Why I Hate New York City - Sidewalk Sheds

I'm hoping to turn this into a recurring piece on here, because it seems like the evidence is never ending. I've been complaining about New York City for years, so it will be good to start compiling the evidence in my favor.

The Wall Street Journal reports on how sidewalk sheds in New York, supposedly a temporary arrangement to keep people safe from debris falling off buildings that are either under construction or simply decaying, have become permanent fixtures in the city. And it's not just because of the recession.

Megan McArdle argues that the job of "shed builder" is totally recession proof:

"In good times, they protect against construction and renovations. In bad times, they protect against falling-apart buildings that the landlords can't afford to repair."

Of course, I could also explore the issue of why landlords can't afford to, or don't even want to, repair the increasingly dilapidated structures across the city (here's a hint: rent-controlled apartments are bad), but that's best left for another time.

It doesn't seem to matter how the economy is doing. Boom or bust, there are between 4,000 and 6,000 sidewalk sheds across the city at any given time. The WSJ article quotes an architect who compares the "ugly, dismal, and ubiquitous" sheds to the "arcades of Bologna". What is this guy smoking?? He's obviously a New Yorker, because only someone so incredibly out of touch with reality could try to compare this to this. Some of the sheds have been up for more than 10 years.

So here's your vision of New York City in the not-to-distant future: nearly every sidewalk is covered with a shed, protecting the huddled masses from the collapsing facades of buildings that are too expensive to repair. The only construction work being done in the city is the maintenance on old sidewalk sheds that have fallen into disrepair, because the owners realize it is far cheaper and easier to repair the sheds than the buildings themselves. And the coverings mean than no one can look up and see how crappy the city's once-proud structures have become, so no one realizes they live in such a crappy place, and New Yorkers retain their smug sense of superiority even as their city crumbles around them.

Yup, sounds like the "greatest city in the world" to me.