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Transit reliance and lack of car ownership in the city center. Dense, transit-oriented suburbs with few car commuters to the urban core. Strong public preference for landmarking and older structures. Large wealthy population living within the city limits, especially (or, rather, this is especially European) in the highly urbanized part of the city limits. Strong preference for unionization and workers rights.
I'm not sure how any of those things are European. Car ownership in Manhattan has always been low...even by European standards probably. Wealthy people living in the city center is a relatively new phenonomenon even in London and Paris. And unionization has become weaker in New York, not stronger.
I actually thought you would refer to the aesthetics of the city--sidewalk cafes, the awnings, people riding Vespas, etc. I feel there's a lot of effort to imitate European restaurants and certain fashion trends. But I don't think NYC is becoming more "European" in any real substantive way. It's been a liberal, unionized, transit-oriented city for a long time.
Here are some interesting gentrification maps of Paris.
The city center never had the mass poverty of the Bronx (the again, it's only 40 sq. miles and much of the poverty has been confined to the outskirts, which is almost the equivalent of the outer boroughs), but it was clearly more working-class in the 80s and 90s than it is today.
East village now has a very European feel. Same can be said for Chelsea.
You could say that Châtelet has a very American feel with all of the Foot Lockers, House of Hoops, burger joints and Parisian urban youth taking their fashion cues from MTV Jams.
I'm not sure how any of those things are European. Car ownership in Manhattan has always been low...even by European standards probably. Wealthy people living in the city center is a relatively new phenonomenon even in London and Paris. And unionization has become weaker in New York, not stronger.
Manhattan car ownership is lower than anywhere in London, maybe a bit lower than Paris. I assume there are some European cities lower than Manhattan, but not by much.
26% of households in Madrid don't have a car, central city districts would have lower car ownership. But Madrid's car ownership rate is still higher than NYC as a whole
I don't think it's new. Both London and Paris had rich and poor neighborhoods in the city center areas for a long time. For Paris, the western third or so of the city I think has always been well off. The change is proportions, now most of the city is well off and not working class. Even today, outside of the lower 2/3rds of Manhattan most of the urban parts of the metro are poorer than the metro average. Paris seems to follow more of a "favored quarter" of rich/poor and London is just rather random.
As for unionization, I read somewhere (can't find where, wish I could) that in certain industries (hotel cleaning staff) New York City is more unionized than Paris. I don't know how to find what % of Paris workers are unionized, but France overall is 8%. New York City is around 25%.
At any time, from right or left, someone is shouting that we're all going to hell in a handbasket.
Leave the streets full of junkies and hookers and gangbangers, and everyone yells at the politicians to clean it up. It gets cleaned up, the neighborhood looks attractive to wealthier buyers, gentrification sets in, and everybody yells at the politicians to stop it.
NY has always been welcoming to Europeans. It's the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar that brings more here now. That, and believe it or not, the cost of living. I was in Zurich recently, where a large coffee at Starbucks was the equivalent of $9.00. Comparing rents with a friend, they're equal or lower here. In short, if I were a German or whatever, with an offer to work in Manhattan, with the pay the same, I'd probably take it, especially if I were young and single. I'd get to enjoy the freedom and fun of a big new city, while paying less for everything.
Regarding artists, Greenwich Village and Chelsea attracted them in the 1970s because the government funded the conversion of vacant warehouses, etc., into discounted loft apartments for them. This was great for many artists, and pop culture history buffs can enjoy listing names of folks who ODed at the Chelsea Hotel. Personally, I have a soft spot for the area based on the Leonard Cohen song alone. But for locals, it was a nightmare. Imagine going to temple, stepping over some junkie. The city cleaned it up (eventually), and now people complain about gentrification. You can't please all of the people all of the time.
Fast-forward to today, and the government is funding the construction of luxury-style housing for the middle class, in areas of the city that were crying out to be cleaned up twenty years ago. As much as people complain, I don't know of any neighborhood where the locals are crying out to be turned into Chelsea in the 1970s.
Interesting article. Especially about making it as an"artist" today in the city.
I think the Cupcake Apple applies mostly to tourists and transplants who want to experience a certain type of New York, one that they are familiar with. NYC has also gotten a lot safer in the past 20 years encouraging people to move to neighborhoods that were undesirable/ unsafe in the 90's or even as recently as early 2000's.
It's a bit more complicated than that though IMO. There's a lot of other things going on all at once culturally and physically in the city that people are noticing/ noticed. For one many recently arrived residents (ie transplants) are pushing farther into Queens and Brooklyn. Desirable Manhattan neighborhoods (the West Village, UWS, East Village, etc) are too expensive now for many people to live in long term. So it's either stay in Manhattan and go north into Washington Heights and Inwood or move to up and coming neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn. Or move to the burbs or another lower cost of living city somewhere else in the nation.
Then we have global billionaires buying condos in the supertall buildings going up and flood of foreign real estate investment that is rivaling London, this has always been going on since the Dutch landed in Lower Manhattan but recent economic events seemed to have spurred what some call "Monaco on the Hudson" Even in Sheepshead Bay I heard about local saying wealthy Eastern Europeans were moving in which is a bit surprising.
Many local long time businesses, even along Madison Avenue on the UES, closed down or were priced out and made way for Duane Reade's, Starbucks and Chase banks. Part of me wonders if there are so many multinational chains now in Manhattan since the number of tourists has gone up who they can sell to or if they're the only one's who can afford the monthly rent.
NYC is always changing and the culture of the city has always been evolving I've heard mutterings from some college grads who say NYC is no longer the "it" city to move to and are opting for other cities like Austin, DC, Minneapolis, etc... Given how Millenials have perceived NYC in the past that's something you'd never expect to hear. I wonder if college grads in the late 70's said the same thing during the "bad old days".
Being able to describe yourself with a word other than "artist" goes a long way towards being able to survive, well, anywhere. Losers.
But this, wow, now this is just pure awesome:
Agreed! And this is why I love the freedom of NYC.
Last edited by matzoman; 11-06-2014 at 11:43 AM..
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