What are the benefits that the growth of technological innovation is supposed to bring specifically to New York? Is disagreement on these benefits possible? What potential negative issues do you see emerging?
Mayors love it when a entire industry decides their city is this best. San Fransisco was long a cultural icon, starting with the era of the Haight. There has been some blight in the city and after pop culture went away the city was suffering. Why would San Fransisco politicians have the kind of hind sight to see that their city would be flooded by techies and used as the launchpad of Silicon Valley? They knew that the city needed help and they were looking for economic stimulus. What happened in San Fransisco was a result of a the city turning a blind eye to gentrification because of the money that it brought in. San Fransisco became they tech city and became very expensive and “fancy”. But there was a problem, unlike New York, San Fransisco became totally dependent on one industry for its life blood and its survival.
New York has been dependent on the financial industry since Wall Street was made financial capital of the country but we have never become too dependent. As Brom article pointed out, the cities growth survived the dot com collapse of the 90s and the crash of 07/08. Not only has the city survived but it has flourished. Flourished meaning the unsustainable unchecked growth continued to create inequality and drive people out. Anyway, New York survived because our city has not built itself on the back of one industry. If there is ever to be a total collapse of the tech industry or even a slowdown San Fransisco’s economy will take a huge hit. The financial sector is the biggest industry in New York but the cities fate is clearly not directly tied to it.
San Fransisco already sold out to Silicon Valley and only now that things have gotten so extreme and so many residents have been pushed out, has the tone of the administration change. But not really. The Streitfield article in the Times illustrates how resentful people have become of the techies that have made their city a rich mans playground and it shows whose side the city government is on. Clearly they want to keep making money, driving out the homeless and the unsightly and replacing culture with a desire for authenticity. What has already happened across the country is in the process of happening here but New York is too much of strong and diverse city to give in completely to the pressures of the market. To Mayors De Blasio’s credit, the cities policies are at least attempting to help people keep their homes and keep the middle class alive. He isn’t doing enough though.
It is difficult to fight against something as strong as the desirability of New York and the money that’s it when there’s is no support from the Feds and barely any from the State. Technology is the wave of the future in numerous ways and it is possible for New York to adopt without losing it self in the process as our brethren on the West Coast. People in a democratic country don’t have to take bullying by the market lying down and the people of San Fransisco will surely mount a last ditch defence. Perhaps they’ll take Elijah’s advice and use aggression and generally Tom-foolery to get the techies out but I would guess otherwise.
Yes, Ben, irony is not an adequate strategy to deal with the inequalities that are created, or sustained, by a new economy. Remember that tech entrepreneurs in general–certainly in Silicon Valley–do not like the state to take the lead role in managing society. They tend to prefer the judgment of shifting “crowds” and technocratic elites–how would this affect the political orientation of the de Blasio admin and its allies?