It’s turning into the playground and home for the rich. Not exactly what most of us expected.
Near Ground Zero, a Mixed-Use Revival
Six years ago, in the aftershock of the terrorist attack that reduced the World Trade Center to a smoldering pile, local officials wondered whether people would want to live or work around the financial district again.
Today, as new residents fill converted office buildings and jam the raucous block party that erupts nightly on Stone Street, the more likely curiosity about Lower Manhattan is: Where did all these people come from, and how can they afford to live here?
Despite the slow pace of reconstruction at ground zero, the area below Chambers Street is humming with activity, much of it designed to appeal to the well-heeled professionals who are transforming the neighborhood. Already, it has added hundreds of condominium units and hotel rooms, a thriving restaurant row, a private school charging $27,000 a year, a free wireless Internet service, a BMW dealership and an Hermès boutique.
You think it’s expensive where you live?
“I need two bedrooms, and there’s nothing for less than $4,000 a month around here,” Ms. Nigale said, speaking from the larger salon she opened on Maiden Lane last year. A place to park would cost at least an additional $400 a month, she said.
Same as it ever was.
Er, what exactly were you expecting, Uncle Dave?
This has never been a residential area, so it’s not like any poor people are being forced out. Indeed, one of the major problems with the Financial District is that it’s almost exclusively offices – which means that it turns into a ghost town on evenings and weekends. You will note that the article says “converted office buildings”, not existing housing.
#2 – Frank,
It’s not nearly the ghost town it was when my sister lived down here years ago, right near where I work, in fact. And, yes, a lot of the residences are converted office buildings. It’s probably doing wonders for Battery Park City, which used to be isolated enough to feel like a suburb.
If there are two bedroom apartments here for $4K/mo, remember that such a number is still relatively affordable around most of Manhattan. It’s just a matter of changing standards for affordability.
Personally, I don’t know how so many new people move to Manhattan. Purchase prices are a tad on the ludicrous side, as has been mentioned here on other threads. I couldn’t afford to buy now.
When I bought my place, I remember thinking that what amazed me was not the number of 10 megabuck apartments (I knew there were rich people in NYC), but the tremendous number of 1 to 3 megabuck apartments. Now, pretty much everything is over a megabuck. Those that were in that range before are now probably 2 to 5 or more. And, there really are a lot of apartments like that, just about anything with 5 or more rooms (total, not bedrooms, so either 3 bedrooms or 2 with a full dining room).
And the problem is? Too much money and investment going on in Lower Manhattan?! OMG! EAT THE RICH!
What will that property be worth after the first Cat 5 Storm hits???
#6 – Considering the government funded rebuilding, about the same as after a couple planes hit.
In case you haven’t noticed, all of lower Manhattan is a “playground for the rich” and pretty much has been for the last 100 years.
I am against a huge memorial for this site. A big memorial that we build “for the victims” will just turn into a monument for the terrorist act that killed them.
I would have liked to have seen the buildings rebuilt excatly as they were and rebuilt fast. This would have been the ultimate Fuck You to the muslims of the world that believe they accomplished something with 911.
If we cannot rebuild the buildings, I am all for an orgy of capitalism happening at the site.
If that much time is being spent looking for a designer, that’s what you can expect, especially if they end up selecting a crappy design.
You know, If I can make the living I do in rural 25% unemployed Michigan and be looking at retiring by my 45th birthday in a means to live anywhere I want to (my plan is to check out Half Moon Bay in 10 years and hopefully it won’t do a Long Beach), why would I put up with living someplace like Manhattan?
Do waitresses in New York make 200k+ a year or somethin?
it makes me wonder how long until the powdered carcinogenic remains will begin to start their effect.
Good. If they are building there, they are not contributing to urban sprawl.
#9 – why would I put up with living someplace like Manhattan?
I’ll never stop being amazed by how so many of you guys describe it as “putting up with”…
#9…GregA….Waitresses have never lived in Manhatten and never will, at least until Global Warming melts the land based glaciers and New York City becomes a lagoon.
Better be thinking in terms of Bodega Bay if your looking for beach front rural life style.
#13: You obviously have no idea how much a house costs in Bodega Bay.
#13 – Waitresses have never lived in Manhatten and never will
WHAT!??!?!?!
They do in movies. They have really cool lofts and go to exotic parties in trendy upscale clothes.
#13, 15,
My sister was a waitress when she had her first apartment near NYU in 1978. Her rent was $400. She was able to earn $100 in tips on a Saturday. She was serving food in a deli. Among her customers were the Ramones. She assured me that one thing you never want to see is Joey Ramone eating. Oh well, the Ramones reunion is now 75% complete.
#16 – I request a moment of silence, followed by one minute and 30 seconds of screeching guitars, for the Ramones.