The abandonment of downtown is not obvious because it is very expensive to pull down the old skyscrapers which are vacant. Asbestos and other environmental regulations, as well as the close packed sites, makes demolition a difficult option. The vacant buildings are mainly clustered in the street layout of the old dutch core of New Amsterdam, centering on Broad Street.

In a deeply symbolic conversation, tourists on Broad Street are helped by a homeless man sleeping in boxes in an empty office block doorway, Sunday morning Fall 1995. Many of the empty buildings still have a powerful presence on the street and are attractive icons for tourists, even though the economic life of the city has shifted elsewhere.

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