Thats $12B of spend which boosts ancilliary jobs which exist solely because millions of people were made to commute to and from their homes to work in offices. And, the inherent value of offices, and income from ground rents, and associated value evaporates if too many prestige towers go on the market at once.

So "costing" Manhattan, but also.. costing society at large. Yes, $12B was sucked out of Manhattan's economy. But aspects of that got spread into other regions, other local districts, pollution got avoided, people had more quality time at home, productivity may have risen.

It sucks to be depending on customers to sell soup and a sandwich: no disagree.