boy is this new york doesn't have enough
problems right now getting people to
come back now this
and you have both the governor of new
york and the mayor of new york weighing
in on
their concern about just that take a
look
i literally talk to people all day long
who are now in the hamptons house
who also lived here or in their hudson
valley house
or in their connecticut weekend house
and i say you got to come back when are
you coming back
we'll go to dinner i'll buy a drink
come over i'll cook
they're not coming back right now and
you know what else they're thinking
if i stay there they pay a lower income
tax
because they don't pay the new york city
surcharge about the folks out in the
hamptons
i have to be very clear about this we do
not make decisions based
on the wealthy few uh that i was
i was troubled to hear this
concept that because wealthy people
have a set of concerns about the city
that we should accommodate them that we
should build our policies and approaches
around them that's not how it works
around here anymore
well mayor and i'm not people might to
to offend anyone here but uh it's not a
concept it's real the math is real
uh rich folks have decided to say it's
just a hassle being in the big apple and
they're leaving
the governor acknowledged that said he'd
even cook a meal for him
i don't think he was just being
facetious either it is a real crisis for
a city right now
that could be falling 30 billion bucks
of the money it needs
because of this virus and the very folks
who disproportionately paid their fair
share
of that are now exiting so it's a
concern that our own lesbian was looking
at quite some time ago
and it's now playing out uh you know in
spades here
liz what do you think i think it's
hilarious
they're trying to keep people from
coming to new york what they really need
to do neil is encourage
everybody to come to new york businesses
wealthy people all kinds of people
because guess what
this city is in big trouble and guess
what it's not a new pro
covid for sure has been the icing on the
cake and made the city more dangerous
but
a continued string of incredibly bad
policies have led to
a huge drop in the quality of life which
is only getting worse
uh now that the crime rate is soaring
and by the way
not just soaring in areas where crime is
always a problem
but soaring on the upper east side and
other places where wealthy people live
the idea
that wealthy people are not important to
this city is ludicrous
they support all the arts and the
museums that attract tourists year after
year
50 of income taxes in new york city
are provided by the top one percent
every year
mike bloomberg would bat away the idea
of a wealth tax
or uh taxing ultra rich people in new
york because he would point out that
it's literally a few thousand people
who keep this city going so this is just
bone-headed i hope
our next mayor and our next city council
members
are a little more attuned to the reality
of what makes cities function
well it's very clear that the new mayor
is not and the new york governor is
worried about it he is opposed to this
surtax on the wealthy that
the mayor wants but what's interesting
all of this occurs at the same time
we're getting word out of manhattan
um that a lot of activity is going south
and fast the manhattan apartment deals
plunging 57 in the latest period we've
never seen that big a drop
i mean that's a depression error type
drop um and it's one thing to say all
right you don't like rich people i get
that that is a progressive call the
retrieval yadda yadda
the fact of the matter is if you don't
want to give them the thank you they do
a little bit better than a screw you
because
they're just saying we're acting out
here and that's something that once this
crisis is over they're gone
and and by the way it's not just wealthy
people it's also
businesses new york state has
consistently
ranked with california as the worst
places to do business
in the entire country and we've seen
that only get
worse with people like alex
ocasio-cortez
of her ilk really bashing local
businesses if you're not going to
supply jobs and corporate income taxes
where do they think the money is going
to come from to help the people who
really do need help in the city
that's the conundrum that's what they
never answer where is that money come
from
cuomo wants it to come from the federal
government i'm not sure that's going to
happen
but he's clearly banking on a federal
bailout at this point
and i think a lot of people are opposed
to that
well and he's clearly more aware of
what's going on here and that if you
keep chasing
out the rich it's it's very soon before
you chase out others
and now we these quarantine checkpoints
all around the city
and a lot of people debating when to go
back to work if they go back to work
that's yet another reason to say you
know what i'm in no hurry to get back
into new york
what do you think i and i think by the
way there's anecdotal
stories of people having dinner outside
on madison avenue in the 60s and having
a group of people homeless people
perhaps they weren't sure
come and harass them and take their food
you don't need many stories like that to
circulate
before an awful lot of people are going
to say you know what maybe next year but
this year i'm not coming back and by the
way neil it's not just
older people those people have left for
florida ages ago
now it's the 25 to 40 year olds who are
buying houses in the suburbs
that is really uh i think a huge warning
sign
for new york city but you know there's
been lots of warning signs and
pretty much everyone's ignoring them
yeah indeed a suburban real estate uh is
surging in the new york metropolitan
area
at about a 26 clip as i said
this is apartment deals are plunging 57
so to your point liz read the numbers
and and we
thank you liz always great uh talking to
you even under these
wacky circumstances