Is the adage quoted by E.B. White in “Here is New York.” I have no idea if this was true 60 to 70 years ago since his time of writing, and it probably wast true in the 80s when the city was crime-ridden, but today it seems the opposite. Countless people seem to flock to New York City from wherever they can with whatever they have, mostly in search of opportunity, making a home in the most densely populated area in the United States. My guess is that if people could afford a seat in NYC, especially a nice one in Manhattan, most would do so. In fact it is the city that seems to be pushing people out of it. The cost of living in Brooklyn and Manhattan leads all other US cities and Queens is in the top five, according to the Huffington Post. Average housing prices in Manhattan are roughly $1.5 million and everything else from food to medicine is also more expensive than the national average. A person making $60,000 per year in Manhattan would really be making $26,000 anywhere else. Likewise to be considered “upper class” in Manhattan you would have to make more than half a million a year, according to a CNN Money’s map. These prices are driven by demand and it was probably such demand that pushed the city buildings upwards in the first place.
The reality is the only reason people would hate to live in NYC is because practically everyone wants to live there. The city, along with many others, feels like a heart pumping out money, culture, and people to the rest of the nation and keeping it alive. Cities exist because people want to live there—or live close enough until the city gets large enough to absorb them.
There does also seem to be a phenomenon occurring today where the urban sprawls once abandoned for (richer) suburban communities are becoming gentrified while those same communities are becoming poorer. Those communities with closer proximity to the cities are probably better off. Ethnic shifts also follow as some white populations that left cities for the suburbs begin to move back and some minority populations move to the suburbs. So there are dynamics in play which still revolve around the city’s wealth and desirability.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/cities-high-cost-of-living_n_1236841.html#s644535&title=1_New_York
http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/cost_of_living/
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Ronald Litvak
