New York Leaves ‘Nasty’ Reputation Behind as Families Crowd In

By Caroline Salas

Martin Fridson said suburban friends used to chide him for raising two children in Manhattan.

“Central Park had a national reputation as being a very dangerous place,” said Fridson, 58, global credit strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management Inc. Raised in Detroit, he has lived on the Upper West Side, near the expansive park, since 1980 and said that outsiders don’t always see the benefits city dwellers appreciate.

“People sort of wondered how you could possibly raise children in New York,” he said of the city that in the last decade has persevered through a historic terrorist attack and a severe financial crisis.

“Their perceptions are out of date,” Fridson said, describing a “tremendous renaissance” on Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues near his three-bedroom apartment.

Manhattan’s population grew 3.2 percent to 1,585,873, outpacing New York state’s 2.1 percent growth over the past decade, according to 2010 Census data released yesterday. The boost defied fears of urban flight after the Sept. 11 attacks and the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

New York City, the most populous place in the country with 8,175,133 residents, also attracted more residents at the same time that its crime rate fell, census and city data show.

Felonies Decline

The incidence of seven major felony offenses declined to 105,115 in 2010, down 43 percent from 184,652 in 2000, according to the New York City Police Department. That includes reports of murder, rape, robbery and burglary.

“The city itself has turned around the perception that it’s just a nasty, dirty place to live,” said Peter Francese, a demographics analyst who founded American Demographics magazine, now part of Advertising Age. New York has “created the perception that it’s not only safe, it’s hot,” he said.

The median co-op and condo sale price increased to $880,000 in 2010, more than double the 2001 figure of $430,000, according to a report this year by real estate appraiser Miller Samuel Inc., which covers the greater New York metropolitan area. The report was based on sales by Prudential Douglas Elliman, a real estate firm with more than 60 offices.

‘Influx of Demand’

“I’m not so sure we would have had the influx of demand for people to make this their home” if former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and current Mayor Michael Bloomberg hadn’t focused on “the small stuff, like graffiti on the subways, trash and quality of life issues,” said Jonathan Miller, president of New York-based Miller Samuel.


Continued at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...into-city.html

The City of New York is doing everything right. Their progress is supremely enviable. At the same time, Manhattan has essentially become a playground for the ultra rich. For New York, it's a good thing, but if it becomes any more elite, it might be labeled "Millionaire's Island" and average people will no longer be able to afford to move there to chase their dreams.

Having alot of family in the City of New York, I have been there maybe 50-60 times in the last 10 years, its a wonderful place to visit, but I couldn't live there. To many people and the city is dirty. Walking down 5th ave or Park ave at night you see more rats then people on the streets. Dont walk the streets when garbage gets picked up, rats scatter everywhere. Time Square is kool always busy, can grab a slice just about everywhere, I love NY style pizza, the club scene is great, central park is nice. Not a place to raise a family in my opinion.

Are you getting all this Mayor Bing? Better yet why don't you do the city a favor and study up on NYC and their turnaround in the last 30 years. It started with SAFER streets. I want to see Bing bring aboard as many new police officers as possible. With these officers you start to routinely patrol Detroit's roughest neighborhoods, starting this summer. Why cant our state devote as much money as possible to ridding Detroit of what ails it, CRIME.

The city of Detroit has been "scared" to fight back for too long, this bullshit has to quit. Maybe if the state as a whole[[not just southeast mi) would take a vested interest in solving this problem with every resource available to them. Maybe it could be the earthquake that brings on the Tsunami to help wash out these criminals.

This isn't rocket science. Get the fucking police out there busting this shit up. Then again I don't know if the Steel -Magnate will ever have a grasp of criminals like Mayor G did in NYC. Gulliani spent time making undercover drug buys as a federal agent[[prior career with DEA) and began to pave the way for the breakup of a lot of organized crime in the city,.. I'd love to see a mayor come in with a history of fighting crime under his belt.

The state has thrown a shitload of $$ at the city over the years only to watch it disappear into the depths of the pit. Until city government can show it has it's act together and is using $$ accountably and efficiently no one's going to want to give the city anything, and understandably so.

Back in the 1960s to the 1980s The South Bronx area used to be 10,000 times WORST than Detroit. There were thousands of vacant buildings every block, drugs, violent crime, an influx of gangs, arson fires, and the Crack epidemic close the coffin at that area. When Gentrification came in. South Bronx was second to recieve urban renewal. Abandon buildings were torn down, new homes and sub-housing was built and businesses have return to the area. The South Bronx came a long way from American's largest ghetto into to its own renaissance. Detroit can do some, also.

WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET!

Because change a community one block at a time take action, not talk for Neda's sake.