
Positively 23rd Street

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The Indicator from Planet Money
Positively 23rd Street

Radio reporter Sally Herships, a native New Yorker and longtime friend of the show, has been obsessed with a particular block in midtown Manhattan. Given the crowds and the traffic and the tourists, every inch of the block should be attempting to sell something. Instead it is littered with empty storefronts.
What explains these perplexing retail deserts, both in New York and throughout the rest of the country?
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