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Hey, guess what, you can also go to Idaho or Nebraska and live for cheap since clearly NYC isn't working for you anymore. Maybe you're not familiar with the concept, but there's no passport or visa required to move between states in the US.
Travel is actually very restricted. You must come from a wealthy background where you can simply buy a plane ticket and pack a suitcase and then stay in a nice hotel or buy a vacation/country home. Unfortunately this is a reality for very few New Yorkers. The vast majority of New Yorkers struggle to buy metrocards let alone afford the costs to move and vacation out of the city. Hell, many New Yorkers I know can't even afford the COSTS associated with a passport! ($150-200) and so never bothered to get one. The vast majority of my high school class had never left the 5 boroughs or only did so one or two occasions due to a lack of money. Travel is open and free for the rich in this country, while the poor and working class remain serfs tied to the land that they till.
As for my own personal situation, I've finally managed to obtain some balance in my life by moving into a subsidized housing that has allowed me (perhaps temporarily considering the federal subsidized housing budget continues to shrink, and the city does not pick up the tab) a safehaven from the violent wrath of the gentrifiers who are so keen to kick my people out of their neighborhoods like Israeli soldiers. This doesn't mean I'm not still connected to the struggle. In fact all of my people who have not have the luck that I've had in having my name called on the waiting list, continue to struggle with paying 50, 60, even 80 or 90% of their income towards rent!
Manhattan may have a higher average salary, but when you factor in COL it actually isn't that high. When you take into account that taxes are very high here (average for a single claiming 1 on payroll is 30-35%) and that after that most people are paying half their take home for rent, it doesn't mean squat. Sure you earn more, but you also end up having to spend more even without a car. I've been doing payroll and accounting for years, I think I know what the average is.
Add in 401K, health insurance costs (NYC is high here too) and it all adds up.
As for how do the undocumented people do it? Simple, they're living 5 people in a studio apartment. I know this because there's some families and people in my building doing this.
As for those who decided to quote me earlier, I didn't start this thread. I was adding to it. But here's my example. Right now I'm paying 50% more in rent than I was just 3 years ago. Can I afford it? Sure. Even if my husband lost his job tomorrow, I could still cover our current rent alone. However I know a lot of people who don't have that luxury.
It's really easy to tell people "Oh get a better job" oh "Move elsewhere". Guess what. Moving costs a lot of money. Jobs are not quite as plentiful as they used to be because of a lot of competition. They want 10 years experience and a degree but want to pay $12 an hour because out there someone is desperate enough to take it.
My point was don't tell me to move to a less desirable area if you're not willing to do it yourself. It's hypocritical.
So basically the poor and working class (about 75% of New Yorkers), in your world, should just be some wandering gypsy caravan?
No I wouldn't want everyone to be displaced but the reality is, you can't expect to pay $500 a month to live in lower Manhattan, NYC is probably the most desirable city in the country for a multitude of reasons, and thus the high demand will lead to high rent prices.
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Originally Posted by BoogeyDownDweller
lol hmm i dunno i guess I just imagine them all coming from somewhere in middle america, but you're probably right.
A lot of them might even be from New York
Regardless, rent would have significantly increased even without gentrifiers.
Manhattan may have a higher average salary, but when you factor in COL it actually isn't that high. When you take into account that taxes are very high here (average for a single claiming 1 on payroll is 30-35%) and that after that most people are paying half their take home for rent, it doesn't mean squat. Sure you earn more, but you also end up having to spend more even without a car. I've been doing payroll and accounting for years, I think I know what the average is.
Manhattan has the highest average salary on earth. The previously claim was that salaries were too low. You can't do better than highest on earth.
NYC is probably the most important city on the planet. Obviously costs will be somewhat higher than in nowheresville. If someone has a problem with a high-cost city, they can move to Kentucky or something. Any desirable city (and yeah, that includes American cities like LA, SF, DC, Boston, etc.) will have a high cost of living. If you want cheap, go to a smaller, less important city.
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Originally Posted by Miss J 74
As for how do the undocumented people do it? Simple, they're living 5 people in a studio apartment. I know this because there's some families and people in my building doing this.
Well there you have it. Obviously it can be done.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Miss J 74
My point was don't tell me to move to a less desirable area if you're not willing to do it yourself. It's hypocritical.
Why not? I can afford NYC. I have no problem with the current rents in the city. I could live in a decent apartment in any neighborhood in the city and I'm far from rich. But I work hard and I'm not a whiner. I don't expect my fellow New Yorkers to give me a subsidized apartment.
Translation: You have no rebuttal to any of my points, know you have no argument and everything you previously wrote was made-up garbage, so you resort to ad-hominen attacks.
No ... I see the agenda and find it uninteresting.
Educated guess - yes. That is a very defensive transplant and this is the usual discussion.
It's also this very right-wing disaster capitalist approach to gentrification. Uphold the 'sacred american value of private property' as justification for colonization. Like when the europeans bought manhattan for $72 and then said, "oh well this is ours now so you native americans need to leave. Yes I know you have lived here for generations, but hey we're richer than you!" Why I like this comparison is because, then like now, the natives have never seen the land as something exclusively private. Then like now, we don't see our parks for sale for development.
No I wouldn't want everyone to be displaced but the reality is, you can't expect to pay $500 a month to live in lower Manhattan, NYC is probably the most desirable city in the country for a multitude of reasons, and thus the high demand will lead to high rent prices.
Why not if your low-income? Why should someone low-income not have the same right to live in a desirable city. Just because someone is low-income doesn't make them less human than you. Why should manhattan now suddenly just become a playground for the investment banker since it's "hot" especially since most areas of lower manhattan were homes to culturally and economically marginalized groups.
This is part of why I am a big fan of building new high density public housing units. These current private/public affordable housing lotteries are a joke in the amount of units and their mixed-income nature. They don't even touch the tip of the iceberg of the new affordable housing crisis that has emerged with gentrifcation. The last NYCHA housing was built in the 70s and 80s, and that was the last time that I think most New Yorkers were not in this sort of affordable housing crisis.
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A lot of them might even be from New York
Regardless, rent would have significantly increased even without gentrifiers.
No it would not have significantly increased. If you read my intial post you would see how the process of gentrification hyper-accelerated the increase of rent, and the mass evictions of low-income families.
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