New Yorkers: Weigh in on the Swiftly Sprouting ASTOR PLACE "Luxury" High Rise

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that is roman ahbramovitch.

I'm just praying for a good long recession coupled with a few years of really high gas prices to really rip the heart out of the purportedly "high productivity" tech sector of the economy, for the sole reason that parts of Manhattan may just possibly regress to a wilder, more affordable state. I mean let's face it, the 70s were a bad time for New York, but they were also pretty good. I'd love to see cold-water flats downtown again. We could use the giant foreskin as a printing house.

I remember when the huge building went up across from Forbidden Planet at Union Square and thinking "oh my Lord." And of course I just walk by it now without noticing. I lived on 46th and 5th and 6th when the new Condé Nast building was being put up. I could see its progress each day, and remember the odd fact that the windows went on the steel frame (or whatever it was made out of) first, before the actual bricks and mortar went on (or whatever the faux-bricks-and-mortar solid-looking part was). So for a few days it was this shiny bug-like box. Then the sudden boredom when it was possible to see what kind of design was taking shape. Shurely the VURST Manhattan construction decision must, after the demolition of Penn Station, be whatever it is that blocks the sunlight from streaming into Grand Central.

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I remember this scene. Pangs of longing, etc.

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the Chrysler building?

Hello, where have you been the past three years Traitor?!?!?

Personally, I would like the economy, and more importantly the labor market, to recover.

Yes, there is a reason, and it's not a very good one.

stence, how to explain the continuing popularity of luxury flats etc. The heart may have been ripped out but the garlic is not working.

For now, but this is invariably our final stop in Manhattan. Failing the option of Brooklyn, hello suburbs, here we come.

Developments don't come out of nowhere - they have to have the tacit approval of the community. Don't bitch at the rest of us because you failed to uphold your end of the social contract.

To be fair, there was a grassroots movement afoot too block this, but the land is owned by Cooper Union (who, you'd have thought, more than anyone else, would've had more respect for the sanctity of the neighborhood). It's their land. If they want to sell it to Ian Schrager, who was really going to stop them?

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2004

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I have a media job that doesn't pay shit. The average for media jobs in NYC is something like $60K, I saw that figure somewhere recently, so I don't think it's media people buying up all the real estate.

I don't want to the economy to do BAD. I want us to change our definition of "good" if in a "good" economy all the waiters in a city to have to commute an hour to work because they can't afford to actually live there.

That's a lot different from saying you want a prolonged recession and high gas prices, which certainly would be indicators of a badly performing economy. And though I am for high gas prices (in order to wean Americans off the automobile), I have no doubt that they impact your hypothetical waiter much more than, say, the wealthy investment banker commuting in from NJ.

Now I know it's a leap to say that high rents are the exclusive consequence of overpaid mediosos. I really just threw that out there so that somebody could tell me why the same studios I saw for $800 less than a decade ago are going for twice that much now. Low interest rates?

Rents are high because property taxes are high, because of the vanishing surpluses at the federal, state and local levels (Bush, Pataki and Giuliani are to blame). And because, it's New York, people will pay high rent to live here, esp. in areas they consider "glamorous" or "like Friends or whatever."

As for a correlation between interest rates and property taxes, well low interest rates spur development, but developers gotta pay those higher property taxes somehow.

See, that's something that economist say is economically stimulative, so how come I'm not feelin stimulated?

Because, like me, you don't own. Maybe if we were landlords, we'd feel differently, I dunno.

doesn't really fit well at all. i walk past it almost every day to get to class.

It still looks nothing like this.

And speaking solely in terms of craftsmanship, it looks awfully shoddy upclose -- the window frames seem awkwardly aligned. Bet it'll be prone to drafts in the winter.

What that place might have included that your place probably doesn't:
• soundproof apartments
• elevators
• door man
• gym
• laundry room
• door man
• return on investment