Yes.
When I offered to do a long post about my perspective on things here in NYC, I knew it was going to be tricky for me to carve out the time to actually write it, but I was unexpectedly busy this week, so I still haven't gotten around to starting it. I still plan on doing it, but there's a lot I want to cover and I would rather it all be in one post or a group of posts, rather than piecemeal. None of it is really time sensitive, so it will still be relevant in a week or two, if there's any interest.
However, I do want to just answer the question about Rossman real quick. Because I clicked on the videos in this thread, he's been showing up in my youtube recs again. Rossman first came to my attention a few years ago because of his right to repair vids. He had an interesting perspective and it was something that I didn't think was talked about enough at the time. He started popping up in my recs again earlier this year because of his vids on robinhood/gamestop/amc debacle. I checked out a few of the other vids he was making at the time and I remember thinking "Hmm, I wonder if he's going to move to texas, florida or vegas soon?" I was not surprised when he announced that he was doing that.
I think Rossman may genuinely be frustrated living in NYC right now, but I also think there's a certain amount of theater to his videos. Like the vid posted upthread titled "Imposter Syndrome". I didn't watch the whole thing, but I scrolled through and he seems to mainly be talking about his specific experience renting in a crappy building from a crappy landlord. Yes, crappy building management is not rare here, but what he's describing is not a universal experience. Not even for people renting commercial spaces. But more importantly than the fact that I don't think he's actually describing imposter syndrome in that video, I don't understand how it's something he experienced on a daily basis. In this video I'm linking, he goes on a tour of the neighborhood his old store is located in.
It's accurate that the neighborhood is currently in shambles(particularly from a commercial vacancy perspective). But even at it's best, this is not a fancy area. He walks south in this video, but directly across the street to the north from where this video starts is one of the largest rent-stabilized complexes in Manhattan called Stuytown/PCV. It's not the projects, it's subsidized housing that was originally intended for veterans and their families, but anyone can live their now. The apartments are massive, the rent is subsidized and the complex contains parks and playgrounds, greenery, dedicated gyms and stores and a parking complex and it's not even that difficult to get into. It takes up about 10 square city blocks. Some people would describe it as idyllic, but it is solidly working class. I believe there is an upper income limit for people to live there. My point is that this place sets the tone of that area. It's one of the most affordable areas in Manhattan below 96th street. There is no way he was experiencing Imposter Syndrome with a repair shop in this neighborhood and then walking back home to his neighborhood in brooklyn.
Another reason I'm linking to this particular video is because of the blog he links to in the caption:
https://evgrieve.com/2021/07/week-in-grieview_0153026712.htmlThe post I linked on the blog is a roundup of real estate/ commercial happenings in the area Rossman's business was located.
I want to draw your attention to 4 posts in particular- the one about Evil Katsu, the one about Dim Sum Go Go, the one about Fun city tattoo, and the one about Stuyvesant Gourmet Deli. These are all pretty clear situations where people are expanding due to a depressed commercial rental market, but the one about the deli is the most interesting to me, because I have seen so many versions of it playing out: businesses "closing permanently" and then essentially relocating as little as a few feet away for better deals, nicer spaces, etc.
This is why I'm a little suspicious of Rossman. My brain cannot wrap my mind around how he can't be doing better now than pre-pandemic. He runs a tech repair shop and has had a significant social media following for years. That alone should give him a pretty stable business. He should be able to do exclusively mail order and appointments and still be turning away business. (A friend of my wife's started doing packed lunches for her bf's coworkers and one of her tiktoks blew up and she's up to about 20 orders a day, which is all she can handle.) Yet anytime I hear him talk about his business, it sounds like it's on the verge of collapse. I don't get how he hasn't been able to negotiate a better space, even if he would have to go through a second party. To a certain degree, I feel like his content is more designed for people who want to see the endpoint of how
*** liberalism ruined New York***.
And a version of that story is there to tell. I just think it's way more nuanced. I also think when you look at how things are playing out and the history of this city, it's pretty obvious this is a temporary state. About half of the people who worked in Manhattan prepandemic didn't live here- they travelled in each day from other boroughs or even out of state. The way Manhattan works is pretty different from pretty much everywhere else in America, in that our business districts are also heavily populated residential districts.
(but I'll get into those things another time.)
