It's Tough Out There for a Middle-Class New Yorker
Income levels that would enable a very comfortable lifestyle in other locales barely suffice to provide the basics in New York City, says the the Center for an Urban Future in a new report that merely provides data to back up what all city residents already new. The group estimates that the same quality of…
Income levels that would enable a very comfortable lifestyle in other locales barely suffice to provide the basics in New York City, says the the Center for an Urban Future in a new report that merely provides data to back up what all city residents already new. The group estimates that the same quality of life that costs $50,000 a year in Houston will run you $123,322 in the Big Apple; San Francisco is a distant second at $95,489 with LA at $80,583 and Philadelphia at $69,196. In addition, many New Yorkers put up with commutes that double the national average of 25 minutes. One Brooklyn Bridge Park even gets an unnamed reference: “If it wasn’t already clear that the cost of living in New York City is greatly out-of-whack with the rest of the country, it certainly became apparent in early 2008 when a new condo development in Brooklyn Heights began selling individual parking spaces—not apartments, parking spaces—for as much as $280,000.” So it’s no surprise that the report finds that many people have been giving up on New York. In fact, twice as many people with bachelor’s degrees left New York in 2005-2006 than in the prior two-year period. So what’s to do: Among other recommendations, the report suggests diversifying the economy, focus on basic infrastructure and quality of life issues rather than building flashy new projects and increase housing stock that is affordable to the middle class.
I … I don’t know who Amy Sedaris is.
Me neither. I wouldn’t know her from a crack in the wall.
CWB, I’m with you. I have no idea who she is either. I’ve become my unhip parents.
northsloperenter is right, I think. For most of us it’s living day to day- and that’s what people do everywhere. Try to get the most bang for their buck. But in NYC you get this enormous smorgasbord, and access is limited only by your means. For me, I think as we saw a huge boom in people with so much disposible income over the last 7-8 years, we also saw a boom in trendy, uber-expensive places and things that most likely will not prove sustainable as the economy tanks. It got very rarefied here- now its correcting, but at a huge cost to everyone.
DIBS- that’s my personal, unknowledable, perspective, but I would like to hear yours- you know much more about this stuff than I do.
“So what’s to do: Among other recommendations, the report suggests diversifying the economy, focus on basic infrastructure and quality of life issues rather than building flashy new projects and increase housing stock that is affordable to the middle class.”
I heartily agree.
rob…that’s what the American Dream is all about.
“I’m here because I was born and raised here, my family’s here. NYC is what I think when someone says “home.”
There you go. Everyone (who’s lucky) identifies with their home. Our home happens to be one of the world’s great cities.
quote:
I know an exception that proves the rule: Friends who bought a perfectly intact single-family Victorian on Striver’s Row in Harlem with a back alley, garden, and garage some years ago for less than $500,000. It’s like they’re living on their own suburban paradise island or something in the middle of the city. Their lives are completely unlike anyone else’s I know. (They have room for an extensive 1980s record collection!) I think they do send their kids to private school, though, so there’s an expense.
BARF. i hate those kinds of people.
*r*
I … I don’t know who Amy Sedaris is.
So unhip
But Snark, there have to be some people who make up the left tail of the bell curve in this country. Those 2.2 MM probably belong there.