vice-versa: the movies "create" a thing, which isn't true. The biggest hype about dubai was around 2005-2007 - which coincided with my time there. It wasn't even planned to be in Mission Impossible and Fast Fur. at the time.
There are far more injuries/deaths from traffic than from guns and street crime, so that makes no sense to me. Pollution, too, kills/injures far more people. For that later reason I would not raise children in HK, which has terrible air quality.
I would guess that HK is somewhat less safe than both European and American cities, overall, but not as unsafe as somewhere like Bangkok or Cairo (which are crazy dangerous). But HK is still probably safe enough that it isn't an issue.
Air pollution is a problem, but it really depends on the weather on a specific day and in which district you are living in. Pollution caused by cars and factories in HK isn't really a problem in most parts of town. Traffic is certainly not as crazy as in other cities.
The factories in Guangdong province are problematic, so north-western winds are generally a bad thing.
Personally, I don't think it's a big deal and it can't really compare to the pollution on the mainland. Then again, that really isn't a standard one should be aiming for.
It certainly helps that there are a lot of forests and beaches.
In terms of personal safety, I feel a lot safer here than in most cities I've visited so far. Crime is a non-issue for me at every hour of the day (or night). I feel safer than in Vienna and Vienna is already ridiculously safe. Can't say that about all some major European or American cities.
Air pollution is a problem, but it really depends on the weather on a specific day and in which district you are living in. Pollution caused by cars and factories in HK isn't really a problem in most parts of town. Traffic is certainly not as crazy as in other cities.
The factories in Guangdong province are problematic, so north-western winds are generally a bad thing.
Personally, I don't think it's a big deal and it can't really compare to the pollution on the mainland. Then again, that really isn't a standard one should be aiming for.
It certainly helps that there are a lot of forests and beaches.
In terms of personal safety, I feel a lot safer here than in most cities I've visited so far. Crime is a non-issue for me at every hour of the day (or night). I feel safer than in Vienna and Vienna is already ridiculously safe. Can't say that about all some major European or American cities.
Air pollution is usually worse in winter as the wind comes from the north, aka China, and it brings a ton of nasty **** from there (as if HKers don't hate China enough lmao). Summer is usually quite ok for Hong Kong. Like if you check the air quality map it'd always be green or at most yellow.
Actually Vienna and Stockholm are the only cities in Europe that I've been to where I felt as safe as home lol. I'm surprised that you'd find Hong Kog to be even safer than Austria.
Not really surprised with how poorly Dubai is doing...probs should have put Vancouver as an option instead of Dubai, after all it is the most expensive city in the world lol...I just didn't think it was as internationally known as the other cities in the poll.
Air pollution is a problem, but it really depends on the weather on a specific day and in which district you are living in. Pollution caused by cars and factories in HK isn't really a problem in most parts of town. Traffic is certainly not as crazy as in other cities.
The factories in Guangdong province are problematic, so north-western winds are generally a bad thing.
Personally, I don't think it's a big deal and it can't really compare to the pollution on the mainland. Then again, that really isn't a standard one should be aiming for.
It certainly helps that there are a lot of forests and beaches.
In terms of personal safety, I feel a lot safer here than in most cities I've visited so far. Crime is a non-issue for me at every hour of the day (or night). I feel safer than in Vienna and Vienna is already ridiculously safe. Can't say that about all some major European or American cities.
Yeah, HK has kind of a bum rap in the West because of leftover stereotypes from HK action movies, and going further back in time, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Canton (Guangzhou) were all more or less interchangable as images of opium-fueled, debaucherous, Eastern Wild West-type places, and to some extent, that endures.
I've never felt unsafe in HK - even in and around Chungking mansions with the Indian and African dudes pushing drugs and hookers on every passerby, the cops are pretty aggressive about suppressing street crime and most likely the worst anyone will suffer is a pickpocketing or stolen cellphone, neither of which has happened to me or anyone I know (at least who wasn't rip-roaring drunk). Part of the thing is that the HK police are now more closely aligned with the mainland Chinese police and gov't, which are very unsympathetic to foreigners in general... it's not like major EU cities that treat crime perpetrated by low-education immigrants with kid gloves and offer relatively light sentences in nice jails. You get the crap kicked out of you, tossed in a crappy jail, and then deported. There's much less an incentive to be a criminal.
Traffic can be pretty gnarly in Kowloon and Central, but it's not any worse than any other city of its size, and most people just use the metro. I found it more maddening in major NA cities than HK, tbh. I've never felt oppressed by pollution when I've been there - most of the time I've gotten clear skies, actually.
Not really surprised with how poorly Dubai is doing...probs should have put Vancouver as an option instead of Dubai, after all it is the most expensive city in the world lol...I just didn't think it was as internationally known as the other cities in the poll.
I would if the other guy had Vancouver in his extremely rich poll.
I've never felt unsafe in HK - even in and around Chungking mansions with the Indian and African dudes pushing drugs and hookers on every passerby, the cops are pretty aggressive about suppressing street crime and most likely the worst anyone will suffer is a pickpocketing or stolen cellphone, neither of which has happened to me or anyone I know (at least who wasn't rip-roaring drunk).
Personal safety has little to do with relative crime rates. Traffic accidents, are, by far, the biggest factor in urban safety, even in high crime jurisdictions.
HK has extremely high rates of traffic deaths/injuries compared to Western cities, so, to me, would not be particularly safe for a first world city, even if crime rate is 0.
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