What a shitshow this city has become!
Between the street fairs, the construction and the
broken-beyond-repair subway system, it’s 24-7-365 gridlock.
This city’s entire infrastructure is falling apart! This is
no doubt due to a) the fact that it’s over 100 years old and b) the
unprecedented number of luxury high-rises being built, with their exorbitant
electrical and plumbing requirements. (That infinity pool won’t fill itself!)
These were just my casual thoughts while running an errand
in Chelsea today.
But then I walked a few blocks south to the West Village
and people were blissfully and obliviously eating their $25 brunches, with
their overpriced mimosas (bargain basement champagne and frozen orange juice)
and avocado toast: a piece of bread with a schmear of avocado on
it—millennials’ great contribution to civilization. (By the way, you should
read what Anthony Bourdain has to say about brunch, and you’ll never eat
brunch again!)
I keep thinking of that speech in Network (a cinematic masterpiece that’s coming to Broadway—I hope
they don’t fuck it up): “Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms.
[You can substitute “brunch spot” for living rooms.] Let me have my toaster and
my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us
alone.”
Of course, the flip side of this “great economy” is the
cratering and hollowing out of every city, suburb and rural area in this
country that isn’t on one of the prosperous coasts. Or the hidden poverty that
exists in those coastal cities themselves. Just look at all the empty
storefronts in New York City. On the flip side of that, you have the multitude of empty luxury apartments bought
by LLCs (read “money-laundering operations”). I think those apartments should
be converted to housing for the homeless!
I’d recommend watching the Frontline documentary Left Behind America1 (about Dayton, Ohio) for a good reality check.
Or maybe just take a subway above 96th Street.
Wages have been flat or decreasing for the last 40 years.
Where is all this money coming from? Have we become a city of inherited wealth,
trust fund babies and Russian mobsters? (OK, that was a rhetorical question.) After all, former mayor of New
York City (and possible future presidential candidate) Michael Bloomberg
famously said, “If we could get every billionaire from around the world to move
here, it would be a godsend.”
I just finished reading several books about Donald Trump’s
scary rise to power and the truly scary
thing is that some of the things he said and campaigned on actually make sense!
I should be a Trump voter! After all, I’m a poor, middle-aged white guy! He and
Bernie Sanders both ran as “populists.” The difference is that once Trump took
office, he proceeded to do the exact opposite of what he said he was going to
do (i.e., giving a $1 trillion tax cut to the rich), as opposed to Sanders, who
has continued to rail against the “1%.”
So, we just keep going, pretending that everything is
great, while an accused rapist is up for a seat on the Supreme Court—a court
that has already had one seat stolen and is about to have another seat stolen
because of a president who himself stole an election (to cite just the latest
example in the daily litany of Trump disasters—a word I can’t even use anymore
because Trump ruined it.)
But, hey, at least I have my avocado toast.
1 https://www.pbs.org/video/left-behind-america-tkmile/
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