Rupture...

Manhattan needs its people back. But do the people need Manhattan? COVID-19 may not be a pause, as Gov. Cuomo puts it, but a rupture  one that has vast implications for New York.

For half a century, New York’s growth policy,  has been as follows:

Step one: Build up a dense corporate office hub centered around 150 blocks of Midtown Manhattan. 

Step two: Improve transit, so that you can move these millions of commuters onto the island of Manhattan every day in crowded metal tubes, and then, at the end of the day, move them back out.

Moving people back and forth from Westchester, Long Island and New Jersey during the day. Manhattanites who no longer walked to work from tenements to the docks or the Garment District could take the subway to new jobs in restaurants, retail, cleaning  serving a huge office market.

Yet this system was in peril even before the outbreak. Subways and commuter lines were beyond capacity at peak hours, and even off-peak. Developers had overbuilt, thanks to cheap global money and the politicians hunger for collecting taxes.

So when Covid 19 hit, New York City became death trap.  Just a thought.