A New Model for New York --- San Francisco Anyone?

Joel Kotkin reports:

With perhaps tens of thousands of high-paying jobs about to evaporate, and with them the rich bonuses that fueled Mayor Bloomberg’s grandiose vision of a “luxury city,” New Yorkers should brace themselves for hard times. Bloomberg’s brave talk about media, tourism, bioscience or the arts making up the difference should not be taken too seriously. In reality New York has never been more dependent on Wall Street than it is today, in large part because most other middle class sectors, like manufacturing and warehousing, declined massively over the past seven years.

As a result, nearly one out of four dollars earned in New York --- although accounting for less than five percent of all jobs --- are tied to the financial sector. Overall job growth has been slow in finance, and stood well below historic highs even at the crest of the boom, and are now dropping radically. This means, as a result, a relatively few big earners are more and more important as overall employment in finance declines.

You'll want to read the whole article.New York city will never be the same as financial services employment declines in the near term.Another great one from Joel Kotkin.