Is the city moving in the right direction?

No it is definitely not. we are losing our historic buildings, theatres hotels at an alarming rate. Greedy developers are getting their way, and the cost is outrageous.
Just look at what's become of Times Square, Coney Island, The Playpen theatre, and the beloved Hotel Pennsylvania. So much is being sacrificed in the name of "Progress" today that if this keeps up, we will have very little to present to the rest of the world and for future generations to enjoy and take pride in. Greed is destroying our city. We must preserve, not destroy. There is always an alternative to tearing something down. If this keeps up, NYC will become a sea of boring office towers, luxury hotels, and chain stores.

yes!!!!
the city is in really good hands. i don;'t even know why you would ask such a question. do you know frank? well, you should. he will keep us safe.

No

The only question worth asking is "am I moving in the right direction?" Change yourself, change the world.

What is really a shame is the lost of affordable housing. The city is becoming more and more expensive and it seems like it is only designed for the rich people, which are fewer and fewer as we, the middle class, and poor are growing and grwoing in numbers. Moreover, the feeling that Manhattan is unconnected to everything else is getting more evident and seems like a flag for politicians: keep everyone else away from it, and let just the economically wealthy in it.

New York, a city known for receiving immigrants from at least 173 countries in the world, is now acting in an segregating manner. Charge people from the north of 86st for going downtown? people coming from the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens to be charged as well? Not to mention the million of people that come to work from NJ, since being pushed out from the city! Is the separation of the impossibly expensive Manhattan the way to go? Since when Americans, and particularly New Yorkers have become so mean and nasty towards other communities?

My ex-boss - a wealthy Colombian immigrant who now owns real state in Chelsea and Soho- told me about the congestion charge that "it was great! keep everyone else out! the city is ours!" Seems to be the message Bloomberg tries to convey with his mangament.

Alas, no! Manhattan, especially the Upper West Side, where I live and have lived for 40 years, has become gentrified, high-rised and homogonized, to the extent that the vibrant mix and lively streets that drew me there have become filled with Duane Reades, banks and upscale restaurants. I mourn the loss of independent bookstores, family-run groceries and shops and fact that the middle class is being pushed out. In February, my unregulated rent will go up 40 percent. I will have to move, and I don't know where. I'd hate to leave the West Side but I may have to.

No. I wonder how many new bank openings will it take for my neighborhood (UWS) to reach sterility. Looking at new residential developments, how many of them have retail (when zoning permmits) at their base? And will most of these new buildings be filled with foreign, absentee residents (due to the weak dollar), and what would that mean?
No. Not when the real estate interests are the equivalent of public policy. It's said that our mayor and his sidekick Doctoroff have never see a RE development they don't like, but it seems at times also that they never see a manufacturing job or small-business owner they like. Does all that have to be the only solution for balancing the budget and for NYC'S future?
I work on 6th Ave. in the 50s. Thank goodness for Rock. Ctr. Plaza and 9th Avenue.
And for the few side streets bet. 5th and 6th aves. left with urban life left in them = 55th, 56th, and 58th sts. But that is changing. MOMA has destroyed what was left of 54th St. Yes, that area has been changing for decades, but is their some point when we should wonder about the quality of life for those working, living, and visiting the area? Wouldn't that be good econimic sense? Isn't all that I am writing really basic?! [BTW, all my artist friends HATE MOMA. They are not interested (excepting cineastes) and despise the new building. MOMA is a nice thing for tourists. With the clout to do whatever they want to their neighborhood. If one of our supposedly main cultural institutions is so completely detached from the city and design aestherics (!), well, what then?

I'd like to speak to someone about an ongoing project that would change NYC reuse of office equipment which currently goes on with no accountability.

not quite. it's clearly losing its soul, and the art is moving to outer boroughs.

the greenspaces are nice, though.

and the safety and lack of crack is nice.

we still haven't quite undone moses's blight.

With the proliferation of all these new hi-rises (how many do we really need?) I think there should be a fair amount set aside offered to members of NYC police and fire departments at affordable prices.

I feel there needs to be more of a community for all artists and not just granting the Latinos, Chinese and brown people all the grants and opportunities for showing their work as new artists. I feel as if I need to change my name to something Latin to get any acknowledgement for showing my work as a new emerging artist. Is there a Swiss American ARt or Curtural club? I feel there needs to be more art taught in the schools both in and after school programs so creativity is not lost in human life.

yes, there's no crime these days. it's crazy that people complain about the city today when its safer, cleaner, there are more jobs and the population is rising. if people didn't want to live here, they wouldn't be coming no more.

yes...

New York has always been an unfaithful lover. She expects your adoration and your money; but will betray you all the same. The moment you suspect her affection is drifting; you might as well pack your bags because you've been replaced. Then, the choice is yours: Slink into nostalgia, grow sad or cynical or move to more hospitable climes.

No.

I struggle with this question most days. New York has always been in a state of flux. Change is part of the magic. However, I feel like New York is indeed, tipping in the wrong direction. All the big chains stores that you can find in any city anywhere, has stipped Manhattan of it's uniqueness. The preliforation (sp) of glass condos going from tip to tip of the island is homogeneous. However, all one need do, is see the thriving life of the green market at Union Square or the beauty of the new Robert Stern apartment at 15 Central Park West or take a stroll through the park, to be reminded that the dance of the magnificent urban ballet continues...

I feel like Lou Dobbs here but the middle classes are getting squeezed majorly right now and it looks like it's going to continue because the only equity Bloomberg's interested in is a financial product and not a social one.

where oh where is the city government mandated affordable housing for key workers - like nurses, firefighters, teachers and police?

if these people can't afford to live here, and start leaving, that might wake-up city government.

Nope.

NY is risking its creative culture for the sake of gross capitalism, selling its soul to developer after developer. Meanwhile, a flight of the creative class is occurring. Who can afford to not just live here barely scraping by, but thrive? Mega-developments loom large, hovering quite literally over my rent-controlled Brooklyn apartment, I await the day when my landlord cannot afford to not sell my building.

Sadly no. The city has gone too far. Independent businesses cannot survive. Times Square has become a homogenized open air mall for the wealthy and for tourists. Far too many businesses that should've been considered landmarks have closed their doors unable to survive. The consequence is where there was one one bank every few blocks, now there is seemingly 3 banks on every corner, as banks are the only ones who can afford the rent. As a lifelong new yorker I cannot help but feel that the city has lost much of it's soul, as well as at least one of it's two balls. What was once a teeming hotbed of art, music, danger, excitement and unpredictability and unimaginable economic and cultural diversity now resembles a millionaires island of chain stores, banks, absurd cabaret laws and smoking bans.

where am i

repeal all smoking bans. we lose character with across-the-board smoking bans.

I'm sad to see the corridor along First Avenue choked with truck traffic, noise levels increasing, becoming less live-able while developers like Sheldon Solow and Harry Macklowe continue to increase density without thought. The Sutton area used to be an area with a variety of incomes (surprisingly) due to the apts over stores in low rise buildings at one end of the spectrum and elegant townhouses on Sutton Place. We had every kind of store you could need within two blocks along with restaurants that had been in place for many, many years with a faithful customer base. Now we have glass-cube condos and Duane Reade stores one after another. This is urban blight.

The city is moving in the wrong direction. This is an era of the bankification, Duane Readeification, Starbuck'sification, etc. of the city. The traffic is choking and polluting
the life out of the city. The State Assembly and Senate are engaging in petty, tin horn
politics in delaying the Mayor's Congestion Pricing Plan. They are party hacks and
only interested in their own agenda - to get elected. The public and the pedestrian
be damned. Byciclists ride through the streets unmindful of traffic lights, rules,
and direction. Especially the delivery men. No traffic policemen are around to
enforce the rules - re gridblock and other violations. New York is a city of the
lawless.! Yesterday was the time for Action - today is too late.

It's fragmented -- some areas are, and some aren't -- and it feels like the ones that aren't are moving in a significantly negative (and unchangeable) direction . And they're getting that way quickly.