Mark Winston Griffith

The Middle Class is Losing. Again.

As if anyone needed to be reminded how hostile Manhattan has become to the notion of affordable housing, the housing world shook with the news that Met Life was putting a big "for sale" sign on Stuyvesant Houses and Peter Cooper Village, one of the last areas in Manhattan that accommodates middle class living below 110th Street. For generations now, civil servants and rent stabilized renters have been roaming those housing complexes freely, like an endangered species on a game reserve. But now the poachers are peeking over the front gate. Although no one knows who is going to pick up the 4 to 5 billion price tag, it's clear that whoever it is will, over time, almost certainly convert much of this real estate into more "market" or luxury housing.

So much for the Mayor's affordable housing plans.

Place this next to what recent census figures revealed about incomes in New York. As reported by the New York Times on August 30th, "...New York is the only state in which both the median household income and the poverty rate surpassed the national average last year, an anomaly that suggested growing inequality in some categories and reflected vast disparities within the metropolitan area itself. Once again, Manhattan recorded the biggest income gap of any county in the country, although the chasm narrowed slightly since 2000. The top fifth of earners reported making $330,244 -- about 41 times more than the $8,019 of the bottom fifth."

So much for the Mayor's fight against poverty.

With each passing day, it becomes overwhelming clear that class warfare is being waged, but the rich guys seem to be the only ones with their dukes up. It's time for the working and middle classes to start pushing back.

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Posted at 11:44 AM, Sep 01, 2006 in
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