I Live on Main Street, Too
I pay rent instead of a mortgage, and can only afford to live in Manhattan because I was lucky enough to get into a rent stabilized apartment. Without that apartment, I would not be able to afford to live here. My salary has remained the same for years. Yet I pay the same increasingly higher prices for everything that everyone else on Main Street U.S.A. does. The one thing I don’t have to worry about is gas prices—I don’t own a car. I don’t need one in this city because it has a terrific public transportation system. I also don’t have children. But that doesn ’t mean I don’t have financial responsibilities to children, and other people in my life. I do. When I take vacations, they are modest ones. I don’t have closets full of clothes like Carrie on Sex in the City . I don’t have a giant apartment like the folks on Seinfeld and Friends . My apartment is 450 square feet at the most. It is in a fifth floor walk up. It is comfortable, but there is nothing luxurious about it. There are onl...