Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/05/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In the 35 years that I've lived in lower Manhattan, I've never seen anything like this. This place is booming! New hotels are going up all over town, as are new "luxury" rental apartments. The resturants are full, and there's lots of them. The traffic is so bad that taxi drivers don't want to go across town, much less uptown. It has become soooo safe here. I haven't been mugged for 20 years. But now only the most unlucky are victims of violent crime. Problem is, you have to be way wealthy to live here now. My first apartment here was $50 a month back in 1964, and I could have had others from $36. These days, $1500 gets you an absolute hovel, if you can find one! It was wonderful back in the old days when anyone and everyone could afford to live here-- now that was dynamic. I can't imagine how anyone can come here now starting out, unless they have a job in investment banking or a nice fat trust fund. A recent NYT article said that the averagte income of families on the eaast side of Central park was about $400,000. There must be at lest 100 galleries that regularly show photography, and you can buy a Baldus or an Atget within minutes of the thought entering your mind. It's strange, to say the least.