Saturday, February 7, 2009

The Middle Class in NYC ...

... is shrinking.

Big surprise.

I often kvetch on this blog about how this city is becoming less and less friendly to the common folk and their quality of life. Now there are numbers to prove it.

In the last couple of years, more than 150,000 people -- the size of many cities in this country -- have fled NYC because they couldn't afford it. According to the Center for an Urban Future, New Yorkers need to earn six figures a year in order to hack out a middle class life. It costs twice as much, and requires you earn twice as much, to live a comfortable life in NYC than it does in most other cities in America.

Well, I guess this isn't really news. Still, it's good to know about it. New York has always been expensive. It's a great, great city, and people are attracted by its greatness. Please from all over the world want to live here and are willing to pay astronomical sums for the honor. Those who can afford NYC crowd out those who cannot. Supply and demand, zero-sum gain, capitalism at its finest. I just hope that as this city gets ever richer and richer, it doesn't lose those wonderful qualities and textures that make it such a desirable place to live in the first place. Then what'll be the point?

For more advice on how to live in NYC, go to Apartment Therapy.com. It gives great advice about how to make small living spaces more bearable.

1 comment:

  1. Yes yes! I love Apt Therapy myself! And watch Small Space/ Big Style on HGTV

    ReplyDelete

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