[Clemenza]

NY's issues are the high cost of housing and the high taxes. If you go out to the outer boroughs, and speak with the lower middle class and recent immigrants, they will tell you what hell it is to live in New York in their condition.

Believe it or not, your average Chinese/Albanian/Dominican/Ecuadorian/Nigerian would much prefer a large house on a large lot in suburbia than a row house/flat in Queens or Brooklyn. The "glamour" of NYC means nothing to them.

[durasell]

Believe it or not, your average Chinese/Albanian/Dominican/Ecuadorian/Nigerian would much prefer a large house on a large lot in suburbia than a row house/flat in Queens or Brooklyn.

---

And living in NYC is the way they will acquire that American dream one day. NYC will also serve to assimilate their children

[NativeNewYorker]

The blue collar apartment hives of the outer boroughs have always been an unpleasant first step on the American dream ladder. I know, because I grew up in one.

The non-slum outerbourough neighborhoods like Forest Hills compete with Manhattan for the upper middle class, and former slums like Williamsburg are now very chic.

I've actually spent a lot of time in Flint, and visit Philly often. Both are stagnant pits. Cheaper than NY? Yes. Shorter commutes and lower taxes? Yes. But pits with scant upside for folks looking to improve themselves.

[EDINVA]

“... recent immigrants, they will tell you what hell it is to live in New York in their condition..” as opposed to WHAT? Port au Prince? Santo Domingo?

NYC has welcomed immigrants forever, most of whom lived in what we would consider horrible conditions, my ancestors among them. Still it beat all hell out of the homeland .. previous immigrants understood that .. that the US/NYC represented the opportunity for them to provide better lives for their children, and their children’s children.
The streets were not paved with gold for any of them. It’s their children and their children’s children who now live in the large houses on the large lots in suburbia.