Published 2025-11-27
tag(s): #politics #random-thoughts #nyc
One of my favorite buildings near the office has a beautiful...mural? made with tiles.
I absolutely love it. For some reason, it gives me Soviet vibes.[1]
And yes, I know the photo is not level 👀.
I sometimes wonder if the original doors were also detailed and decorated. It is a tad obvious
that the current doors are not the original ones. Technically, they aren't even
doors, since they are perpetually closed.
But that's not the only sign of lost grandiosity, if you look closely at the tile work...
...you can see a lot of them are missing. This thing needs a restoration, like, 15 years ago.
A long time ago, at a birthday party, a guy who works in construction told me the amount of
scaffolding in Manhattan is a problem. But it is cheaper for building owners to pay the fines
for having scaffolding up for too long, than to fix the elaborate, ornate decorations.
It made sense, because working in the financial district, I see a lot of buildings covered
like that. But I hesitated to repeat the story, until a couple months ago I read a news
article explaining the same thing. And it said the city government wanted to tackle this
problem.
I don't know how, though. Raising the fines?
Sure, but the cost will probably be passed down to the tenants, and I figure at least some
companies will move out. The city would want a balance there, since they have incentive to
keep tax-paying employers, and their tax-paying employees-consumers around.
Should the government cover part or all the reparations?
I find it hard to believe companies renting office space in Manhattan are short on cash,
honestly. Maybe after COVID, they are? But these repairs seem to have been delayed far longer
than 5 years. Shouldn't they be responsible for something they caused themselves, by
negligence?
If I don't pay my bills, no one is coming to rescue me...
If I buy a lavishly decorated house, and then I can't keep up with maintenance of the facade,
I don't think anyone involved (bank, city government, etc) would think twice about evicting
me.
Yet for big real estate owners, we fall once again in the fallacy[3] of
"too big to fail"...
Eh, I don't want to go too deep into these rabbit holes. I am just a dude ranting, not an
expert in economy, real estate, city regulations or building maintenance.
I will pat myself in the back for a thought: a while ago I was thinking that these things were
made when labor was cheap and there was less concern for safety. And then a few days later I
read an article[2] talking about why modern construction tends to be
"plain and boring". One of the few people interviewed said the same thing: these turn of the
century/mid XX century buildings are a product of their time. He/she gave more or less the
same reasons I thought of a few days before.
Anyway, the reasons why these buildings aren't restored have nothing to do with lack of
wealth. If any of the billionaires in this planet took on these repairs as their pet project,
it could be done in a relatively short time.
I am going to venture this is yet another example of the failures of "the system". Little
cracks that show up here and there.
The real reason that these buildings aren't kept in shape has nothing to do with a true
impossibility, and is just a case of misaligned priorities, lack of government enforcement, and
maybe...lack of pride?
Weren't these symbols of wealth, power and prosperity? What are we (collectively, I guess?
society?) saying when we let them slowly fall apart?