I live in New York, and I read The New York Times. None of this should come as a shock to any of you, as I am sure you have noticed I refer to many stories from The Times. I support what they do as a newspaper still trying to inform the populace, and for holding people in power accountable.
And now and then The Times fucks up.
Case in point, “Turning a Second Home Into a Primary Home,” written by Julie Satow for the NY Times Real Estate section, which was published online on 7/24/20, and then in print on 7/26/20. If you can’t guess from the title, it’s about people making their vacation homes outside of NYC into their primary addresses, and with the exception of Newburgh, NY (which isn’t a bad place, just not super wealthy trendy) all of the people profiled are living in rather exclusive places.
From where I sit, I’m watching people in my neighborhood of NYC move out, and also know a few people who are behind on rent. The $600 a week Covid unemployment payment ran out on 7/26, and evictions are about to start up again soon for most people, so it really struck me as odd that The Times thought it was a good idea to celebrate people who are doing fine. (I don’t fault the people profiled for being successful; they earned it.) Who is this story helping?
I know I’m not alone in this thought. Just read the comments on the story, and you will see that most people agree that this is the wrong time to be talking about “discovering” the joys of a home you only saw 7 weeks out of the year.
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