Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis - Empire State O'Reilly: New York in the Summer

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

Bill talks about New York's pricing during the Summer period. Originally only available in the New York City area, Bill’s Empire State O’Reilly commentary addresses local New York issues, but those issues have implications, impact the country, and mirror problems in other states. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And you know what bugs me about New York? It's such a good place to be in the summer. It really is. I mean, Long Island, you have the ocean beaches, you've got the Sound beaches, upstate, you got Adirondack State Park, you've got Lake Saranak, one of my favorite places, the Hudson River Valley's beautiful. It's really a good summer place. You don't have to go to the Dalmatian Coast.

We got it here. However, it's getting crazy with the pricing. So I have my assistant called the Plaza Hotel, the famous Plaza Hotel, and said, what's the price of a room tonight? More than $1,000. If you want to stay at the Plaza Hotel tonight, you have to fork over $1,200 for one night,

and you gotta be out at 11 a.m. $1,200. dollars. Yeah, it's a nice hotel. Right on Central Park, you can walk across the street, but come on. So, when families vacation in New York, you've got to bring an armored car. Because the hotels and the restaurants and everything else, except 7-Eleven. I am like the biggest 7-Eleven fan now. If I need something, I'll pay a little bit more than grocery store, but I went there and it's reasonable. And I grab what I need. Boy, you go into Whole Foods or, I mean, it's right between the eyes. So 62 million tourists come to New York

state every year, 62 million. 50 million of those are Americans, 12 million foreigners. They bring in hundreds of billions of dollars, which is supposed to help us, the people who live here, because they're taxes and this and that, tourism is huge. And they bolster the businesses, of course. But it doesn't do any good. Because we who live here still getting punished by this out-of-control pricing. And the only thing that brings it down is competition. So one hotel goes, I'm not going to charge $1,200. I'll charge you $9.50.

Well, people are going to go to the $9.50. But it's still crazy, right? So 7% fewer tourists came to New York City last year than in 2019. Seven percent. That's a fairly significant number. This year 24, it's going to be more than that. It's going to be double digits. And it's two reasons. It's the incredible pricing of everything and the crime. So people are scared. And they should be. Because there is no will to control the mentally ill people, the homeless people, the drug addicted people, the criminal, career criminal. there's no will to control them. So social disorder has risen everywhere, everywhere. And businesses are moving out of New York City, and that makes the prices even higher

because the competition is lower. So when you lose businesses, then the ones that remain can charge more money. And they are. So it just drives me crazy because no one, Because no one, and I mean that literally, is trying to solve any of this. These problems get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. And I tell the story of my mother, Levitown, we bought, my father bought the Levitown house

and came back from World War II in 1951 for $8,000. And my mother lived in that house until she died. She wouldn't leave. I told her, hey, Mom, I'll buy a nice house out in Old Westbury or wherever. No. She had the church. She had the friends. She had the police who liked to go. She's staying in Levitown. Okay. Well, my mother could not stay, could not have stayed in that Leavitt house on Page Lane if I didn't pay her property taxes. I had a pay because she didn't have the money to pay them. Which I did. I was happy to do it. Anything my mother needed, I got. I provided. But the point of the matter is we have so much here in New York, so many things to do, so many places to go. But boy, we're getting whacked every time we turn around. So be smart, research, look for the deals, they're getting hard to find, but they're out there, and plan ahead.

There you go. And that's worth the price of admission to common sense.