Posted by Leonard Steinberg on January 20th, 2013

The New York Times did an interesting piece this weekend trying to answer the question: What is MIDDLE CLASS in Manhattan? The answer remains muddied.

In a city where the cost of housing overwhelms all other costs, where you live and how much you are paying for that housing truly determines what money you have left over to spend on other stuff. So I want to know where is the outrage by those paying market rates for their rent when a select few get the huge breaks through rent controlled and stabilized apartments? Often those are the people who could afford to pay above market rates. I know of a wealthy (rather famous) couple living in a very fancy Upper West Side building paying $ 2,000/month in rent while their neighbors pay up to $ 20,000/month in rent…….many have sold too in the $ 5m+ range. This couple divorced for technical reasons to hold onto their cheap rent and keep a fancy house in the Hampton’s. All of us have to pay for this abuse: It’s theft, no? Or does the changing meaning of the English language give this bad behavior a nicer sounding name? Doesn’t a large pool of rent controlled apartments reduce the volume of available properties thereby causing those available to cost even more?

I have argued for years that there should be tax breaks, just like the ones you get for having children or dependents, for cost of living based on the city you live in. If it costs double to live in Manhattan than it does in Minneapolis, surely that would be fair? Yet our tax system considers $ 250k/year as equal anywhere in the country. It’s absurd.

I think its time for the Manhattan middle class to revolt against the leaches of our society (not to mention the law-makers who allow it) who are abusing the system at their expense!