The Big Apple Loses Luster

One of her clients was paying $19,000 a month for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood. "He lost all of his stock options on Wall Street and he can't afford the mortgage," Martineau said. "All these people are renting their lofts because they can't afford them. . . . They overextended themselves or they were counting on their bonuses and stock options."

They are not only moving out of their luxurious digs but also altering their once high-flying lifestyles.

Alex Todd, president and chief executive of Quintessential Jets, a charter jet company based in New York, said his company used to have about 20 to 30 bookings a month for private jets; so far this month it has had three or four.

"With what's happening in today's economy and the markets, people are obviously less inclined to spend the kind of money to fly privately," Todd said, explaining that a private jet flown one way to Miami costs about $15,000. "Most of our clients are CEOs and financial advisers and celebrities as well," he said. "But basically the corporations have been the best fliers. With all the corporate setbacks and everything, it's affected everything from the bottom to the top."

The formerly wealthy are also avoiding private yachts, often a choice venue for cocktail parties and receptions where merrymakers take in the skyline, the bridges and the Statue of Liberty while cruising along the Hudson River.

"It's definitely hit us hard as an industry," said Frank Giordano, president of the Yacht Owners Association of New York, a Manhattan-based consortium of charter yacht owners. "I've seen two companies go out of business in the past year, but everyone is down. The industry is down 30 percent as a whole."

During hard times, corporations are "just not going out as much," he said. "Personally, I just had a bank who we do business with a lot saying, 'With these economic times, it's just not prudent for us to go out. We'd like to hold our credit for next year.' "

The party circuit is feeling the pinch, too. Even those who still have wealth are anxious not to appear too showy during difficult times. Joe St. Cyr, director of Joseph Todd Events, which plans weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs, said people who have already planned big events are now looking for ways to trim costs -- cutting back on flowers, for example, or bargaining with hotels for lower prices.

"I have clients who have lost a significant percentage of their portfolios, 10, 20, 50 percent of their portfolios," he said. "They're mostly Wall Street-connected people. They're not so terrified and know the market will come back. They have money to spend." But, he said, "they want to either not spend so much on a party, or want to look like they're not spending a lot of money."

Wall Street itself, and the surrounding warren of narrow streets, have taken on kind of an amusement-park feel. Tourists snapping pictures outside the New York Stock Exchange are bumping up against television news crews from across the country and around the world that stick microphones in their faces and ask about the latest dip in the Dow.

"So how do you feel today?" a Russian television reporter asked in accented English, shoving his microphone unknowingly into the face of another reporter.

"It's been like this for two weeks," said a young investment banker who came out of his office in shirtsleeves on a breezy day for a cigarette, trying to avoid the crowd.

"I'm not happy about it because it affects my pension," said Hugo Zettler, who was visiting with his wife, Diane, from Tempe, Ariz., taking snapshots outside the stock exchange. "I'm just glad I don't have any money in the stock market."

"Well, I did," said Diane Zettler, "but who knows now?"