New York City Continues to Turn Into Cleveland; News from the Center for an Urban Future

Living in New York City is the ultimate urban trade-off; an ongoing pas de deux between a dream and no closet space. Other than those who are Goldman-lined, we surrender space and privacy, we pay nutty rents for some tiny turf in exchange for an ineffable combination of manic intensity, creative ferocity and conviction about an uncertain but ultimately luminous future.

And we derive a large measure of self-satisfaction from our willingness to enter into that bargain, and to continue the romantic argument that's brought and kept people here for generations.

Part of what makes us willing to pay the price for living in New York is the texture of the urban fabric, the kinds of restaurants and stores that you stumble upon when you turn an unexpected corner, the emblematic quirkiness and glorious grump of merchants and storekeepers who could only be sustained here.

The Center for an Urban Future, a worthwhile policy group and think tank, published some scary statistical data this week that raises some questions - none of which are totally new - about the continuing loss of the warp and woof of our essential urban character.

Their research revealed a "surprising finding." Despite the "sour economic climate" in New York City, what's happened is that "dozens of chain stores actually have expanded their footprint in the five boroughs over the past year."

Some specifics - and the data reflects July 2008 to July 2009:

• Dunkin' Donuts increased from 341 locations to 429 - the largest national retailer in the city

• Subway, the second largest, went from 335 to 361.

• Starbucks, despite the store closings we've been reading about, went from 235 locations to 258.

Others who had their share of grand-openings in the teeth of the recession were McDonald's, Duane Reade, Baskin-Robbins, Sleepy's and Radio Shack. (Like me, do you wonder about the crazy proliferation of mattress stores? Who is buying them?)

Many of us have been ringing the homogenization bell for a long time, and bemoaning the accelerating disappearance of the kinds of small, personality-rich shops that Jane Jacobs heroized in her landmark "Death and Life of Great American Cities."

But while Jane focused her animus on soulless urban planners (namely Robert Moses) for crushing them, what's happening now is a self-inflicted subtraction. We are the ones who are spending enough money at these chain stores to encourage their business planners and economic modelers to open more of them.

Meanwhile, the city is hurting. Earlier this summer, Mayor Bloomberg announced an effort to bring more "new media jobs" to New York. Yesterday, it was announced to the City's unemployed rate increased to 9.6%, which is actually higher than the national rate. Doing business in New York City isn't easy, but companies put up with all the crap and complexities because the people they want to hire want to live here.

But if walking the streets of this city becomes indistinguishable from walking the streets of Cleveland, we'll lose the ferocious and fiery entrepreneurs who can bring us out of the recession, and into a diversified future where the city isn't so dependent on the success of Wall Street.

The critical role of independent, imaginative retail is vital to New York's resurgence. But no one - not the federal government with its bail-out money, not the city with its own tax incentives - is spending a nickel to encourage and develop this sector.

The Center for an Urban Future closes its report by saying:

"In theory, the disappearance of former powerhouses like Circuit City...could create new opportunities for independent, mom-and-pop retailers by freeing up space and easing upward pressure on prices.

But the well-known difficulties of small businesses looking to access credit in this downtown might represent a stronger countervailing factor - and any independent retailers would face the same depressed market conditions as their larger competitors."

Unless there's a concerted and systemic effort to create a flowering of inspiring, Jane-Jacobsian small business start-ups - an effort which must include the banks and other sources of capital; local government; the real estate industry and others who have a stake in the future of the city - we will end up with a retail landscape that is depressingly mall-like. Denatured, decaffeinated, distilled.

The trends are clear and undeniable. So in the future, when we look back and wonder why New York has lost its competitive edge, the answer will be as clear as the Dunkin' Donuts on the corner. And the Popeye's (with 62 franchises throughout the city, including 31 in Manhattan) across the street.

Follow Adam Hanft on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ahanft

Comments

[48thGuy]

Somebody got it right....NYC is Schaumburg, only a bigger mess!

[maximusg]

When was the last time you were in Cleveland? I'm betting never. As a proud resident I can assure you that people here know and love their local businesses. In the last 10 years my neighborhood has actually had a McDonalds and a Starbucks close (before the big wave of closings), the latter forced out of business by local competition.
New York is actually the face of corporate/chain-store/brand name America, have you walked through Times Square recently? I havent seen to many advertisements for the mom and pop deli around the corner. And its been that way for years.
In fact most urban cities do not have the chain store on every corner problem that NYC has, that's more of an issue with the suburbs, so if anything you should be writing that NYC is turning into a suburb.
So stop comparing your problems to midwest cities you will never travel to, and go support your local businesses.

[ahanft]

I humbly withdraw my reference to Cleveland and apologize for a thoughtless name-check. The point holds, merely substitute the generic urban clone of your choice.

Adam Hanft

[Ohioan730]

I'm not sure if Cleveland is the best example. Maybe Columbus. Many chain stores in Columbus are not available here at all.

Cleveland is not really Anytown, USA. There is a large white ethnic population of Polish, Chech, Croatian, Italian, Irish, Slovenian, Russian, German etc. and other large communities of Asians and different kinds of Latinos. The blacks here are the only group that has not immigrated from another country in the last few generations.

Cleveland is full of ethnic food and flavor. Many neighborhoods here have refused chain stores being built in their neighborhoods. Ohio City, Tremont and North Collinwood and countless other wards and neighborhoods are free of any sort of chain store. In fact, people complain about having to go outside the city to go to Walmart.

Methinks you don't know anything about Cleveland and you pulled my city out of your backside because everyone associates Cleveland with losers. We may be losers but we aint no stinkin' cultureless city full of chain stores, bygod. ;-D

[Sleepyjohns]

I agree that Cleveland was a poor choice for comparison. It's diverse, quirky, full of independent shops and enclaves. Actually, some of the best up and coming artisan and green restaurants are in Cleveland and it's environs. In Ohio, Columbus would have been a better choice, but go anywhere and find a better comparison: Schaumberg, IL, Livonia, MI, St. Claire, PA, Thousand Oaks, CA. But Cleveland? Not so much.

[manhattanmaverick]

Thanks for highlighting CUF's study. I've been a resident of Manhattan since I moved from Detroit in 1990. I came here for the vitality and randomness of the City, which appeared in the variety of mom and pop retailers and non-corporate restaurants and cafe's.

In the late 90's, the Gap began to proliferate. Then it was Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. Don't forget the banks eating up all the corners, either. Earlier today I bought a tuna sub from a Subway next to a Dunkin Donuts and across the street from a Starbucks. To see for yourself, just stand on the corner of 28th street and third ave.

Corporations can negotiate favorable leases with landlords for street level locations that double as billboards for the brand. Ironically, one of the few "cool" corporate tenants, Virgin Records, recently shut its stores in Times Square and Union Square.

Rents are too high in NYC for the coffee shops which used to serve as gathering spaces for artist types who can no longer afford to live here anyway. Without my rent-stabilized apartment, I wouldn't be here either. NYC is no longer friendly to the mom and pop independent stores or underground nightclubs that drew me and other creatives to this city in the first place. We're all vanishing in the dust of gentrified and corporatized homogeniety. Where can we go? Back to Detroit?

[manhattanmaverick]

Update: The Starbucks I mentioned, located at the corner of 28th street and third avenue, closed permanently as of last night (Friday, August 21, 2009). Go figure!