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I've lived in NYC for 9yrs now - and People need to wake up and realize this City has some real problems and its GETTING WORSE not Better!
Im sorry but those that say NY's cost of living is just like every other city is Mod cut language.....Unless you're a multi-millionaire or billionaire you will notice the cost of living difference.....
Yes you maybe able to live with Roommates for 1200 a month (you share) for an UES apartment....but in my book where I come from Philly and Pittsburgh 1200$ should damn well get you your own apartment to live ALONE!
And the thing is NYC isnt done with RASING taxes - Bloomburg is looking at another 15% increase in Income tax and 7% in Prop Taxes (which mean higher rents for renters)....Then you have the MTA on top of that wanting to raise fares while their Unions continue to bleed them dry....
Wall Street has been slaughtered - there is nothing down here but carnage in the street and the rest of us are just trying to hang on to our jobs. In my hedge fund we have one position open for a key role that must be filled....We've only had this position open for a week, and we gotten over 1500 resumes and HR has scheduled close to 100 interviews to begin after the holidays - JUST FOR ONE POSITION.
Does NY not realize what its doing to its residence, is NYC sooooooo Arrogant to think that people will just pay any price and will not start to flee this place...Its happened before and will damn sure happen again.
People need to STOP Proping up NYC as this Recession proof every-man's land city...And realize NY has:
The highest taxes in the COUNTRY
A Bankrupt and Corrupt Government
Out of Control Rents
A Corrupt Transit Agency
A Recession that will SPARE NO-ONE
Crime that is starting to TICK UPWARD AGAIN.
And Infrastructure that's falling apart. (have you seen what happens when it just rains)
I love this City and feel like I've lived here my whole life, which is why its makes me so damn mad to see it problems being ignored and marginalized.
Last edited by Blackbeauty212; 12-23-2008 at 11:05 AM..
Reason: Inappropriate language
I've lived in NYC for 9yrs now - and People need to wake up and realize this City has some real problems and its GETTING WORSE not Better!
Im sorry but those that say NY's cost of living is just like every other city is Mod cut language.....Unless you're a multi-millionaire or billionaire you will notice the cost of living difference.....
Yes you maybe able to live with Roommates for 1200 a month (you share) for an UES apartment....but in my book where I come from Philly and Pittsburgh 1200$ should damn well get you your own apartment to live ALONE!
And the thing is NYC isnt done with RASING taxes - Bloomburg is looking at another 15% increase in Income tax and 7% in Prop Taxes (which mean higher rents for renters)....Then you have the MTA on top of that wanting to raise fares while their Unions continue to bleed them dry....
Wall Street has been slaughtered - there is nothing down here but carnage in the street and the rest of us are just trying to hang on to our jobs. In my hedge fund we have one position open for a key role that must be field....We've only had this position open for a week, and we gotten over 1500 resumes and HR has scheduled close to 100 interviews to begin after the holidays - JUST FOR ONE POSITION.
Does NY not realize what its doing to its residence, is NYC sooooooo Arrogant to think that people will just pay any price and will not start to flee this place...Its happened before and will damn sure happen again.
People need to STOP Proping up NYC as this Recession proof every-man's land city...And realize NY has:
The highest taxes in the COUNTRY
A Bankrupt and Corrupt Government
Out of Control Rents
A Corrupt Transit Agency
A Recession that will SPARE NO-ONE
And Crime that is starting to TICK UPWARD AGAIN.
An Infrastructure that's falling apart. (have you seen what happens when it just rains)
I love this City and feel like I've lived here my whole life, which is why its makes me so damn mad to see it problems being ignored and marginalized.
A few of the things you listed are well-ingrained into the culture and history of this city. MTA has always been a bureaucratic mess.
Infrastructure is poor all over the country.
The economy is down all over the country. NYC being the financial center it is of course takes a larger hit than a lot of places.
Crime is ticking upward this year from a previous all-time low. It can't decrease every year.
As long as I've lived here in NYC, it has been a city that is not very middle-class friendly. Granted this has gotten worse, but it has always been like this.
You may feel like you've lived here your whole life...some of us really have! The awful predictions and gloom-and-doom prophets have a never-ending field day with New York City. No matter what they say, or what the government proposes to do, it will never be quite so bad. You can't put that on a stat sheet, but that's the way things will work out. Hang around for a few more years and see!
Easy there partner. Your blood pressure is a bit too high.
No one that I am aware of has ever said NYC is recession proof. The nine years that you have been here has shown a remarkably resilient economy, even in the face of 9/11. We are not a local economy but a global one. The rebound from 2001 was aided by strong economies elsewhere.
Booms and busts are the natural ebb and flow of economic cycles. Perhaps this one will be worse than the early 1990s, perhaps not. Crime always rises in hard times. Rents fall in recessions, and they are falling rapidly now. Lower rents provide new opportunities. New blood that were never going to make Wall Street or hedge fund money might be drawn here at $1800 a month rent when $2500 was out of the question. The insane commercial rents that drove local businesses from storefronts in favor of banks and drug stores will plummet too.
Rents were, relatively speaking, out of control in the late 1980s, and that was the product of a rather short-lived economic expansion. I paid $1700 for a West Village apartment in 1988 -- my rent fell significantly in the following few years and did not hit $1700 again for about 8-9 years. When you have a rather small island with a very limited housing stock, cost of living varies wildly with the economy and job market.
Not sure what this thread is about..it is nothing new to NYC. The question though is WHY are you still here if it is as bad and dire as you say? A rationale person would clearly pack up and move based on your assessment of the city. Somehow I suspect despite all the negatives, you are staying. Please tell us why? I stay becuase despite the bad and problems, it is FAR BETTER than being anywhere else. Period. By the way, why are you paying $1,200 to live in a share in the Upper East Side, you can have your own 2 bedroom apt in Mott Haven for the same price...spacious, new, and almost as close as UES. Just a tip from a native.
A native New Yorker would be better equipped to handle this economic downturn rather than somebody who has only been here 9 years. NYC has gained in population and don't tell me they are all immigrants. People will always be moving here no matter what the state of the economy is.
And, once thing to note is that while the city, itself, is not recession proof, many of its residents are recession-averse, meaning that they have significant resources to ride out a downturn. People who controlled housing costs long-term with a co-op, condo, or house, are not likely to pull up and leave, especially since suburban jurisdictions have higher property taxes.
New York is one region that certainly has a lot of inter-generational wealth, so while the short term income prospect might be a little low, people are able to ride out the storm. Even in the bad years of the 70s and part of the 80s, people did not flee good areas of the city. Transitional areas are going to take more of a hit, especially since vulture buyers usually take advantage of lower prices to be able to buy into prime areas of the UES, CPW, UWS, and Lower Manhattan, abandoning a rental in a transitional area for the solidity of good areas.
People are always drawn to New York, as it's an iconic world city, and even in a downturn, the city still has strong power to attract people. Some taxes might seem out of control, but waste and bureaucratic messes are nothing new in such a complex city. Should there be an overhaul to streamline expenses and try to reduce the tax burden to spur more job creation, development, and on-going maintenance of NYC as a premier destination? Yes, but that cannot happen overnight, as it's a process.
You're from Philly? SEPTA makes the MTA look like a Fortune 500 company. Philly's crime rate is much higher than New York's. Philly's economy is in much worse shape, the job market is not nearly as diverse, and a small proportion of jobs in the region are located within city limits. Philly's city wage tax is higher than NYC's. There's a reason that you and so many others leave Philly. The rents are cheaper. You got that one.
There isnt a need to make this a NYC vs Philly thread.....I well aware of Philly's problems....There just tends to be this need to ignore problems in NYC, an "Oh Well" demeanor.
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