Unchanged

     Manhattan and its boroughs were believed to soar upward in innovation, prestige, and development.  Sadly--because it historically remained in a chokehold of greedy land owners and financiers--its prices rise, cheapness is rampant, its overdevelopment soars, but its infrastructure and "sense of community" deteriorates.  

     Imagine a city that is on land owned by a small clique of psychotically greedy people.  They own the land, and structures on it pay outrageous rents to them.  Every year, if they uncaring raise the rent, they force the city to constantly find ways of squeezing more money from itself.  That would result in ever-taller buildings with ever-higher rents for always-smaller spaces (to make more money from the same plot of land).  The city would replace its commercial docks to build more skyscrapers to gain more rent.  The city would use falsities in global advertising campaigns to lure an endless stream of tourists, renters, and gullible investors.  Regardless of severity, nothing would stand in the way of year-round tourism.  Infrastructure would be outrightly neglected, yet needed to funnel more people into the "hungry city".  Threats to business owners could wring money from them.  Public education would slacken and suffer, while the city's best universities would fail to produce anyone to fix the issues.  There would be pay cuts to employees, cheapened levels of service, slumlords, overcrowded/sublet apartments, tenements, human trafficking for cheap labor, immigration for cheap labor, surges in drug dealing, losses of bonuses/perks, cutbacks by corporate entities, overworked employees, higher prices, additional surcharges, and deterioration.  Does that describe New York City?

     You should grade a city by how it evolves.  Does it change? Does it improve itself?  Does it fix longstanding problems?  Does it thwart the growth of new problems?  Does it apply resources to improve its populous?  Does it provide a haven for a healthy community of residents?  New York City fails.  

     That "modern" city was built on avarice.  It was uncaringly thrown together--often without regard for infrastructure.  If you look at today's high-rises, that continues unbridled.  

Blindly following the Big Three Automakers since the 1920s only led to more congested roads.  Despite a century, NYC's traffic got worse, while other cities around the world got better.  Clearly, NYC government does not care... even as it constricts the suburbs, bridges, and outer boroughs.

Nobody dared to fix the social problems that were consequences of maniacal industries--pumping out things that nobody needed.  (Why does a household of 4 need 5 cars?)

 

Have things improved in 100 years?  Take a look...

Look at the unsightly water tanks that remain on NYC rooftops.  What other first-world metropolis has that?



Even worse, NYC doesn't care to maintain them.

https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles/policy/energy-environment/new-york-city-water-tank-hazards.html


Such overpaid neglect created annual infestations of Legionnaire's Disease, something that only third-world countries might have.  Clearly, NYC's high taxes don't provide honest health inspectors.

https://www.amny.com/news/legionnaires-disease-nyc-1-18255577/

     To feed its ever-fattening greed, NYC gobbled up five boroughs to claim more revenue, but it rarely gives back to those neighborhoods.  The city was a fungus, mushrooming more skyscrapers while draining the treasury.  Many of the neighborhoods still suffer, exactly as they did one hundred years ago.

     Everyone is plugged in, paying ever-higher taxes, utility bills, rents, commuter costs, and insurance premiums.  Few get better lives, nor can they afford to retire in the city they paid for.

     When it was "built up", NYC was meant to funnel consumerism... not create excellent public schools, or efficient traffic pattern, or "green spaces".  

     It was meant to be a place of two extremes: towers and tenements.  That is oftentimes still the case, even in 2020.  Just looking at it, you can tell that it was clearly made by conglomerates who only wanted to impress themselves... and cared little for humanity.  

That is still its top-tier focus, while schools, parks, shelters, wages, and subways are neglected for decades.

Check out this link:

https://gothamist.com/news/how-your-tax-dollars-are-wasted-to-build-luxury-apartments

If you notice scenes from the film "Gangs of New York", you will realize that the same unchanged politics and pettiness block progress today.  Some things never change.

Look at these comparative photographs to see how so many things remained unchanged.

Unlike other cities that dug new subway / Metro routes, NYC didn't... despite its much larger income and much larger population.  That's not surprising considering that NYC railways were corrupt at their inception.  Nothing changed.



Money only pours in for real estate development, because NYC is a glutton for money and needs to keep feeding itself with rent-payers/taxpayers.  

Stupidly, NYC does not upgrade its electricity, sewage, public transportation, roadways, school roofs, libraries, sanitation, or infrastructure.  Instead, the revenue hemorrhages into historical "pockets".  That has a "trickle down" effect.

(After 60 years, build a chess table!)



(After 100 years, the MTA should make the subway better)

Look at the MTA Board of Directors that remain.






Of course, the overbearing heat (from overpopulation, carbon gases, antiquated underground steam-heating systems, and antiquated electricity power-plants) and windy gusts (from never-ending skyscraper canyons) continues.

Sadly, New York City remains a cesspool, yet it hungrily applies money to a global advertising campaign to lure tourists and residents.  Like a swindling circus, it lures people in with bright lights, actor spokespeople (in movies and TV), and loud-talking promoters.  











The city remains a place of "dreams", but for millions of occupants, it deliberately fails to allow their aspirations to become reality.













Then, it fleeces them of their money... and discards them.  



If you complain, dislike your job, dislike your under-served / overpriced home, dislike the bad customer service, or disdain the lack of cleanliness, then people often don't care to fix it.  Their attitude about your life is that you should merely "do as you're told".  They're confident that "if you don't want it, someone else will".

The reason for that is because people remain uneducated, some actually enjoy their situation, and many are distracted by the "bright lights" that lure them from rationality.

     Thus, over a century of gluttony and neglect from tax-paid leaders created a failing dynasty (the type that Amazon cancelled on, when it decided to build its headquarters in another city).  Still, those city leaders disguise NYC's rot with various ruses, while the brain-dead patient is kept alive by a life-support system of bureaucracy.  During elections, candidates cloak themselves in borrowed virtues and claim to be saviors... but repeatedly fall to corruption.  Through dozens of generations, one bad group was replaced with another.  NYC's political arena seems hereditarily corrupt.  Those who criticize on a big scale are ruthlessly purged (research those who defied plans to bulldoze neighborhoods, demolish historic masterpieces, or stop police corruption... and see what happened to them).  Thus, nobody conspicuously strives for improvements.  The influential and wealthy spend their time like idle playboys.  Their education is restricted to effete themes and vicious money-making schemes.  Nobody has practical training for the management of a culture.  

However, a few people do benefit from this situation.

Why would you want to keep paying the highest prices for a filthy, unstable city with the worst infrastructure, no goals (except for real estate overdevelopment), and unending logistical problems?