Thanks to Lockdowns, American Big Cities May Not Be Worth the Trouble Anymore
All due deference to Jerry Seinfeld, the man who is one of the geniuses behind the greatest American sitcom about nothing, but in the recent war/argument/discussion/exchange over the status and future of New York City, it is hard to award dear Jerry with a win.
Seinfeld took to the New York Times (only the sophistication of the old Gray Lady would do) to upbraid former Manhattan comedy club owner and entrepreneur James Altucher for declaring the New York as they once knew it, well, dead.
Frankly, Altucher makes a compelling case for this time being different than other seemingly existential threats of the past that might have appeared to compel the city that never sleeps to do just that—for good. For Altucher, the heavy, onerous arm and boot of government have become too much for New Yorkers—residents and businesses alike—to bear. The covid hysteria, inept lockdowns, and mismanagement by the likes of DeBlasio, Cuomo, and their sycophant ninnies have all led to, not only the snuffing out of the entrepreneurial spirit but very much destroyed, in the most direct means imaginable, the enterprises themselves. Back that up with the New York police being ordered to stand down in front of BLM and Antifa rioters (and asinine Ruth Bader Ginsberg riots?!) looting stores and burning down their fronts, and the civil authorities have not held up their end of even the corrupt Rousseauan social contract.
Altucher is not the only sensible one to leave New York for greener and warmer pastures—many have, are, and will be doing so in the future. Thus, what New York and other massive cities in the United States like my own formerly fair Chicago now face is a retraction of what had characterized the past few decades of people of means moving back into the inner cities. Cities gentrified. Formerly unattractive and even dangerous neighborhoods received an injection of interest and capital,
Article from LewRockwell
