Nyc, Paris, London, Tokyo, all centers of power, control, affluence and success to the casual observer but as the western world slips further into the mire of economic misery the lights are slowly dimming.
A city built on potential, ability and possibility is left wallowing in the worst employment crisis since the twenties.

Yet what we are seeing first hand is actually a leveling off at 8.9 per cent unemployment down from over 10 per cent only five months ago in January. The city that has propelled Bloomberg and Trump to success and Sinatra to Gaga is on its knees. While walking around the Lower East Side and even Soho a bleak neglected look is to be seen among people who hate the jobs they are stuck with seeing no way out.

Abandoned and boarded up retail spaces and shop sales 24/7 only further display a city whose divide between rich and poor is widening and widening. In a recent visit to a Social Security office the desperation of ordinary Americans trying to cope with their current economic situations was none more obvious. Single mothers, retired couples and unemployed men from all over the world lined up and argued their case in the hope of financial aid, with one man in question storming out in frustration.

Subway after subway is lined with the filthy rich standing side by side with begging and desperate homeless at a rate i have never seen before. Academics with Masters and entering Phd’s being rejected right left and center for jobs way beneath them in run down bars and half open t-shirt shops.

As hundreds of young people from across the world continue to flood to this city in the hope of prosperity and success the words of a local jean shop owner come to mind, “get out while you can, we wont be far behind’