This week, I had the pleasure of finally meeting someone from my apartment building. Her name was Mary and we had a short conversation about construction in the building and her experience living her for the last 40 years. She told me about these different programs the city had in place for the elderly in order to stabilize their rent prices and allow them to continue living in the city. She said she still pays under $600 a month for her two bedroom apartment, a little a fourth of what me and my roommate pay for our two bedroom. As development projects like those on billionaire row or Hudson yards continue to be completed, I can’t help what the future of New York City will be like. Will it be a city only for the rich, or will policies like these continue to allow the families that have enjoyed the city for so long to keep living here?
Something I learned last year was how new buildings are tackling their requirement to offer a certain amount of affordable housing. New buildings are creating separate entrances to access low maintained floors so they are compliant with the city. As a result these beautiful new buildings are abusing the poor by offering them cheap housing but at the same time separating them from everyone else by not offering the same amenities and basically closing off the rest of the building from them. I find it crazy to what lengths developers will go just to cater to the rich only.
In another recent article i read that around 2/3 of New Yorkers can’t afford to live here and will consider moving in the next 5 years. Who’s going to be left living in New York? Where will the future of our city go? I’m scared for the culture and diversity that we see now. I really hope we don’t lose it.
I’m a big believer that people in today’s NYC society will no longer enjoy the city as much as they did at one point. With real estate always booming, expenses for living skyrocketing and the rate of homelessness increasing, people are finding it harder to live in a nice and safe area or live at all. It goes to show that the rich get richer while the poor are almost stuck there. I definitely believe I’ll be a few of the many people to move out of the city so quick but you can never know with a city that’s always changing so much.