Is it just me who feels like the city has gone completely downhill the last 3 or so years? I used to live in NYC and enjoyed returning on the weekends but the restaurants and bars have become mostly bland and generic. Those home grown places that are still around have raised prices to insane levels ($6 for a slice of Artichoke Pizza?!?) and the hotels seem to just be trying to be more standardized and unappealing.

For instance this weekend I stayed at the Doubletree downtown on Stone street. The lobby was a tiny vestibule on the 2nd floor with no decorations and the elevators squeezed into the lobby. The restaurant was really squeezed in on the first floor and the waitstaff was downright unenthused to be there. If this was a problem just with this hotel I'd go ahead and book elsewhere, but it seems a general depression that has swept across the city.