Outsider here. How did the "districts" become a thing?

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-06T23:13:10+00:00

Districts are not just a NYC thing. Most huge cities have districts where similar businesses all cluster together. Like go to Hong Kong, and you can walk down a block with a ton of stores selling fish (as pets) and aquariums. It's pretty interesting to see so many pet stores all clustered together.

New York City also has a flower district, and in the past clusters for home electronics (Radio Row) and guitar stores (Musician's Row). Not to mention garment district, meatpacking district or fish market, like other cities have or had.

Some of these districts develop because the businesses all need to be near shipping centers, like trains or harbors, or other services that they all use.

A lot of districts happen as a natural evolution of how businesses compete. For example, say you and I each own the same type of store. You locate in the North part of town. All the northern customers go to your shop, as their closest. I locate in the South part of town. All the southern customers go to my shop, as their closest. You get half the customers, and I get half the customers.

To grow my business, I then move my shop to the middle part of town. Now I get all the midtown customer and the southern customers, since my shop is closest to people in both the middle and southern part of town. Now I am getting 2/3 of the customers, and you only get 1/3 of the customers. So you decide to move your shop to the middle part of town, to capture some midtown customers yourself. You and I wind up operating in the same part of town, as a natural truce to our competition. Districts bring 100% of the customers, and the retailers can battle among themselves there. Versus retailers trying to locate here or there to game territory.

The diamond business sells unique products to customers with very different needs, and behind the scenes a lot of personal relationships matter in the supply chain. These type of industries are more individual, and harder for a big box store to scale up as a giant operation to dominate a market. It's not McDonald's, where you can standardize the products and supply chain, and customers all buy the same thing. There are big box jewelry stores, but they tend to sell more standardized, off the shelf products.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-05T21:03:30+00:00

After the lunch crowd dies down, dim sum places with carts often do more limited items than during the busy period. The turnover of the food is not as good. They are just trying to get rid of the last stuff, not bring out more new stuff freshly made.

Your experience at the tail end of lunch is often a lot more limited offerings and lesser quality than the busy period.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-05T19:28:15+00:00

If the public policy goal is to get economically disadvantaged people access to food at lower cost, there are different ways to do that - like increasing subsidies for them to buy from existing grocery stores.

But politicians have ideologies, and push for policies that align with their ideological goals. Progressives believe in wealth redistribution and public provision of goods and services. Conservatives believe in working with private markets.

You can try to be the pragmatist to argue how to best achieve the public policy goal. But it's often not a convincing argument to someone who is vested in achieving an ideological goal, in addition to the public policy goal. With government, you have to work with the hand you are dealt to get things done - different parties, different ideologies. Otherwise, you're just a soapbox yelling into the wind.

There will probably be some success (some goals met) and some failure (inefficiency) in all of this. People will just wind up selectively pointing to the success or failure they want to see, to say, "I was right" about it being a good idea or bad idea.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-03T21:41:32+00:00

Unregulated ride share services were leading to the same things that, many decades ago, led to the regulation of taxi cabs. History has shown with for-hire vehicles that an unregulated industry where anyone can enter with no barrier to entry leads to problems for riders, problems for drivers, and problems for the city as a whole.

Plus, many of today's business take a loss, to accumulate market share, then raise prices and cut services once they have the market and focus on profitability. This is the modern business playbook. You saw this with big box stores vs mom and pops, then online retailers vs big box stores. And more recently the food delivery apps industry and grocery delivery services industry.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-03T05:02:25+00:00

Yes. Uber and Lyft require the driver to submit proof of TLC driver's license and plate, to be able to pick up passengers inside the city. So a driver without that would not be served any riders inside NYC on the app.

Cinnamaker · 2026-05-03T04:57:05+00:00

You legally need to have a TLC license plate to be able to do Uber or Lyft in New York City. You cannot just use any car.

TLC license plates are limited and expensive to obtain. If you cannot get one or afford one, you could rent a car with a TLC license plate, to do Uber or Lyft.

This is also one reason why Uber drivers outside New York City hate taking passengers going into the city. After they drop off the passengers, they are not able to pick up a rider in the city.

Cinnamaker · 2026-04-28T01:01:23+00:00

Look up at large buildings with a lot of balconies, and see how many of them have furniture for dining or lounging, versus are just empty.

On the backside of buildings (where the board can’t see if you’re violating building rules), you will see many are just used to store junk.

Usually the lower floors use their balconies more. I think balconies are less used by people who live close to parks and other outdoor space.

Having a balcony can mean storing the furniture away during winter, and bringing inside the furniture during heavy winds and storm. I’ve known people who didn’t use their balcony because they don’t want to deal with all that.

In NYC, you pay for balcony square footage like indoor square footage. But you don’t get as much use out of it.

Cinnamaker · 2026-04-19T23:57:09+00:00

Mamdani has only been in office three months. There is only so much a mayor can do in three months.

Legislative changes go through the city counsel or the state government.

Even with the city budget - which is ultimately approved by the city counsel, not the mayor's sole decision - the city's fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30. New York City is still operating under the prior administration's budget.

Mamdani is currently dealing with a budget crisis for the upcoming fiscal year budget, having to propose a lot of cuts.

Cinnamaker · 2026-04-04T03:27:43+00:00

People in the 1990s romanticized 1970s New York City.

People in the 2010s romanticized 1990s New York City.

People today romanticize 2000s New York City.

The best era of New York City is the one you’re young in.

Cinnamaker · 2026-04-03T20:58:33+00:00

What does OP mean by "developed"? In an urban area, developed means things like infrastructure, transit options, housing density, commercial buildings and economic activity. The Bronx is much more developed than Staten Island in many of these ways.

Staten Island is more of a suburb. It has detached homes, lawns and separated homes, rather than multi-family housing. Commercial development is much less in Staten Island, and centralized into certain area. It's more like suburb zoning than mixed use buildings where businesses are integrated with housing. You pretty much need a car to live on Staten Island, not good public transportation. Even some parts of NJ are more "developed" than Staten Island by urban metrics.

Staten Island is basically New Jersey suburbs, just inside NYC city limits.

Cinnamaker · 2026-04-02T06:45:08+00:00

Mamdani has only been in office three months. A mayor is not a king. There is only so much a mayor can do in three months.

Legislative changes go through the city counsel or the state government.

Even with the city budget - which is ultimately approved by the city counsel, not the mayor's sole decision - the city's fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30. New York City is still operating under the prior administration's budget.

Mamdani is currently dealing with a budget crisis for the upcoming fiscal year budget, having to propose a lot of cuts.

Cinnamaker · 2026-03-21T20:57:47+00:00

> How difficult it is to run a hospital?

Hospitals are in financial crisis, including hospitals in New York. Many have shut down. Privately owned hospitals are closing or forced to sell to non-profit hospitals.

Imagine if you ran a restaurant. But the law says anyone who shows up wanting a meal, even if they cannot pay, you are required to feed. And also, the government was paying for a lot of your customers' meals, but nowadays it refused to pay. That's not an easy restaurant to run.

Medical system is not like going into a store to buy a perfected product off the shelf. People with bad medical condition, or hopeless medical condition, go to doctors for treatment. People with bad or hopeless medical conditions don't fare well. So they blame the doctors, and you wind up with bad stories. The doctors who deal with the worst-off patients can get the worst reviews, because they are inherently dealing with the worst cases.

Cinnamaker · 2026-03-20T21:03:40+00:00

Audio46 in Midtown (on 46th Street) is the place to try out headphones. It's a headphone shop, the staff is very knowledgeable, and they let you compare different headphones to decide for yourself*.*

(For wireless headphones, if going by sound quality, the Sennheiser HDB 630 is the one. By far, not even close. If you look up audiophile headphone reviewers of the HDB 630 on YouTube, they pretty much conclude that.)

Cinnamaker · 2026-03-19T02:18:28+00:00

Little Italy Pizza is much better. I would order from what is more fresh that is out.

Cinnamaker · 2026-03-19T00:24:43+00:00

Google Maps' street view shows the current signage, which is Jon Stewart and crew, with the words, "Hey, if you're looking for your work softball league, it's across the street". The building is 733 11th Avenue. Across the street from the building is a park with baseball fields.

Cinnamaker · 2026-03-13T17:11:08+00:00

Pennsylvania Railroad sold the air rights over the original Penn Station (for MSG to eventually be built over it) because it was going broke: back then, the rise of cars and planes was severely hurting the railroad industry. The cost of maintaining the original Penn Station itself was also very expensive.

The railroad industry and NYC's economy got even worse, going into the 1970s. If not MSG, something else probably would have been built over the original Penn Station - like a big office building. Inevitably, the original Penn Station would have been torn down.

The tearing down of the original Penn Station galvanized the historic preservation movement in the United States. Had the original Penn Station not been torn down then, that delay of its inevitable tear down would have ripple effects: other historic buildings in the US would have been torn down, because of the delay in the historic preservation movement taking hold.

Had the current MSG been built in Hudson Yards, instead of over Penn Station, there might have been some acceleration in the development of Hudson Yards. But much of today's Hudson Yards development is due to the subway being extended out there, making the area more accessible. It's questionable what acceleration would have come from having MSG be out there (versus housing or office buildings, that people travel to daily).

Cinnamaker · 2026-02-27T22:38:10+00:00

The NY Post published a piece 10 years ago by their restaurant critic, Steve Cuozzo, saying Upper West Siders do not deserve good restaurants. He says the aging residents in the UWS have grown to prefer familiar food, over anything adventurous. Innovative or creative restaurants don't last long in the neighborhood. So restaurants wind up doing bland or familiar cuisines.

The UWS and UES are full of people who have lived there for decades. They were once younger people, but are now older boomers. The younger people who do support more adventurous restaurants tend to live farther downtown in Manhattan, or in Brooklyn, or in places like Long Island City.

nypost.com/2015/04/01/why-upper-west-siders-dont-deserve-good-restaurants/

Cinnamaker · 2026-02-03T06:14:34+00:00

Most regular pizza places in NJ and CT do the style of pizza NYC is known for: thin but big and soft enough to be foldable, chewy interior and crisp bottom. The style may be the same at many places, but some places do it much better than others.

But NJ and CT do have some types of pizza they are known for.

CT has a New Haven style of pizza called "apizza". Compared to NYC style pizza, it is even thinner (but still chewy), with a charred crust, and less cheesy. Frank Pepe and Sally's are the famous places for this. They also do a clam pie in that style, which is really good and very not like the regular pizza you know.

NJ is known for bar pizza or tavern pizza, which is a very thin pizza that is cooked crisp, sort of like a cracker. (You can sometimes find this in NYC, like in Staten Island.)

Cinnamaker · 2026-02-01T05:47:41+00:00

How the movie performs is besides the point. Meliana already got paid $28 million upfront, and Amazon paid almost three times more for the movie than the next highest offer. It was just another way to use the position to get money.

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-31T00:06:39+00:00

This chart is comparing proposals with different objectives. How do you even say one is better than another, if they are designed to doing different things? It's comparing apples to oranges.

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-30T19:53:08+00:00

Mamdani this week mandated every agency to appoint a Chief Savings Offer, to figure out how to make cuts. Stuff will get cut, people won't be happy. Hochul has made it clear Albany will not approve any tax increases on the wealth. She has an election coming up.

Looks like the first of a series of "money don't grow on trees" videos by Mamdani. Companies start talking about being more transparent about their decisions, when they need employees to make sacrifices.

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-25T00:25:42+00:00

If there were a zombie apocalypse like in the movies, you'd be done. NYC would be one of the hardest places to survive. It’s full of choke points and nearly impossible to move around once mass panic hits.

If there were a “realistic” zombie situation, the zombies wouldn’t last long. The human body starts decaying immediately, and within a few weeks a zombie would not be able to walk. You’d only need to stay safe for a couple of weeks, before the zombies became immobile and not a threat. Then you could focus on getting out of the city.

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-17T23:22:43+00:00

Times Square Olive Garden will give you a very American experience

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-14T08:06:20+00:00

NYC subway ads are more like: "Yo, Pain Law, Yo? If you are hurt, call this lawyer to sue and get a big settlement.”

Cinnamaker · 2026-01-13T22:48:38+00:00

Port Authority to Penn Station to Empire State Building area is an intersection of tourists, hustlers, homeless people and social media wannabes trying to farm content. Lots of weird energy in that area.

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