Rush Limbaugh: Lib Journalists Can't Afford to Live in New York

RushLimbaugh.com ^ | 12/22/05 | Rush Limbaugh

[wagglebee]

RUSH: I'm going to mention this again today. It's from Slate.com. It's by Daniel Gross, and it's just... Well, it speaks for itself. It may also explain why journalists are so mean and nasty and jealous and vengeful is because they have no money. (clearing throat) Daniel Gross, Slate.com, Tuesday December 20th, actually, this ran. "The New York real-estate boom is claiming a different kind of casualty, according to an article in Sunday's New York Times. Keying off a new report issued by the Center for an Urban Future, Jennifer Steinhauer noted that, thanks to high housing prices, many of the creative types who work in Manhattan-centered fields like advertising, publishing, and the arts are being priced out of the city. This, presumably, could damage New York in the long run, since it's an article of faith among nouveau-urban thinkers that the creative classes are a huge economic advantage, as the author Richard Florida has persuasively argued.

"It could also damage journalism. The journalists who write these stories about people who can't afford to live in New York can't afford to live in New York, either. And that's a trend that may prove just as corrosive to establishment media as any disruptive technology. In an article today about layoffs at Time Inc., David Carr refers to the magazine giant as the General Motors of the magazine industry. It's an apt metaphor. For at the publications of Time Inc., and the other two members of Manhattan's historic media Big Three -- the New York Times Co., and Dow Jones ... -- wages have been stagnating for years. (Disclosure: I derive, [the author of this piece], a portion of my income from the Times.) It has long been the case that a reporter for the Journal or Times or Time couldn't afford to live well in Manhattan. But increasingly they can't afford to live well in Park Slope, either."

Are you crying tears for these people, ladies and gentlemen? Are you shedding tears for these people? Why, they are being southeastern to stories for people who can't afford to live in Manhattan anymore, and they themselves can't. It's such tragic -- and this, folks, they say this is going to lead to a more corrosive aspect of journalism than any new media because it's going to drive the really smart people out of the business. The really smart people, Harvard graduates, really smart people who then use their degrees to go to journalism don't make enough money to live in Manhattan, the media capital of the world! How can they possibly stay? "Journalists have long suffered from what David Brooks... identified as status-income disequilibrium. Journalists received low wages compared to many of their peers and neighbors but enjoyed higher prestige and job security. But for employees of the media Big Three, both the prestige and job security are fading as the publications hemorrhage audiences, advertisers, buzz, and public esteem."

Well, I wonder why all of that is happening! This reminds me of Dan Rather in the CBS News room when Larry Tish bought 'em, he said, "The newsroom is hemorrhaging money. I've got to cut people in there you shouldn't cut the news division."

Rather said, "You can't cut the newsroom! Why, we shouldn't be held to the bottom line!"

He cut the jobs anyway.

"Meanwhile, the wages for other professions that New York journalists' neighbors and peers work in (law, consulting, financial services, hedge funds) have been rising fast. So, journalists [in New York] are worried about their 401(k)s, the barriers thrown up by co-op boards, and the excruciating choices they face: public or private schools, Brooklyn or Montclair." Folks, can I try to put this in perspective for you? These are the every day challenges of every American. They think they are somehow to be immune from this. This cry about "excruciating choices"? Public or private schools? For crying out loud, you are supporting a political party that's trying to deny private school to anybody that wants it! You are out there essentially aiding and abetting a corrupt public school system, but yet you are upset you face the excruciating choice of public or private schools? What have I told you about these liberals. They're smarter than you. They're the elitists! There will be rules that they will establish whereby all of us shall live but they shall be exempt from these rules themselves.

Why, they shouldn't have an excruciating choice over the best schools. Why, that ought to be automatic! Their kids ought to always go to the best schools just because they are their kids. Can't deal with these hard choices in life. So they're worried about their 401(k)s and whether they live in Brooklyn or Montclair, New Jersey. "In his recent New Yorker takedown of New York Times Chairman [Pinch] Sulzberger Jr., Ken Auletta noted that 'at a newsroom meeting at the end of November,' editor Bill Keller found that 'most of the questions directed at him did not deal with Miller.' They dealt with money..." In fact, Jennifer Steinauer, one of the reporters, told Ken "Auletta, 'I really think the financial issue faced by this company and this industry is the big concern, and not Judith Miller. The health-care fund for Guild employees' -- the Newspaper Guild -- 'went belly up last year, so we had to give up our pay raises to fund [our health care]. Our stock options are under water.'"

You talk about having no connection to real people and these are the journalists of New York who are supposedly better qualified to tell us what we should all think and how we should all be? They are opposed tax cuts. They are opposed anything that would add financial flexibility to the average American's life and yet here they come complaining and whining and moaning about the fact that they had to fund their own health care by giving up a pay raise or their stock options are underwater. "Meanwhile, over at the Wall Street Journal, the best business-news organization on the planet, employees are perennially crabby at the way management scrimps on benefits and wages. Most experienced reporters and editors at the publications in question earn salaries in the low six figures."

These people are whining and complaining and moaning about making salaries in the low six figures!

"They can expect salaries to rise by a few percentage points a year, if they're lucky. Salaries that barely pierce six figures certainly aren't insulting to most Americans. But everything is relative. A couple doing quite well -- he's an editor at the Journal, she's a reporter at the Times -- could make up to $250,000. But after New York taxes, New York child care, and New York housing, you're not left with much. In New York City, you can't buy a co-op or a condo with only 10 percent down. In most desirable suburbs, you can't buy a starter house for less than $700,000. When children arrive, the couple has to choose between living in an expensive town with good public schools (which means long, painful commutes), or the prospect of private-school tuition at $25,000 per kid per year. Given the types of lives many journalists wish to lead -- and think they're entitled to lead by virtue of their education and positions -- the wages aren't anywhere near sufficient."

I am... When I read this yesterday, I thought: "Every sentence is an I-told-you-so." Two-hundred-and-fifty grand a year with a couple, it's not enough? New York taxes? Why don't you come out and support tax cuts then -- one time? You're not even in favor of tax cuts. You don't even want to improve your own life and you complain about how much you're being paid -- and then "the long, painful commute"? Do they not know how most New Yorkers live? Do you know what these transit workers live? Do you know what they're being paid and what they're on strike over? Starting salary for a motorman is $55,000 a year, and I think the raise they want will put them to 60 or 65, something like that. These people, these are the transit workers, and these are people of color 70% of them, and they don't live in Manhattan, and they don't live in Park Slope, and they don't live in Brooklyn Heights. They don't live in Riverside. They don't live over on the Palisades and Saddle Brook and all.

Oh, no, no, no! They live way, way out. They live in tiny little houses, 65,000? Do you know what the firemen make in New York? That's why they have to do two and three jobs -- and the cops? They put more on the line than a reporter ever thinks about, and here they say can't make ends meet, but their education prestige demands it? You chose journalism! You know what it pays! There's more here. "It's ironic that much of the expanded coverage of both the Times ... and the Journal ... is dedicated to the sort of high-end consumption that reporters can't really afford. As a result, there's a nose-pressed-to-the-glass quality to much of the coverage. Today, neither journalists nor their employers have aligned their self-perceptions with the wages they pay and the space they occupy in the world.

"For decades, companies like the media Big Three have seen themselves as among the...best and the brightest. The Times, the Journal, and Time Inc. want to hire yuppies, the better to connect with their yuppie readerships. And reporters and editors want to be yuppies. But the economics of the business -- and of the home town -- no longer allow for the upwardly mobile portion of yuppiedom. (It's somewhat different in Washington, where the rich aren't so rich and housing isn't so expensive.)" Oh, really? (gagging) These people are making more than Rumsfeld makes. They're making as much as Bush makes! They're making as much as anybody in government makes. "We New York-area journalists shouldn't ask for pity..." Well, then why'd you write the piece? "...and we don't deserve it." Then why did you write the piece? "As a class, we're bourgeois and ambitious. We like comfort and access, but we don't want to work all that hard." Well, there's your answer! There's your answer.

You "don't want to work that hard" while you go out and impugn people busting their rear ends, whether they're in Iraq, whether they're cops, whether they work at Wal-Mart. You'll go out and impugn people all day long who do work hard. You will impugn ExxonMobil. You will combine Big Pharmaceutical. You will impugn anybody working hard. "Working for clients, as our lawyer neighbors do, is anathema," to us! We're not going to have clients! "So is taking on risk, the task for which our neighbors who toil in the financial vineyards are so richly rewarded. Yeah, okay. If you don't want risk, if you don't want hard work and you don't want to have clients, on what basis do you propose being paid? When your newspapers are losing circulation, losing advertising, on what basis? That you're better than and brighter than everybody else? Yep. That's the answer. "Writers unhappy with their wages can always switch fields, seek other jobs, or leave. If housing prices continue to rise, and if wages continue to stagnate, the media Big Three may find that their captive creative class might quit for greener pastures."

Daniel Gross in Slate magazine -- and he thinks that when that happens, they are irreplaceable. If the current crop of reporters and journalists at the Big Three in New York decide, "We're not going to take it anymore! We're going to go out there and make big bucks," that that's it for journalism. But last I looked there were all these little citadels, institutions of higher learning, academia. I mean, they're producing people by the droves who want to come in to New York and be journalists that will do it for half what these people are making and they'll have the energy to do it for ten or 12 years, and the people that run their papers know it. (interruption) Well, I'm not even going to get into whether you... Of course there are plenty of neighborhoods in New York where you can live on 250,000, but not the way they want to live. Not the way they think they're entitled to live. That's the point. At any rate, I had to share this with you, because it helps put in perspective and context who these people are and the fact that they hate the rich yet they want to be. They despise tax cuts, yet they desperately need them. They're just off in the clouds. They are such elitists, and these are the people who claim to be in charge of knowing what we should know and not know.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Dean Karayanis at the website -- he's the assistant Koko -- sent me this. I'd forgotten this story. This is an adjunct here to the journal story: Is it too expensive to live in New York. "What, kids in private school? We can't afford it! Public school? What do we do?" blah, blah, blah. You've got this migration going. You will remember this story, because on July 19th of 2004. I read this op-ed by a freelancer who aborted two of her triplets to save money to avoid moving to Staten Island and losing her Manhattan apartment. Her name was Amy Richards. Remember the story? "Now I'm 34. My boyfriend, Peter, and I have been together three years. I'm old enough to presume that I wasn't going to have an easy time becoming pregnant. I was tired of being on the pill, because it made me moody. Before I went off it, Peter and I talked about what would happen if I became pregnant, and we both agreed that we would have the child. I found out I was having triplets when I went to my obstetrician.

"The doctor had just finished telling me I was going to have a low-risk pregnancy. She turned on the sonogram machine. There was a long pause, then she said, 'Are you sure you didn't take fertility drugs?' I said, 'I'm positive.' Peter and I were very shocked when she said there were three. 'You know, this changes everything,' she said. 'You'll have to see a specialist.' My immediate response was, I cannot have triplets. I was not married; I lived in a five-story walk-up in the East Village; I worked freelance; and I would have to go on bed rest in March. I lecture at colleges, and my biggest months are March and April.

"I would have to give up my main income for the rest of the year. There was a part of me that was sure I could work around that. But it was a matter of, Do I want to? I looked at Peter and asked the doctor: 'Is it possible to get rid of one of them? Or two of them?' [meaning her babies]. The obstetrician wasn't an expert in selective reduction, but she knew that with a shot of potassium chloride you could eliminate one or more. Having felt physically fine up to this point, I got on the subway afterward, and all of a sudden, I felt ill. I didn't want to eat anything. What I was going through seemed like a very unnatural experience.

"On the subway, Peter asked, 'Shouldn't we consider having triplets?' And I had this adverse reaction: 'This is why they say it's the woman's choice, because you think I could just carry triplets. That's easy for you to say, but I'd have to give up my life.' ... When I found out about the triplets, I felt like: It's not the back of a pickup at 16, but now I'm going to have to move to Staten Island. I'll never leave my house because I'll have to care for these kids. I'll have to start shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise.... Peter was staring at the sonogram screen thinking:

"Oh, my gosh, there are three heartbeats. I can't believe we're about to make two disappear. The doctor came in, and then Peter was asked to leave. I said, 'Can Peter stay?' The doctor said no. I know Peter was offended by that." The upshot is this woman aborted two of the three babies so she wouldn't have to move to Staten Island. So there is a way. You don't have to leave New York. Amy Richards has shown the way in the in the summertime 2004 New York Times.

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

(Slate Magazine: Are Journalists Underpaid?)
(NY Times: When One is Enough)
(NY Times: New York, Once a Lure, Is Slowly Losing the Creative Set)
(NY Times: At Time Inc., the Big Heads Roll, Too)

[wagglebee]

Has it occurred to the media elites that if they quit "talking down" the economy, their 401k's would be worth a lot more, and that they too would benefit from tax cuts.

[wagglebee]

Rush ping!

[Caveman Lawyer]

Between these guys and the transit workers, I'm just crying in my Chinese takeout here at the office./s

[Phocion]

Don't worry. It won't be long before journalists start demanding free public housing in Manhattan as part of freedom of the press, much like they have been demanding the special right to obstruct justice by withholding information in hearings and trials.

[RippleFire]

bump

[sausageseller]

Too bad they don't make what the kitchen help does in NYC. They happen to find a place to live.

[indcons]

I really enjoyed this discussion on the show yesterday. Great post.

[chet_in_ny]

have to disagree here. most journelists come from limosine liberal families and went to overpriced "communication" schools. Once graduated, their parents bankrolled their loft in soho while they "struggled" to make ends meet.

[wagglebee]

I think you are probably right, but they still want to complain.

[Boundless]

FYI, this was also chewed on when it first appeared on
Slate, although Rush's take was illuminating too.

Are Journalists Underpaid?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1544248/posts

Are Journalists Underpaid? -Slate
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1544759/posts

[goldstategop]

Manhattan is chic. No journalist worth his salt who earned a spot with the Big Boys of the MSM wants to live among the riff-raff. What's funny is as insulated as these folks are, there's something quaint about them complaining people are not listening to them. Well, Manhattan is hardly New York City, let alone America. What else though can you expect of liberal elitists? They want it good but they never want any one else to have it as good as them.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[chet_in_ny]

sub journalist and limousine in the above post.. happy hour was a little rough today:)

[Cicero]

Ah, yes. Amy Richards, the quintessential left-wing reporterette, who aborted two of her triplets so she could stay in the city.

This seems to be her website, Feminist.com or Ask Amy, where among other things she gives people advice on child rearing and family life.

http://www.feminist.com/askamy/whois.htm

[listenhillary]

No wonder they report all the time that the economy sucks.

[albee]

""They can expect salaries to rise by a few percentage points a year, if they're lucky. Salaries that barely pierce six figures certainly aren't insulting to most Americans. But everything is relative. A couple doing quite well -- he's an editor at the Journal, she's a reporter at the Times -- could make up to $250,000. But after New York taxes, New York child care, and New York housing, you're not left with much."

Gee.....I really FEEL for these guys but I can't quite reach them.

[billhilly]

Doncha just love good news?

[wagglebee]

I remember that story and her first hand account of it, it was disgusting beyond description, she struck me and the epitome of self-absorbtion.

[El Conservador]

I think we should define them as "south of 96th" Manhattanites.

Harlem and Quisqueya Heights are hardly wealthy.

[perfect stranger]

he's an editor at the Journal, she's a reporter at the Times -- could make up to $250,000. But after New York taxes, New York child care, and New York housing, you're not left with much.

I have a very hard time finding any sympathy for them.

[Waco]

So, I see why these folks want to sneak in across our border. (Except for the terrorists.) They really want to get in this hell-hole and SUFFER with the rest of us. Reckon they heard the one about our poor having a higher std. of living than the average European?

[Malesherbes]

Right. I couldn't care less whether these creative folks remain creative in Manhattan or not. But I can't stop thinking about this new liberal-feminist concept of "selective reduction." Maybe I feel most sorry for the surviving triplet who has to grow up with such a mother.

[wagglebee]

I certainly feel sorry for the surviving child, in my opinion, this woman lacks the maturity to care for a goldfish let alone a baby.

[chet_in_ny]

agreed. my favorite is the upper west-- littered with japanese-make, gas-guzzling SUV's with the weathered Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers on 'em. Comedy at its finest.

[Galveston Grl]

Some bad news for those in red territory...screeching moonbats headed out of New York and into a neighborhood near you! Then we'll all be crying in our chinese food.

[Petronski]

I find it very hard to believe they are being forced out of New York.

They most certainly ARE being forced out of their favorite tony/chic neighborhoods in Manhattan.




But if these intelligentsia can't afford to live in Brooklyn or the Bronx (or way the hell uptown for that matter), they're not worth the name "intelligentsia."

[Texas Eagle]

Don't they still have Rent Control in New York?

[Petronski]

Oh God. That's her, isn't it?

[vomit]

[wagglebee]

But if these intelligentsia can't afford to live in Brooklyn or the Bronx (or way the hell uptown for that matter), they're not worth the name "intelligentsia."

You're not actually suggesting that they live among the "little people" are you?! What's next, they may actually need to start doing their own laundry!

[Billthedrill]

Good to hear Rush echo what so many of us have already said on this board. I repeat - this is a would-be ruling class. These are people who honestly feel they're entitled to a wage sufficient to keep them in the style to which they'd like to become accustomed because of the unquestionable good they're doing for culture and country. These are elitists, and the incredible bounty of early 21st-century America is such that it could afford to support those pretensions for longer than anyone rational could imagine.

They are also, through an act of irony so poignant it alone could make one believe in a God with a sense of humor, the ones in the forefront of fomenting class envy and social rivalry. This is absolutely sweet - they're the friend of the Working Man and Woman but heaven help them if they should actually have to ride the bus with a few.

I do not, actually, think that journalism per se is in any particular danger from its constituency having to endure direct contact with their counterparts in the real world. If it's discomforting to learn that a plumber with a high-school education might earn more than a Harvard grad, it's somewhat less so when you consider that he earns it.

[wagglebee]

After what I've read and heard this week, maybe some of these media elites should consider getting second jobs as NYC bus drivers if they're having that much trouble getting by on a "low six figure" income.

[rmlew]

The media people could go to Harlem, or take the 1 and 9 trains up to Manhattan Valley, College Heights, Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights or Inwood. They would still be in Manhattan.
If they are willing to live in walk-ups, there are plenty on the Upper East side that are still not all that expensive. I have seen some for under $500,000 and others that rent for under $1,500/month.

[ClancyJ]

What a bunch of pompous, selfish, egotists. I am so very glad I do not have to socialize with the likes of those New Yorkers. I would throw up.

Wonder how happy that little lady is now knowing that she - the mother - chose to deny two of her children the right to ever live? She condemned them to nothingness because of her selfishness.

They think they are so important and, in reality, they are superficial, selfish, petty nothings. Their ignorance is shown at every press conference in every story they write.

They do not understand why a nation has to be strong, why it has to protect its people, why those people deserve to determine what is done with their own money, their own children, their own lives. No - these gems of society think the government is to allocate all funds as "it" deems necessary. Of course, that means that they would be allocated excessive amounts of those funds because of where they went to school, what job they do, where they live.

Absolutely stupid, inane, pompous ignorants. Makes me really appreciate the honor, character, dignity, stature of heartland Americans. And those supposed elites are so very stupid they cannot even understand what someone would even value in those people.

[Bratch]

"Writers unhappy with their wages can always switch fields, seek other jobs, or leave. If housing prices continue to rise, and if wages continue to stagnate, the media Big Three may find that their captive creative class might quit for greener pastures."

"Well.....bye!"

[Windcatcher]

I hear tell that today's Bronx ain't your grandfather's Bronx. I used to live in west Bronx, in a rather nice apartment complex (thirty years ago). Word is that the neighborhood has gone waaaaaaaayyyy downhill. The Catholic school where I went is closed, the Church is allegedly closed, and the neighborhood has become decidedly unsafe.

I live in PA now. Thank God.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

Yes.

I think there are around 50,000 rent-controlled units in the City, in addition to several million more rent-stabilized units in New York City, Long Island and surround suburbs, e.g. Rockland Co., Westchester, etc...

[SteveMcKing]

I'll have to start shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise....

Go to hell.

... this woman aborted two of the three babies so she wouldn't have to move to Staten Island.

Stay in hell.

[chet_in_ny]

I live in a resnt stabilized apartment in NYC. Quite nice for now..

[petercooper]

bttt

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

I didn't say it wasn't nice for the people that had them.

For the people who are actually looking for affordable housing, on the other hand...

My family lived in a rent-controlled house on Hubbard Place during the early '80s, but we had to leave when that part of Flatbush started to detiorate rather rapidly.

[durasell]

The transit strike threads were more fun...

[Uncle Vlad]

No kidding. In the words of Neal Boortz, "Well, boo-hoo!"

[Windcatcher]

"Ah, yes. Amy Richards, the quintessential left-wing reporterette, who aborted two of her triplets so she could stay in the city."

GHOUL (Manhattan)

FREQUENCY: Common
NO. APPEARING: 10-100
ARMOR CLASS: 7 (daylight)/0 (evening)
MOVE: 12"
HIT DICE: 8
% IN LAIR: 5%
TREASURE TYPE: A,F,H
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2 plus 1 per unborn child
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 4-16
SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Silver or magic weapons to hit, turns as Vampire
MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below
INTELLIGENCE: Low
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic evil
SIZE: M
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
   Attack/Defense Modes: Nil

The Manhattan Ghoul is a special kind of Ghoul that shares some characteristics with the Wight. Like all ghouls, they are forms of "undead" which feed on human corpses. However, they only come about from fetus and infant corpses, up to a limit of two years. The change from human to ghoul destroys their minds in a like manner to standard ghouls. They tend to attack in packs, shrieking, tearing, and rending in mad abandon.

The standard attack of a Manhattan Ghoul involves a clawing attack with each hand. If the Manhattan Ghoul was pregnant during the time of the change, the attack also includes one per unborn child. The minimum damage is such that these attacks are always fatal. As implied, Manhattan Ghouls always appear in female form.

The geographic location of these creatures also imparts them some Wight-like characteristics. Wights are hateful creatures that inhabit barrow mounds and crypts, and the Manhattan lairs of these ghouls have a similar effect. They are immune to all forms of charm- or cold-based magic and the jaded nature of their non-undead neighbors causes them to turn as Vampires. However, if a cleric reads a Book of Divine Reason within 50' of such creatures, they have a 4 in 6 chance of fleeing in panic for up to three turns.

Manhattan Ghouls also have a special verbal attack with the effect of a Confusion spell. It can only be directed at males and can be maintained indefinitely. For each day of exposure, there is a 1% chance that the male will turn into a standard Ghoul, under the mental control of the Manhattan Ghoul.

[samm1148]

I still don't get why poor democrats even associate with that party. I read stuff like this and want to grab the first liberal working stiff I can find, rub his head like Benny Hill used to do to the old guy in his comedy skits and say "These are your people! Do you think they give a tinkers damn about you in their ivory towers?"

[Cicero]

Procession of the Ghouls on Halloween at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (Episcopal), Manhattan.

[Cicero]

Another Halloween Ghoul in the procession at St. John the Divine (Episcopal), Manhattan.

[beyond the sea]

Ah, yes. Amy Richards, the quintessential left-wing reporterette, who aborted two of her triplets so she could stay in the city. ........ This seems to be her website, Feminist.com or Ask Amy, where among other things she gives people advice on child rearing

Ironic, at least.

;-)

[Tanniker Smith]

Boo fricking hoo. I grew up in Park Slope, and I couldn't afford to live there now either. Sadly, I'm about 5 or 6 years too young to live there. No, it's not all young hip types there. Frankly, it was the DINKs of the 80s that really pushed Park Slope apartments and then the houses themselves out of reach.

Frankly, if any of these media types had stopped flaunting and flashing the cash and actually invested in real estate instead of paying exhorbitant rents (which just got more exhorbitant), they'd own the place they lived in and they wouldn't have to worry about rent hikes. If they'd chosen a more traditional lifestyle and, say, settled down, they could've had two incomes socked away from when they needed that down payment. But that isn't very trendy.

Then again, these are the people that wanted fancy lofts like the artists had, so they bought them up and priced the artists out of the lofts. The cycle isn't new -- it's just that now it's hitting them.

[Cincinna]

"Don't they still have Rent Control in New York?"

HAH!
There are hardly any rentals in NY, let alone rent control.

Most apartments are cooperatives or condos (rarer). That is even true now is the Outer Boroughs. People want to own their own home, and NYC is no different.

The very few apartments that are still lived in by the same person since the 1960's may fall under rent control, but when that person moves or dies the apartment goes to market value if it remains a rental.

[rambo316]

Like I always say, Rush is awesome!! he is truly a treasure for America.

Did this woman really get rid of two of her babies? If she did, that is very, very sad.

[Clemenza]

Pre-WWII One bedrooms in Harlem start $1400, cheap for Manhattan, but more than my recently built pad in downtown Seattle. Quisequeya Heights one bedrooms start at $1200, but thats east of Broadway. West of Broadway near Inwood Hill Park is a bit pricier.