As a native New Yorker who grew up not exactly well off I think this is article misses a few things.
It is different to be born and raised here than to move here.
People have large support systems in the form of extended family. This makes everything from child care to meals cheaper. Not so much roommates, but assorted cousins aunts and uncles.
There is a huge underground economy of "under the table " workers. Most of the kids I knew had some sort of after school menial job and were paid in cash. Many of the adults I knew growing up never left Brooklyn and worked miscellaneous all cash jobs. I even dated a girl from Brooklyn recently that had never had a bank account or drivers license.
There are a lot of places in New York the author would never even visit, let alone live. Places still ungentrifed or too far from Transportation. That is where the poor live.
[+] [-] Hominem|11 years ago|reply
It is different to be born and raised here than to move here.
People have large support systems in the form of extended family. This makes everything from child care to meals cheaper. Not so much roommates, but assorted cousins aunts and uncles.
There is a huge underground economy of "under the table " workers. Most of the kids I knew had some sort of after school menial job and were paid in cash. Many of the adults I knew growing up never left Brooklyn and worked miscellaneous all cash jobs. I even dated a girl from Brooklyn recently that had never had a bank account or drivers license.
There are a lot of places in New York the author would never even visit, let alone live. Places still ungentrifed or too far from Transportation. That is where the poor live.