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What are you talking about? First of all, how many of these strikers make anywhere near $85k? Almost none. $85k per year will not get you a house anywhere in NYC (except maybe inner city parts of Brooklyn where no one shouls live). One bedroom co-ops in Queens start at over $125k and can reach $250k easily. And how does a family live in three rooms? Please tell me where in 'the city proper' can you buy a home if you make only $85k - Harlem? Not these days. If you mean outside the city, forget that. LI and Westchester are much more costly and city employees are required to live in the city anyway (except PD and FDNY and teachers)
You don't know what you're talking about. I am getting pretty tired of all these posts that have no basis in facts whatsoever.
Merry Christmas! Please don't be so rude this holiday season.
The transit workers start in the $50,000 range. With overtime, etc., many are in the $80,000 range, some union members are even in the six figures.
You say yourself apartments in Queens start at $125,000. You can't afford that if you make $60-70-80K? And you say wife and kids? You mean the wife doesn't work? What a luxury! If you're like most couples, the wife works, and hey, that should make over $100,000 a year for most transit worker households. Yes, there are places to live in the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn ... and Westchester! See: Mount Vernon, Yonkers, New Rochelle.
8+ million people live in NYC. The majority somehow get by on less than $100,000 a year.
Myself? I'm 44, born and raised in NYC. I make less than $100,000 a year, and I own a house in Westchester. My wife doesn't work full-time. How do we do it?
Merry Christmas!