It's true that the publishing industry, in any case newspapers, is having issues with the internet and how to profit from it (charge a subscription fee like WSJ? The NYT isn't sure what to do. They tried charging for popular columnists for a while and that didn't work. I read them on the internet now.
As for books--I know that I've downloaded books via Stanza onto my iphone and I hear that a bigger ITouch is on the way, and then there's the Kindle----but I really think its a somewhat unpleasant way to read, and curling up with a good book in bed is still the best experience, esp one you can make notes in. So I think books themselves will survive just fine for quite a long while.
But no, this bloodshed is completely due to the financial crisis. I'm sure funding for the arts will dry up. Broadway theater is in trouble. All that stuff.
And besides, imo, creativity had spread from NY to all kinds of outposts and other centers around the country. One of my favorite editors has for years telecommuted from his souped-up trailer by the river in Ashland Oregon, where he coaches highschool girls in rowing and also tried competing in the Olympics for a second time recently. Telecommuting is easier than ever. For a long time now the NY creative experience has been "corporate-ized". There are good and bad aspects to that, as for instance the Lincoln Center Jazz Center in the Time Warner Building is beautiful.
Also Patron is right. The baby boomers are still going to want to move to the Sun Belts. They just may not want McMansions. They may even start saving. HUH???? Lol.
And he's right about Wall Street being the essence of all this change in NY (the building/contruction/condo craze explosion, all the fancy stores, the "mall-ification" as I call it, of NY, with Bed Bath Beyond, Wholefoods, Staples, Barnes & Noble, Target, often with relatively huge amounts of space for the city, sometimes in basement area.) Two-thirds of my building was converted to luxury condo, and all those folks bought at the top. Two members of the condo board have been trying to sell their apartments since about Oct when they recognized the debacle was coming. They haven't been able to sell yet. Others are just not going to be able to support the costs and I think NY is perfectly capable of losing a lot more % value in real estate. Etc.
Again, I'm not against all this, it had to happen, and hopefully will lead to a more circumspect way of life and a less unbalanced one. I mean, I'm all for putting some of those guys in jail for a while. I'd support legislation that took away the ridiculous November bonuses they pocketed, figuring they'd steal taxpayer money while they could. That won't happen but no reason it shouldn't. |
