Thursday, September 13, 2007

Middle class leaving the city

New Yorkers whose annual earnings top $250,000 are among the likeliest to stay in the city, while those who only earn from $40,000 to just under $60,000 are among the most likely to leave, a new study said on Wednesday.

Rich New Yorkers apt to stay, poorer to move: study

Those seeking schools or backyards also tend to move out: 43 percent of the New Yorkers who left had children.

That may partly explain why the average age of the heads of households who left the city was just 40 years old, according to City Comptroller William Thompson's study of 2005 data.


Study: More New Yorkers leave city every year than move in

The city is still growing - but because of a different kind of new arrival. Babies helped boost the 2005 population to 8.2 million as births far outnumbered deaths, Branconi said. Illegal immigrants also could be helping to fill the gap, but their numbers are hard to count.

Proof that the "9 million by 2030" mantra is pure horseshit.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

The city has been extremely "resourceful"
in "relocating" its unwanted socioeconomic groups
(generally the poor and people of color)
out of potentially desirable neighborhoods
so that they might, in turn,
be replaced by a wealthier class .

The real estate industry (and many of our politicos)
avidly support such ersatz "urban renewal.
(There is plenty of money to be made) !

This well known process is called gentrification
and the influx of yuppies (Starbucks etc. to follow)
have suddenly overinflated the value of real estate
in some former working class neighborhoods
and many have been priced out of their own homes.

All of this non-lethal "ethnic cleansing"
has been done with the most "delicate"
political correctness and propriety.

As is a must in a "democratic"society.....
this is usually the only legal means at our disposal because we're not allowed to forcibly
move residents from their abodes,
with the exception of eminent domain proceedings.

Now the middle class is exiting, of its own volition,
for better schools and quality of life issues
in response to their deterioration, thereof, in NYC.

As we keep "uglifying" nabes with poorly built
habitat/warrens of expensive brick shanties.....
more middle class will leave the city.

Eventually, perhaps sooner than we think,
NYC will begin its decline
from being among the top rated
(and financially solvent) places to live.

Anyone remember the 1970s
when NYC was on the verge of bankruptcy
teetering on the edge of economic oblivion ?

If enough of our middle class leave New York,
it will take at least a decade
for this city to begin the slow process of recovery.

Anonymous said...

The headline on to this comment on this blog is deceptive. The article actually says that middle income residents (it terms them "moderate income") are remaining in the city, as are the very wealthy. It says that the high income (between the "moderate income" and the very wealthy) and lower income residents are leaving at higher rates.

Queens Crapper said...

"those who only earn from $40,000 to just under $60,000 are among the most likely to leave"

$40,000 to $60,000 is middle class in my book, not "low income."

Anonymous said...

You're right Crappy, but redefining class is also part of the tweeding.

Anonymous said...

$40,000-$60,000 is a typical blue collar salary, and it's clear they want us out so our betters can "clean up" the neighborhood.

Anonymous said...

So you think that people making over $60,000 are high income? That's ridiculous. Do you just ignore the part of the article that says that people making $60k-$140k (which is certainly middle income to upper middle income in this city)are remaining?
$40k a year in this city is pretty low. I am not saying there is anything wrong with it, but with the incomes paid in NYC and the cost of living, it is hard to live a middle-class lifestyle on $40k a year.

Queens Crapper said...

2 people making $40,000 can still live in the city, but when you start a family, you'll have difficulty making ends meet.
That's why they're leaving, and that's the point of the article. It wasn't always that way.

Anonymous said...

Most blue-collar workers make more than $60k. Police, firefighters, and sanitation workers that I know with 5+ years in make $70k-$80k or so, or more if promoted. My friends in Local 3 or in the carpenter's or steamfitter's unions make more than $60k.

Jennifer said...

Well . . . I have to say unfortunately this article is spot on. My husband and I are among the middle class, have a child and are moving out of the NYC, tri-state area for better schools, better quality of life and better housing.

I wish it wasn't so because I was born and raised here, but my husband hasn't worked in more than a year and we are struggling to make ends meet. There are better opportunities for my whole family outside of this city so we need to leave. Again, I wish it wasn't so.

Queens Crapper said...

How about bus drivers, school teachers, new police officers, firefighters, factory workers, etc?

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't consider school teachers blue collar, but public school teachers with a few years experience definitely make more than $60,000 a year. I know that my friends that are teachers make more than that. You can't look at what a person makes the first year on the job - of course you make less before you have any experience.

Queens Crapper said...

Yes, and therefore you can't survive in the city and move. You aren't getting to 5 years if you can't pay your rent.

Anonymous said...

This is also the cohort that is living closest to the neighborhoods that are turning into big cesspools of the tweeded... they are the ones who is seeing the spreading deterioration as filthy streets, hoards of day laborers, punky kids taking over their stoops, falling quality of merchandise in their local stores, losing their back yards in the shadows of queens crap and loosing sleep over the endless stream of music piped up their airshafts at all hours of the night.

These are people that are likely to have been born in NYC and want their communities to be the place it once was when they were younger.

They are the ones likely to see their neighbors taking up the all but official policiy to cash out and move, and absentee landlords that only have an interest to milking buildings take over.

They are likely to be outspoken and ready to vote the 'wrong' way.

Places that are being targeted for hollowing out, like Dutch Kills or Astoria.

Anonymous said...

thank you anonymous #1! I remember 1970's NYC. the sad thing is that most of the people who lived through it are gone from NYC, replaced by affluent young yuppies.

Anonymous said...

Stockbrokers and welfare moms is what NYC will solely be.

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile there are desolate cities like Detroit just begging for a stream of yuppies to revive it to its former glory. Why in hell is it that NYC, a successful city has to attract more yuppies while throwing out us loyal natives who supported the city in the 70s and saved it from becoming what Detroit now is.
Our government has become extremely emboldened and now blatantly screws us to our face, we need to band together and do something before we loose our city to a crowd of pompous yuppie snobs.

Anonymous said...

most jobs are in the Manhattan so more people moving to the outer boroughs means an increase in traffic flow, which is something the city supposedly wants to decrease. A simple and effective way to do this would be to create more affordable housing in Manhattan, so people wouldn't have to commute into the city.

Anonymous said...

"A simple and effective way to do this would be to create more affordable housing in Manhattan,"

Bingo, that is the ticket. If the Manhattan types that favor all this 'affordable housing' for the outer boroughs had to put up with 'affordable housing' types on their block, they may sing a different tune on this development.

The ethnic cleansing going on in Manhattan is scadalous. And no one is saying a word.

Some political liberals.

Hey, maybe Hillary will say something.

Fat chance....

Anonymous said...

They're clear cutting Queens for barracks
that are unwanted by lofty Manhattanites!
No immigrant class in the Emerald City.....
that's for the outer ring!

Deny our borough its proper share of landmarks,
chain saw old growth trees, to hell with
contextual zoning....and, oh yes, raise our taxes.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the same old inadequate sewer system and power grid....
did I just hear that the Public Service Commission
just approved a Con Ed rate increase?

Why am I still here? !!!