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affordability

Tourists Flock To NYC and Spend Record Amounts

Wednesday, January 16, 2008, 10:46am
Submitted by Jonathan Sills

Earlier this week it was widely reported that in 2007 New York City had been visited by a record numbers of tourists who had spent record amounts of money here. Covering this announcement (by Mayor Bloomberg in his weekly radio program), the NY SUN reports that this phenomenon was interpreted by the deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding, Robert Lieber, as being the result of a combination of factors, including increased investment in the city's cultural institutions, the attraction of New York's restaurants, a marketing effort abroad, and the low value of the dollar to foreign currencies.

Clearly, this has been a boon for a city that was down on visitor numbers following the 9/11 attacks due to the perception that the city (because of terrorism and nascent crime rates) was unsafe to visit. Last year tourism increased by 5% over 2006 with an estimated 46 million tourists who spent something in the region of $28 billion during their stays. A daily visit to Midtown Manhattan around lunchtime would inform the casual observer that there are almost as many tourists as business people with Italian, Spanish, French, German and British English mixing with the stressed cries of New Yorkers on their cellphones and the tap-tap, beep-beep of Blackberries.

An unusually favorable exchange rate with the Euro and British Pound (not to mention the Canadian and Australian dollars) certainly accounts for much of the visitors spending their money and getting as much as twice the value for it they would get at home, but from a Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York perspective it's interesting that in this time when many New Yorkers are finding living in their own city harder and harder to afford, visitors from abroad are flocking here and spending record sums in our stores and restaurants.

Is this situation set to continue? Or will rising dollar exchange rates reduce the number of foreign tourists? Is this disparity in spending/buying power a livability issue? And, if so, what is the solution?

The Hike Comes to a Head

Tuesday, December 18, 2007, 04:41pm
Submitted by Jonathan Sills

The MTA Board votes this Wednesday, December 19 (that's tomorrow), starting at 9:00 a.m., on whether to approve the proposed hike of 86% on all journeys, and a 6.6% increase on some discount and unlimited MetroCards. As this blog reported back in September, the MTA is anticipating a $300 million surplus in the next fiscal year, which has raised questions as to whether the hike is really necessary to raise the agency's revenues.

As we also wrote back then, the MTA's proposed fare and toll hikes represent a real cost of living increase for most New Yorkers - in a city that already isn't cheap. However, an efficient, well-funded and well-maintained public mass transit system that has sufficient capacity for the growing city is, and will continue to be, a major issue in maintaining the city's livability. How the two issues of affordability and reliable service are dealt with remains to be seen, but if you want to testify before the Board vote tomorrow, you'll need this information:
MTA Headquarters,
347 Madison Avenue (between 44th and 45th streets), 5th floor boardroom
Transit: 4,5,6 or 7 trains to Grand Central Station

If you want to testify yourself, get there at 8:30 a.m. and read the testimony rules.