New York Is Reawakening. It Just Needs Its Tourists Back.
After a year of staying away, visitors are trickling back. Now, city officials and business leaders are plotting ways to lure them in large numbers.
A visitor from Mexico took photos on the Brooklyn Bridge. The number of tourists to New York City plunged to 22 million last year from 66 million in 2019.Credit.Kirsten Luce for The New York Times
May 13, 2021, 3:00 a.m. ET
For 10 straight years leading up to the coronavirus pandemic, a torrent of tourists from around the world poured into New York City, with their numbers rising to a record level in 2019.
Photo of The Plaza via Pixabay
A sign of New York City’s recovery, The Plaza Hotel will reopen next month after closing its doors to guests for over a year. The iconic Central Park South hotel announced it will open its luxury rooms again on May 20, about 14 months after it first suspended services due to the pandemic. “For the past year you’ve been asked to stay home, The Plaza is now extending its formal invitation to return to New York,” the hotel’s website reads.
Since 1907, the Plaza has hosted diplomats, world leaders, socialites, and A-listers in its luxurious guestrooms and suites, many of which boast Central Park views.
New York City s once-mighty tourism industry shows first signs of revival stripes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stripes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
February 28, 2021
Unpaid property taxes in New York City are soaring as homeowners struggle and the pandemic recession slashes the rents landlords are collecting from both commercial and residential tenants.
Subscribe
The arrears rose to $1.3 billion in February 4.5% of the almost $30 billion due, according to figures released Monday by city Comptroller Scott Stringer.
By comparison, unpaid property bills for the fiscal year that ended in June 2020 equaled 1.8%. Even in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, owed property taxes peaked at 2.17% or half February s figure.
Subscribe We have been warning about the inevitability of this since the start of the cancel-rent movement, said Jay Martin, executive director of the Community Housing Improvement Program, which primarily represents owners of rent-regulated buildings. Something is giving way in the fabric of property ownership in the city.
Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Unpaid property taxes in New York City are soaring as homeowners struggle and the pandemic recession slashes the rents landlords are collecting from both commercial and residential tenants.
The arrears rose to $1.3 billion in February 4.5% of the almost $30 billion due, according to figures released Monday by city Comptroller Scott Stringer.
By comparison, unpaid property bills for the fiscal year that ended in June 2020 equaled 1.8%. Even in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, owed property taxes peaked at 2.17% or half February’s figure.
“We have been warning about the inevitability of this since the start of the cancel-rent movement,” said Jay Martin, executive director of the Community Housing Improvement Program, which primarily represents owners of rent-regulated buildings. “Something is giving way in the fabric of property ownership in the city.”