It’s pretty obvious that the spirit and fabric of NY is changing in some very deep and fundamental ways. We all see the closing mom and pop stores, the loss of artists, creative businesses and city history. At the very moment when we should be celebrating living in a cleaner, safer and richer city many of us are just wondering if we can afford to stay. Here’s my theory as to the cause of our problem. It’s all about supply and demand. New York has a larger supply of something that a whole lot of Americans and immigrants have decided that they want; reasonably safe diverse and walk able streets, some decent (not that great) transit infrastructure and a nice bundle of economic opportunity. OK, I am understating it–a lot of NY is just great! But, the sad fact is that so few other cities in the country are even half decent in terms of providing the things we take for granted. In Europe or Asia a person who liked urban life would have a wide choice of towns and cities to go to but here, the choices are pretty slim. It’s like America just woke up and realized it sucked and now they all want to come here.