Hamptons glitterati bemoan 'deteriorating' NYC as they move to Florida

Hamptons glitterati bemoan ‘deteriorating quality of life’ in New York City as they flee to Florida – with billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson saying he witnessed thief ransack Duane Reade store

• New York’s rich and powerful have been opting to spend more time in the Hamptons and Palm Beach and less in Manhattan 
• Over the weekend, a cohort gathered at a Hamptons benefit to lament the erosion of life in Manhattan 
• One hedge fund billionaire said the uncontrolled crime was making life in Manhattan unpleasant and driving the wealthy away 

At a recent summer soiree in the Hamptons, some of New York society’s most affluent members lamented the ‘deteriorating quality of life’ in the city.

The Saturday night charity auction benefitting Southampton Hospital was a moment for the rich and powerful to gather in a tent adorned with pineapples and rattan chandeliers, and look forward to the coming season in Palm Beach, where many of them now spend the bulk of their years.

Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson, 67, who famously shorted the housing market just before the subprime mortgage disaster in 2008, said the party was a stark contrast to a recent day he’d had in Manhattan.

He told Bloomberg he’d watched someone empty entire shelves in a Duane Reade on Fifth Avenue, fill a cart and proceed to walk out without paying.

‘New York City is definitely deteriorating, the quality of life and the quality of services,’ he said.

Billionaire John Paulson and his girlfriend Alina de Almeida. Paulson, in the Hamptons over the weekend, lamented the eroding quality of life in New York city, as he and many of his peers opt to spend more time in Florida

Paulson is the owner of a $110million Palm Beach mansion, though he and his recent ex-wife are reportedly in bitter battle of the multi-million dollar real estate portfolio

Paulson is one of the billionaires who still maintains residence in Manhattan – with many others fleeing.

During and after COVID, many aging financiers and their wives made the decision to retreat semi-permanently to sprawling mansions in Florida and the Hamptons.

Though they have not abandoned Manhattan altogether, some have opted for a much shorter season in the city, spending the bulk of their time instead out east or down south.

‘Southampton is an oasis, it’s so well run, it’s quiet, services are excellent, crime is very low,’ Paulson said. He feels similarly about his community in Palm Beach, where he bought a home in 2021 – a pandemic purchase.

So familiar now are the light linen colors of Palm Beach to the New York crowd, that Saturday’s event was themed after the town’s Colony Hotel – an acknowledgement that many of those attending now primarily live in South Florida.

The lawn was littered with the Colony’s branded golf carts, and a similar menu as the one available at the hotel invigorated the spirits of those looking forward to returning to their seaside winter residences.

Grocery store magnate and former mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis said the need to ‘fix’ New York City is urgent and must be done before more wealthy residents choose to flee.

‘Friday night, we went out to dinner, and going home down Park Avenue not a light was on,’ he said. ‘I can buy a new $100 million corporate jet and live in New York Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and pay no taxes and pay for the jet that way.’

Catsimatidis has long maintained a beachfront mansion in Quogue, as well as a Manhattan home. 

Grocery magnate John Catsimatidis and his wife Margo Catsimatidis have maintained a mansion in Quogue for many years, in addition to their Manhattan residence

Catsimatidis said that New York City needs to be fixed on the double before more of his wealthy peers jump ship

Simone and David Levinson – owners of a real estate empire – opted to spend significantly more time in Palm Beach last year. Simone made it her primary residence. She mostly summers in the Hamptons

Douglas Elliman Realty chairman Howard Lorber said that his friends trying to offload their massive Manhattan townhouses and apartments are not having much luck with buyers after deciding to sell their homes and spend less time in the city

Howard Lorber’s sprawling Southampton home 

Howard Lorber, the chairman of Douglas Elliman Realty, was also in attendance Saturday evening and said that he’s discussed the Manhattan exodus with many of his wealthy friends.

‘I talked to 22-23 people that moved to Florida. Every one of them had a big apartment or a townhouse in New York – and not one of them sold. So I have a view that New York City is going to become the number one second-home market to the world,’ he said.

Simone Levinson, wife to real estate developer David Levinson, made Palm Beach her primary home in the last few years, and spends most of her summer in Southampton. 

Though she grew up in New York and remains bullish on the place, she has dropped some of her philanthropic commitments in the city in exchange for those in her new home.

Even so, she argued Saturday evening that the city has always been in a constant state of change: ‘To those who say New York is not the same, my response is, “When has New York ever been the same?”

‘I’m still mourning the closing of Maxwell’s Plum (an Upper East Side bar that closed in the eighties). There’s this infectious energy in the city that’s unmatched,’ she said.

Former Trump administration Commerce Secretary has one of the most stunningly well manicured houses on the east end of Long Island 

Wilbur Ross and his wife Hillary. Ross said the deterioration of city life is due to poor leadership

Former Trump administration Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose Southampton home is arguably one of the most immaculately decorated houses on eastern Long Island, said the city ‘needs new management.’ 

Lorber agreed with the thought, but added that Mayor Eric Adams is not the problem, so much as ‘is the city council.’

The event on Saturday evening raised more than $2milllion as part of the effort to allow the Southampton hospital to close its outdated facility and build a new one elsewhere. 

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