American Cities are being Destroyed
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Urban Doom Loop sounds like some sort of B-movie. I’m gonna explain it to you. I’ve talked about it here when we discuss the real estate market here in the United States, commercial in particular. I’ve talked about it also on TV as well, and people are kind of confused about what it means. First and foremost, the Urban Doom Loop, which is happening, is not just New York and San Francisco and Chicago and…
Portland and Los Angeles. No, it’s affecting cities all across the country in particular, Midwestern cities as well. It’s about foot traffic, baby. Pure and simple foot traffic. Okay. When I, this is kind of an interesting story. When I first moved to New York City and I was first working on Wall Street, I was also working for some incredible restaurateurs that…
on unbelievable places around the city. And every couple of years, unless they would open up a new one. And when they were scouting out a location somewhere in the city, they would actually have somebody sit outside, not one of them, and count the amount of people that would walk by over the course of the day. Actually sit out there and count. Foot traffic matters. I talked about this. I said, you know,
in back and forth into the city, into an area that used to be, you know, mobbed with people. Mobbed. You’d be bumping into people all the time. That energy. It was to Six Avenue, Rockefeller Center right there, Radio City Music Hall, Fox News. You know, I was there on Friday, Mornings with Maria. They had the Fox Summer Concert Series outside stage set up and…
Man oh man, they must have bought about a thousand flags to decorate the entire area. Making sure it’s as patriotic as patriotic could be. But neither here nor there, there wasn’t anybody there.
I was look outside, there was barely anybody there. Where again, back in the day, my first office was in Rockefeller Center. First office in Rockefeller Center when I first moved to the city and Today Show down there and mobs of people, mobs. I mean, sure, I’m sure you’re gonna see it around Christmas time, but this was, wasn’t just Christmas time, this was all the time in New York.
Um, we’re seeing it around the country. And again, I, with my, my kids and the things that I do with my job, I, I do a bit of traveling and I go to some of these places. Um, what was it? Uh, two years ago, I went to Indianapolis, Indianapolis and got there was taking my daughter, uh, to visit some schools out there and it was a football game, Coltsford town, they got Lucas oil stadium there, downtown Indianapolis. It was dead.
That game was going on after the game. Yeah, I’m there for a couple of days and I’m walking around and the tumbleweeds, it was incredible to me. I was like, wow, it’s really dead here. Every place, these places I’m going to, all these other cities, Midwestern cities in particular, they were designed improperly, quite frankly.
All sorts of tax deals were given and presented to bring all sorts of businesses to the center. And that’s all well and good, but that doesn’t make a great city.
And I, you know, you go to some great cities, say go to Rome, they call it the eternal city. And yeah, Rome have its problems, this, that, the next thing, but it’s walkable. It’s walkable, it’s livable. I mean, he, I’ll give you a better example. Go take a look at, you’ve ever seen, if you haven’t gotten a chance to go there, go on and take a look at Pompeii. Obviously wiped out by a volcano, but…
how it was livable, how it was workable. That’s what makes a true city. And we screwed it up in many ways, shape, matter, and form. Actually, there was some interesting column about it today. They’re talking about how they’ve been analyzing cell phone data to track the amount of people physically present in central business districts. The granular individual level data provides a fuller
picture of downtown vitality both before and after the pandemic than other measures such as office vacancy rates and mass transit ridership. The conclusion that the study draws for the heartland is bleak. Five of the bottom 10 cities and its trackers most recent data, which is December 22 to March 23, we’re in the Midwest, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Cleveland, and Kansas City.
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the rankings, North American, downtown, slowest recovery, San Francisco, St. Louis, Portland, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Oakland, Kansas City, Toronto, Philadelphia, Montreal, New Orleans, and Seattle. And more and more companies are just gonna be giving up their office space. Again, this is not due to COVID. People say, hey, COVID, it’s gonna come back. No, no. You know, sometimes things happen.
Sometimes things happen and people think, you know, that’s, you know, oh, Jesus, you know, major event. No, this was years in the making. We’ve been mourning about commercial real estate for a long period of time. And like I said, I actually did this the other night. We were out at some friend’s house and talking about housing prices. And I used to live in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, my first apartment, you know.
Three roommates, railroad apartment straight through. And then, you know, I proved as I went along, obviously. But anyway, it was a residential neighborhood, vibrant neighborhood, restaurant, you know, stores, you know, it was a great place. Really, really enjoyed it up there. And again, I go up there now and it’s empty commercial space everywhere.
Everywhere and I love messing around with the real estate sites. I said, you know go on Trulia And don’t listen to what the real estate experts are telling you on CNBC or the talking heads on TV go check for yourself Check for yourself. I’m pulling up. I’m pulling up Palatial place, but you know in doorman buildings at price they couldn’t believe what I was showing. I
gonna cost you a hell of a lot more to live in Tampa than it is in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Real estate value, not the cost of living and the taxes that go along with it. But again, this is the reality. They’re telling you one thing, but the eagle’s there, you can’t hide your lion eyes. I mean, your eyes are not lying to you. Okay, you can see it for yourself. And again, this has been going back for a very long period of time. And I guess it was the…
I don’t know the name of the current mayor of San Francisco. I’m sorry, it slips my mind. But it was a news story where she was suggesting, she made the suggestion, you know, that all this, that commercial, commercial real estate falling apart, retail downtown, Westfield turning into keys, Nordstrom’s gone. This one’s gone. She actually just knock all this stuff down, maybe do something else. Put a stadium up. Listen.
I don’t know, it might be something to consider. I suggested the same thing for New York City. I said if there was ever a time to build a, finally, you know, bring the football teams back from New Jersey, I said now would be it.
That would be it. I mean, you got plenty of freaking empty buildings that are the size of city blocks and then some they’re not coming back.
They’re not. It would have to be engineered out of Washington, DC, and Albany with all sorts of tax breaks. And even then, I don’t think it would be the case. I don’t think it would happen.
People, they don’t, again, the commute time, the travel, it’s just, you can’t.
It’s not worth it. I went last week, I went into the city for a concert. Yeah, it takes me an hour plus on the train. You know, it was right there, Madison Square Garden. Again, I get invited, I mean, I get invited on other television shows and whatnot. Maybe I’m being kind of snobby at this point in time, but unless they’re sending a car to pick me up and take me back, like,
you know, 10 minute hit down at the New York Stocks. Not even 10 minute, five minute hit on this station. And I’m like, okay, fine, I’ll do it. You’re gonna come pick me up. No, no, we don’t do that. So I’m gonna take a train in and then get off the train, get on the, no, I’m not doing it. Thanks, no thanks, I’m good.
I’m good. And again, you know, people are starting to recognize that now, you know, the old, you know, again, I’m sub-referencing again, you know, the old police synchronicity too. Stuck like lemmings into shiny metal boxes. Listen, okay? People don’t wanna do it anymore. They don’t. Anyway, Watchdog on wallstreet.com. Watchdog on wallstreet.com.
