#No, New York City is not ‘dead forever’ — here’s why
“#No, New York City is not ‘dead forever’ — here’s why”
That’s what every real New Yorker thought after reading the Standup NY comedy club co-owner’s essay in this paper, which he titled, unironically, “New York City is dead forever.” Apparently, Mr. Altucher has fled to Florida (again, unironically).
He begins his essay “I love NYC. When I first moved to NYC it was a dream come true.” Of course it was, but that’s infatuation, not love. Loving New York City means staying and doing your part to revive it, when every instinct is telling you to run away.
In 1975, a young New York native living in Los Angeles saw that the South Bronx was in flames, NYC was on the verge of bankruptcy and the president of the United States was telling the city to drop dead. So he said goodbye to Hollywood and hightailed it back home.
That man was Billy Joel. His motivation was simple. “If New York’s going to go down the tubes, I’m going to go back to New York,” he explained years later.
Joel’s response was to write a defiant song mocking President Gerald Ford and New York City’s detractors. “Miami 2017” is a fabulist tale that imagines NYC’s destruction and the migration of its denizens to Florida. Joel intended it not as a prediction but as an anthem that would inspire New Yorkers to pull the city back from the brink and rebuild. Make it better. Prove the SOBs wrong.
That defiance is the essence of New York.
Unlike London, Paris, Rome, Lisbon, Berlin or Tokyo — all of which have survived and thrived despite plagues, infernos, floods, earthquakes and wars — New York is not our nation’s capital.
The city has always had to invent new reasons for people to come and stay. As a result, New Yorkers exist in a state of accelerated evolution. Faced with the loss of an industry, business or job, we dust ourselves off and either fix it or make a new one. We never, ever, accept defeat.
That spirit of defiance in the face of adversity is what propelled 343 firefighters and 69 other first responders to climb endless flights of stairs on 9/11, making their way through the darkness, seeing nothing in front of them and nothing coming up behind, as Bruce Springsteen sings so poignantly in The Rising. Men and women with names like Michael Brennan, Moira Smith, Vernon Richard, Andrew Desperito, Kathy Mazza, Stephen Siller, Sergio Villanueva, Yamel Merino, Michael Weinberg and many, many more.
These first responders died because their reaction to an attack on our city was a simple avowal: “Not on my watch.”
As we approach the 19th anniversary of their sacrifice, we New Yorkers remaining here today — those whose lives are, to quote Joel, not beyond the Palisades but whose souls are suffused by the concrete, steel and asphalt of this metropolis — are their progeny. Their heroism defines our lineage and their mantra is ours. Not. On. My. Watch.
Our mayor, sadly, is not cut from that cloth. An opportunist whose list of accomplishments wouldn’t fill up the skinny side of a nickel, Bill de Blasio isn’t the one to lead us. His aspiration now is to elevate his wife to Brooklyn Borough President, even though her first foray into running a city-funded organization, ThriveNYC, has proved she isn’t up to the task. The best thing the couple can do for our city is to join Altucher in Florida. Hopefully, Brooklyn will send them off with a Bronx cheer.
I agree with Altucher that New York’s problems are formidable. Soaring crime and budget deficits. The devastation of the media, hospitality and leisure industries, as well as the arts and cultural institutions, all of which drive tourism and support our tax base.
Perhaps worst of all is the Department of Homeless Services’ decision to house homeless adults in hotels built for tourists, without providing any of the social services needed to manage addictions and mental health problems, or basic hygiene. Mayor de Blasio’s destructive social policies are inflicting ruin on Midtown Manhattan and the Upper West Side. This must stop immediately.
Make no mistake, we have very tough times ahead. To solve them, those of us who stay have to work together in community and fellowship, guided by strong leadership. Fortunately, despite the Mayor’s campaign to destroy Manhattan, most other neighborhoods in the city are still active and intact.
The city holds millions of residents committed to making New York their home. Unlike those with a second house in the Hamptons, the Hudson Valley or Florida, they depend on our city’s public parks, beaches and schools to survive.
It’s time for real New Yorkers to earn their inheritance and reimagine our city.
I live in Times Square, where the lights will burn bright again on Broadway if I have to turn them on myself.
So stand up, New York and join me. Or go to Florida.
The opinions expressed by the author are entirely his own and do not necessarily represent those of his employer.
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