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Comment by 71a54xd | Hacker News Reader

Yep, what OP is getting at is that in time, as a side-effect of out-migration the cool things that draw people to NYC will start to slowly disappear entirely. The small bakeries, the things that bring charm to neighborhoods all over the city. Safety is by far the biggest one. Chelsea is legitimately a dangerous place to walk around and I've lived in pretty seedy areas before, especially in college (where my neighbor was robbed at knife-point and my apt was broken into by heroin addicts multiple times).

What he means is that the people who remain will be those who are too poor to leave. Whom will be slowly replaced by wealthier and wealthier transients. Which is sad, by far the worst kind of gentrification.

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>The small bakeries, the things that bring charm to neighborhoods all over the city.

You're starting to see this in bits and pieces already. New rental space is primarily going to chain restaurants and box stores because the rent is too damn high for anyone not corporate to get started. _The Atlantic_ was talking about the issue of lots going vacant for months at a time because the owners are holding out for insane lease prices...in part because they need to pay insane taxes on the property.

I love New York (in small doses) but it's not tenable as it exists right now.

All of this is wrong. Leaseholders are holding out for higher rents not because of taxes but because of property values and the corresponding loans they have.

If they rent out something for a discount, it will read to a reevaluation of their entire property, which would then lead to them being underwater and impossible for them to borrow more money.

This is true not just in New York but all of the US where property owners are heavily indebted and rely on debt to both grown and maintain their businesses.

Having to default means that they basically can’t borrow anymore and can’t continue their businesses.

It has nothing to do with taxes, which would drop if they rented out their property for less.

> Yep, what OP is getting at is that in time, as a side-effect of out-migration the cool things that draw people to NYC will start to slowly disappear entirely. The small bakeries, the things that bring charm to neighborhoods all over the city.

You don't need any kind of net migration to do this, gentrification has already done it over the last 20 years. People who move there now don't care about that, though. They care about the city being Disneyland for rich people.

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