Monday, November 2, 2009

Another reason Manhattan rents are so high

From the NY Post:

More than half of all Manhattan residents are living alone -- and the number of singles in the city is continuing to rise to historic levels, new Census Bureau data show.

That means you've got a 50-50 shot that the cute neighbor down the hall is looking for love.

The borough now resembles some kind of "Sex and the City" fantasyland with a majority of households, 50.3 percent, with just one resident -- no roommate, no spouse, no family, no kids.

When the other four boroughs are factored in, the single household rate drops to 33.5 percent -- a little closer to the national average of 27.5 percent, according the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

New York first passed the 50 percent mark in 2007 in what sociologists called an inevitable trend.

There are numerous forces turning Manhattan into an isle of singletons, explained William Helmreich, deputy chairman of City College's sociology department. The factors include high-paying jobs, the expense of raising a family, longer-living widows and widowers, and, of course, a celebrated culture of singledom.

"Singles attract more singles," he said. "They participate in a lifestyle that is mutually reinforcing. The more single people engage in that lifestyle, the more acceptable it is, and the more acceptable it is, the more people are going to do it."

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is actually the wrong photo to show because their characters on Sex and the City were always looking for love(except Samantha the first 5 or 6 seasons who was usually just looking for sex).

Anonymous said...

Perhaps, but they all seemed to be bedhopping in every episode.

Anonymous said...

Do I detect prejudice against single people?

Anonymous said...

Prejudice?

If they are the reason for the housing crisis, then they just are.

Missing Foundation said...

Sort of explains the behavior of Manhattan towards the outer Bs, traditionally bad, now worse.

Singles dont care about schools, quality of life things, and ride their bikes past closed hospitals with nary a blink in their eye.

Being young, their horizons only stretch back a few decades, the traditonal character of a community means little, so displacement of LIC earns a shrug and support for developers.

So more building is something they favor, and without knowledge of machine politics (civics and history were not strong points of education in the past few decades) they watch cluelessly as the politicans have their way.

After all, overturning term limits a decade ago is meaningless if you are 22 and from Cleveland.

Add to this toxic mixture the international cosmopolitans who fancy themselves 'citizens of the world' and the monied class who make money off real estate and immigrant misery, and you have the four outerboroughs (and most of the surrounding region) in a stranglehold by Manhattan.

Anonymous said...

"Perhaps, but they all seemed to be bedhopping in every episode."

Carrie: dying for Mr. Big
Charlotte: dying to get married
Samantha: dying to have sex
Miranda: she was always a big question mark to me(and kinda looked like a lesbian in the first few seasons)

Anonymous said...

Missing Foundation.

How about all those families. Sucking up my tax dollars for YOUR kids to go to school, H1N1 vaccine paid for with my tax dollars to protect YOUR kids. My quality of life in Queens is brought down because of YOUR kids screaming on the corner, playing on the streets at 10 o'clock at night, blaring music out of their cars.
Its families like you that suck the life right out of this city. Move somehere else already.

Missing Foundation said...

I'll remember that, when one of my kids, who is in medical school, cuts open your sorry ass gut someday to try to save your life.

Anonymous said...

Missing Foundation said...
I'll remember that, when one of my kids, who is in medical school, cuts open your sorry ass gut someday to try to save your life.

It doesnt change the fact that my tax dollars supported your kid and your entire family. I receive 20% of my tax dollars in services and you and your family receive 300% of your tax dollars in services so you can kiss my ass you ignorant, moron.

Anonymous said...

Yes and when Missing Foundation and his wife were single, they got a pretty shitty return on their investment. It all evens out after you have a kid.

Don't like it? Move. Oh wait, no matter where you move, you will have to subsidize education and flu shots.

Fuck! Maybe you should just get married and have a few kids so you can benefit as much as everyone else and not be such an angry prick.