If that is the perception, people are grossly misinformed...
I have always maintained that in order to earn the right to complain, one must personally take positive, affirmative action to change the situation. Walking past Zuccotti park on a daily basis, I sure hear a lot of complaining.
Downtown's Big Shift
Lower Manhattan Has Transformed Into a Place to Call Home in the Past 10 Years
Even before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Lower Manhattan—salted with shabby government offices, storefront delis and foreboding bank buildings—was rarely counted among the city's more charming residential neighborhoods. And for a while after the attacks, its streets grew seemingly more inhospitable.
An acrid sting lingered in the air, along with a palpable anxiety. The wreckage at Ground Zero smoldered for months. Barriers and debris blocked streets. The National Guard was a constant presence, checking the identification of residents.
A decade later, Lower Manhattan has undergone a significant shift into one of the fastest-growing residential sections of New York. Adding 26,800 residents over the past 10 years, the southern tip of the island below Canal Street has nearly doubled the population it had in 2000, according to U.S. Census data.
"As things were rebuilding, we were returning to some semblance of normal. I just realized one day, it just struck me that it was a new normal. But it was normal," said Michael Kaufman, who has lived in Battery Park City for 16 years.
Businesses have returned to Lower Manhattan, with more firms operating there than in 2001, according to the Alliance for Downtown New York. There are now just 4% fewer jobs in Lower Manhattan than were there on Sept. 11, 2001, though many higher-paying financial-sector jobs have been replaced by lower-wage positions in the hotel and retail industries.
"After the first few months, it was very difficult to figure out where we'd be," said Madelyn Wils, chairwoman of the local community board during the time of the attacks and a resident of TriBeCa for the past 26 years.
While the future was uncertain, the yearning for a rebirth for downtown inspired many to stay, she said.
"The hope of the dream was what everybody hung their hat on," Ms. Wils said.
Residents who stuck around organized into various community groups to figure out how the neighborhood would rebuild. Newcomers were lured by high-achieving schools, easy access to the waterfront and tax incentives that made it more affordable to buy new homes.
Lower Manhattan still faces challenges. Conde Nast's announcement that it would move into the new World Trade Center was a boon for the neighborhood. But it's still unclear how many more private businesses will opt to move to an area that was the target of terrorist attacks in 1993 and 2001.
The commercial-office market still struggles. After 9/11, vacancy rates for commercial office space jumped to nearly 15%, according to real-estate brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield.
Those rates began falling in the middle of the decade, but that recovery was spoiled by the recession. Vacancy rates currently hover at around 10%, about double the rate in 2001.
Helping the area regroup was $30 billion in public and private investments. Condo owners returned to their homes. Developers took advantage of new tax incentives to build new residential buildings.
While Battery Park City is a vastly different place compared to when he first moved in, Mr. Kaufman said he's thrilled by the new schools and influx of new residents. "When Seven World Trade
opened, I was ready to dance," said Mr. Kaufman, who works as a chief information officer for Downtown Magazine, which focuses on Lower Manhattan.
But as Battery Park City has become more desirable, the cost of living has made it difficult for working-class families to afford to buy homes. A condo purchased in 2001 had a median sales price of $285,000, according to real-estate website StreetEasy. In 2011, the median sales price is $725,000.
Mr. Kaufman, who is married with three children, said his family may eventually move out of their two-bedroom condo for a bigger space.
"I just may be priced out, is the bottom line," he said.
Young families moving into the neighborhood with children have driven most of the growth Lower Manhattan, said Julie Menin, the current chairwoman of the local community board. "The new schools were absolutely critical," she said.
Among the new public schools in the area are Public School/Intermediate School 276 and the Spruce Street School. A new school will also be built in the Peck Slip post office as well.
TriBeCa was on the cusp of transforming from an area primarily inhabited by artists into an affluent neighborhood at the time of the attacks. In 2011, that shift is nearly complete. The median sales price for condos in TriBeCa during 2001 was $1.272 million, according StreetEasy. In 2011, it's $2.325 million.
Bruce Ehrmann and his wife were among those who stayed in TriBeCa after 9/11. "To me the most striking change is that the neighborhood went from a place that was contaminated in every aspect…to a place that is thriving," said Mr. Ehrmann, a real-estate broker who has lived in TriBeCa since 1987.
There is now a Whole Foods and a
Barnes & Noble and other signs of suburban life, said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the TriBeCa Film Festival, who lived in the neighborhood during the 1990s.
"They used to call TriBeCa 'Triburbia,'" Ms. Rosenthal said. "I think now it's actually living up to that nickname."
The financial district underwent one of the most substantial character changes as many office buildings converted into residential towers, said Sofia Song of StreetEasy.com. "When the market was hot, these buildings were selling out very quickly," Ms. Song said.
Sales have been fueled by young buyers—many of them in creative and technical, rather than financial, careers.
Christian Ewton runs an online sustainable-goods shop. On the roof of their Gold Street building with views of New Jersey, Mr. Ewton and a gang of recent Ivy League graduates who work in or around the tech industry gather to hang out and hold popular bocce ball tournaments. "There's something wonderfully calming about playing bocce 53 stories in the air," Mr. Ewton said.
Wall Street continues to be the biggest source of private jobs in Lower Manhattan, according to the Alliance for Downtown New York, and firms such as Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase employ thousands of people. But many financial-services companies continued their decades-long migration to Midtown after the attacks.
"There are just a lot less people working at the stock exchange," said
Ted Weisberg, president of the family-run firm Seaport Securities, which has been in business downtown for more than 30 years. "It has been a very dramatic change."
