Now, if you’ve taken a stroll in Central Park recently, maybe sat on a bench pretending to be deep in thought (while actually just looking for a squirrel to make friends with), you’ll have noticed something—New York looks different.
And I’m not talking about the rats getting bolder (though, fair play to them). No, I’m talking about the skyline. The shiny new towers! They’re seem to be everywhere! Look out towards Long Island City, downtown Brooklyn, even the Queens waterfront—there are glass behemoths popping up faster than my enthusiasm for a cup of tea. It’s like someone pressed fast-forward on the city’s skyline and we all missed the memo.
But here’s the thing: while these skyscrapers might look futuristic and cool, they’re basically the architectural equivalent of putting on a nice suit when you haven’t showered in three days. Yeah, you look fresh, but the problem underneath is still there—we’re not building enough homes. And it’s not even close.
Look Over There! Shiny Things!
Here’s the trick. Viral gentrification posts are like a magician. “Ooh, look at this shiny new skyline,” it says, distracting you with towers in LIC, Williamsburg, and Jersey City while quietly ignoring the fact that we’re in the middle of a massive housing crisis. It’s a classic bait and switch. These shiny new towers are impressive—LIC, in particular, looks like someone dropped a chunk of Blade Runner right on the East River. You’d think, “Wow, NYC is on top of it! Look at all the homes going up!”
But no. Don’t fall for it.
Those new towers? They’re just a drop in the bucket for a metro area serving 20 million people. It’s like giving an elephant a Tic Tac and calling it dinner. Sure, it feels like a lot when you’re up close, but zoom out, and it’s laughable.
The Glory Days—Remember When We Actually Built Stuff?
Believe it or not, NYC was doing alright for a while there. Back in the early 2010s, the city was churning out new homes faster than I can grow this substack. We were on a roll! Buildings were going up left and right. But then, around 2018, something weird happened. We all got caught up in this big, loud argument about gentrification, and suddenly, the idea of building more homes became this big moral crisis.
“Gentrification is ruining the city!” they said. “New buildings are evil!” they shouted. And just like that, the city basically hit pause on building. Now, there’s a loud and angry group of people who think adding housing is somehow an attack on their way of life. It’s like trying to tell someone they should drink water, and they respond with, “How dare you, my grandpa only drank whiskey, and I will, too!”
So, here we are, with a 20 million-person labor market, producing homes like we’re running a lemonade stand. Not enough, in other words.
NYC’s Skyline: All Show, No Substance
Look, I’m not saying the new towers aren’t impressive. They are. LIC, Williamsburg, downtown Brooklyn—these places look like something out of a sci-fi movie. But here’s the kicker: they’re just fresh Band-Aids on a gaping wound. These towers are cheaper than the $10 million up-filtered old buildings in Brownstone Brooklyn or the West Village.
Now, in theory, these new buildings should get more affordable as they age. Like a bottle of wine, but with some plumbing problems. Over time, as more towers go up, the pressure will ease a bit, and maybe, just maybe, your rent won’t feel like a second mortgage. But until then, they’re just there, twinkling in the skyline, while most of the city remains stagnant with historic preservation and fears of losing free car parking spots.
And don’t even get me started on how little we’re building elsewhere. The inland parts of Williamsburg? You know, the bits without the waterfront views? They were actually downzoned under Bloomberg. Yeah, you read that right. Instead of building more, Williamsburg limited the capacity. The net result? A whopping 7,300 new units. For context, that’s like trying to solve world hunger with a pack of ramen noodles. Go check the rent for older homes in Williamsburg if you want a panic attack. There’s three story buildings next to the subway where 50 story homes should stand.
Jersey City: The Unsung Hero
Meanwhile, across the Hudson, Jersey City has been quietly saving NYC’s bacon. For years, JC was the place where all the people priced out of Manhattan went. The shiny new towers there absorbed all the demand, saving NYC neighborhoods from hyper gentrification. But even JC is hitting its limit now. Journal Square is growing like crazy, and prices are climbing faster than a hipster looking for the next rooftop bar.
Without more supply from NYC, Jersey City can’t keep doing all the heavy lifting. They’re basically that friend who’s been helping you move every year, and now they’re starting to drop your boxes and mutter about needing a chiropractor. It’s time NYC pulls its weight.
Sprawl: The Devil’s Bargain
Now, some people will tell you that the solution is sprawl. Just build more homes further out, they say. Move to Texas. But that’s like deciding the solution to overeating is wearing bigger pants. Sure, you can do it, but it’s not really fixing the problem.
The farther out people live, the longer their commutes, and that has a real cost—both in money and time. The more sprawl we allow, the more time people spend stuck in traffic or on a train, wishing they had the foresight to pack snacks. That’s time they could’ve spent doing literally anything else—working, relaxing, binge-watching bad TV. The point is, sprawl has hidden costs that we tend to ignore.
Build It and They Will (Hopefully) Afford It
So, what’s the solution? Build more. And build it where people actually want to live—in the city! Not 20 miles away in some far-flung suburb where you need a car, a Costco membership, and a podcast to survive the daily commute. Workers are on “work from home” strike against these awful suburban commutes.
The futuristic skyline is nice to look at, or nice to complain about, but it’s not enough. We need to build at scale, and we need to do it now. not 10,000 new homes a year, think 50,000 or 100,000 homes every year. Otherwise, those shiny new towers will be nothing more than a beautiful distraction from the fact that this ultra NIMBY city is slowly pricing itself out of existence- on purpose.
Until then, enjoy the view from Central Park. Just don’t look too closely—you might start to see the cracks.