Three separate New York-y stories in the New York Times caught my attention today. The first warmed the cuckolds of my dark little heart. The second reminded my why my little heart is dark. The third made my head explode.
The heart warmer came from yesterday. A diamond dealer who fled from Belgium to New York with this family in 1946 befriended an Indian newsstand vendor who came to the US from India 20 years ago. Every Sunday morning, the diamond dealer brings the newsstand vendor breakfast and mans the newsstand while the vendor takes a bathroom break. Their affection for one another was lovely. Neighbors appreciating what the other does and helping out is just awesome.
On the flip side, we have the story about JetBlue. JetBlue is the only airline with a headquarters in Queens. Although they claim to love New York, the company threatened to move to Orlando, where the government fell over themselves to build them a new HQ and give them all sorts of tax perks. New York City then fell all over itself to give them $30 million in perks to stay. One concession is to let them use the iconic “I♥NY” logo on their planes. Now that the taxpayers of NYC are pitching in so JetBlue can show their love, the company noted that they also save $75 million by not moving.* Thanks.
Finally, I discovered that my alma mater, NYU, plans to destroy Greenwich Village and other parts of the city by expanding their campus by 40% and creating superblocks of NYU facilities. I will say one thing: the reason I wanted to go to NYU was because it was so integrated into the city. If I fucking wanted a regular college campus, I’d have gone elsewhere. Why do they have to ruin the city by turning it into NYU? Gah!
*This whole thing is emblematic of the severe public policy problems posed by one state/municipality luring business out of another. It’s just a race to the bottom for which area can most enrich the private corporation and the taxpayers lose. Bah!
