Updated 14:57, October the 27th, 2009
New York unaffordable
She lives in a city with some of the best restaurants in the world, but Juliet Linderman rarely eats out. She’s a movie-lover, but balks at the $12 tickets in Manhattan. She’d like her own place, but lives with two roommates in Greenpoint.
“New York City demands sacrifices,” said Linderman, a 23-year-old editor at a neighborhood newspaper. “It’s a struggle; I live paycheck to paycheck.”
“My biggest concern is long-term savings and the cost of living here,” said John Patterson, 27, who works for a company that runs after-school programs. “You pay more to go out, more for rent, groceries are more expensive, anywhere you turn … it makes it more difficult in the long-run to save up.”
Their concerns are shared by many New Yorkers, from middle-class homeowners to 20-somethings just starting out. A $60,000 salary buys the same standard of living as someone making $26,092 in Atlanta, according to the Center for an Urban Future. Half of city residents spend over 30 percent of their income (the benchline for affordable housing) on rent or a mortgage.
Linderman is thinking about moving back to her native San Francisco.
“It’s too bad, because New York is a great place to be young, but it’s not a sustainable lifestyle,” she said.
Can candidates cut the cost of living in NYC?
Mayoral candidates Bill Thompson and Mike Bloomberg have each made promises to make NYC more affordable. John Petro, a policy analyst for Urban Affairs at the Drum Major Institute, said he would like the next mayor do a few specific things such as force all new developments to include affordable housing. Another boost to living here would be to increase hourly wages.
“Something the city could do, and Thompson said he would like to do, is require private companies that receive city subsidies to pay a living wage,” said Petro.
“The city needs to roll out a comprehensive plan for growing the number of middle-class jobs,” he added. “We’ve seen plans for growing jobs in finance, biotech and new media, but let’s concentrate on growing really good jobs for people who don’t necessarily have a college education.”
Thompson
1 As comptroller, Thompson led an effort to invest city pension money into building and preserving affordable housing. His “opt out” clause pulled investments that could limit affordable housing.
2 Thompson, unlike Bloomberg, has called for a repeal of vacancy decontrol, which allows landlords to charge market rate rent once a rent-controlled apartment rises above $2,000 a month and becomes vacant. He also called for rent freeze on rent-regulated apartments.
3 Thompson, backed by many workers’ unions, calls for more manufacturing jobs, which tend to pay higher wages.
Bloomberg
1 As mayor, Bloomberg promised to build or preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing citywide by 2014. He's built 94,000 units so far.
2 Bloomberg implements inclusionary zoning in places like Williamsburg/Greenpoint and Woodside, where a developer includes affordable homes in exchange for being able to build taller. However, inclusionary zoning is voluntary, not required, and therefore hasn’t created as much affordable housing as advocates would hope.
3 Bloomberg promises to create or save 400,000 jobs by 2013, in industries ranging from shipping to bioscience and lower CUNY community college tuition.