Manhattan Vacancy Rate Mystery

I've long been fascinated with the quest for quantification above truth or accuracy that haunts American journalism (and American culture generally)--here's a piece I wrote on the topic over a decade ago for Cato Policy Report, and here's another one from the December 1995 issue of Reason. So I'm always delighted to add to my clip file of "figures that no one actually knows"--in this case, saith the New York Observer, Manhattan's rental vacancy rate .