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Commentary By Nicole Gelinas

Don’t Design A City Around Tourism

Cities, Cities New York City

I love global tourists. The Chinese 20-somethings and French families clogging up the sidewalks around Rockefeller Center add to New York’s elan. How would we know what to wear without seeing what the coolest people in the world – the people who want to visit New York – are wearing? New York couldn’t stop the world from coming here even if it wanted to, and it shouldn’t. But for all the benefits the city has gained from tourism, it can take some steps to ensure the tourists don’t take over.

America recovered the jobs it lost in the economic crash only this year. New York, by contrast, rebounded fast – replacing its lost jobs by 2011.

Why the difference? In most of the country, families struggling with debt they couldn’t repay stopped eating out and buying clothes. New York, though, could “export” its restaurant meals and T-shirt sales to the Chinese, Brazilian and other global upper middle classes who fared better than the West’s did. After the recession, record numbers of them wanted to spend their newfound wealth on a trip to New York. Retail, restaurant, hotel and entertainment jobs are all up. The jobs, on average, are not as good as the jobs the city lost, but not all of them are bad. A housekeeper at a union hotel makes more than $52,000 annually.

But will New York become just another global city with the same things that other global cities have on offer, from Uniqlo to H&M? A walk down Fifth Avenue indicates it could.

There are some things the city can do, though, to avoid that and reduce the negative effects of tourism.

New York must enforce the law that says apartment occupants must stay for 30 days – period. Thanks to Airbnb, it seems as if half of Manhattan’s apartments have become hotel rooms. It doesn’t take an economic genius to realize that a landlord who can get $6,000 a month for a small apartment by charging tourists $200 a night instead of $2,000 a month by signing a permanent tenant will choose the tourists.

Resist the temptation to design a city around tourism. Cities that have actively pursued tourism through tax subsidies and other policies – building casinos, stadiums, convention centers and other attractions just for tourists – fared worse during the recession than New York did (think Las Vegas). New York should remember that tourists come here to experience what New Yorkers themselves enjoy about the city.

This holiday season, as you wait at an intersection for a foreign visitor to realize that when the little man on the sign is walking they should walk too, be glad you don't live somewhere so boring that no one wants to come.

This piece originally appeared in New York Times Room for Debate