Related: Sunday Globe Special: New York's Mayoral Horse Race
It figures this would be a theme, what with all the New Yorkers vacationing in Vermont every weekend picking up a Globe with their Times before heading back to the city in the afternoon.
"Middle class is key in New York City mayor’s race; Rivals debate what can help group" by Jennifer Peltz | Associated Press, September 08, 2013
NEW YORK — That's a theme public advocate Bill de Blasio has hammered on his way to a big lead in the polls ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral primary, telling a ‘‘tale of two cities’’ with have-it-alls on one side, have-nots on the other, and the center ‘‘in danger of disappearing.’’
Rival Christine Quinn, speaker of the City Council, frequently tells of her ‘‘actual record of delivering for middle-class New Yorkers.’’ Former US Representative Anthony Weiner has built his campaign around a series of ideas to aid ‘‘the middle class and those struggling to make it.’’
It is such a theme that a debate featured a video montage of them and fellow Democratic hopefuls John Liu and Bill Thompson repeating the words ‘‘middle class.’’ Other major candidates have talked up plans to help people either get to or stay in the middle class.
Tracking the middle class is tricky because there’s no standard definition of what it is.
Because there is no more middle class.
Research reports conclude it has shrunk in New York City and nationwide in the past decade, continuing a trend that dates to the 1970s. Reports find the gains increasingly concentrated at the top of the income ladder.
Related: Fed is Working For Workers
I would hate to see what failure looks like.
‘‘The stratification is not new. It’s the degree and the dimensions,’’ says Fred Siegel, of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.
Under one widely used calculation of income inequality, the Gini index, New York City outranks the 14 next-biggest US cities and the nation as a whole, looking more like Paraguay and Thailand.
The top 1 percent of households on New York City’s income ladder had about 36 percent of all the income in 2011. That was three times their share in 1980, according to state tax data.
As for the middle, one basic measure — the median household income, adjusted for inflation — declined by about 4 percent in the city from 1999 to 2011, to about $49,500, US Census Bureau data show. Nationwide, the decline in median income was nearly 11 percent.
Then there never really was a recovery. It's a GRAND DEPRESSION we are in now. Only the wealthy making gobs and gobs of paper money given arbitrary value is what makes it "officially" a recovery.
New York’s median rent-and-utility costs went up 8.5 percent from 2005 to 2011, to about $1,200.
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Related:
"Bill Thompson stays in hunt in NYC mayoral race; Steadily remains close to leaders as primary nears" by Jonathan Lemire | Associated Press, August 26, 2013
NEW YORK — In the topsy-turvy New York City mayoral race that has been filled with larger-than-life characters, Bill Thompson has run a steady, under-the-radar campaign that has put him within striking distance of victory.
His Democratic rivals have seized the tabloid headlines: Christine Quinn, who is bidding to become the city’s first openly gay mayor, opened up about her alcoholism and bulimia. Bill de Blasio has made his family, which includes his afro-sporting 15-year-old son and formerly lesbian wife, the centerpiece of his campaign. And Anthony Weiner’s political resurrection captivated the city only to have it collapse under a new wave of sexting revelations.
His poll numbers went limp.
The front-runners have changed repeatedly. But the even-tempered Thompson, a former city comptroller, has remained consistently in third, just a few points behind the leaders....
With little establishment support, Thompson came within five points of toppling Mayor Michael Bloomberg four years ago. But that showing did little to help him early in his 2013 campaign, which was marked by sluggish fund-raising and sometimes confused messaging. And for much of the campaign, he has maintained the lowest name recognition among the major Democratic candidates, despite being the party’s last nominee and the lone African-American in the race.
‘‘Four years ago, most people were voting against Bloomberg, not for Thompson,’’ said Christina Greer, political science professor at Fordham University. ‘‘Thompson was starting over this year.’’
Thompson, 59, a former head of the city Board of Education, served as comptroller from 2002 to 2009. He is from a Brooklyn political family and now lives in Harlem.
He has spent much of the summer touting endorsements meant to appeal to a wide spectrum of interests. His backers include pro-Bloomberg business leaders and the decidedly anti-Bloomberg teachers union.
Thompson also trotted out endorsements from minority leaders such as US Representative Charles Rangel and Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz to shore up support among blacks and Latinos.
How can the endorsement of the corrupt Charley Rangel, who has been stripped of his committee chairmanships, help?
The competition for minority voters, who are expected to make up more than half the primary electorate, has been fierce. According to a Quinnipiac University poll of likely Democratic voters released last week, Thompson is the top choice of African-American voters with 39 percent.
Everyone knows voting blocks are monolithic -- or so says my jewspaper.
Overall, the poll of 579 likely Democratic voters had de Blasio at 30 percent, Quinn at 24 and Thompson at 22.
Where's Weiner?
But with the margin of error at 4.1 points, the top three are nearly in a dead heat. If no candidate makes 40 percent of the vote in the Sept. 10 primary, the top two advance to a runoff three weeks later.
And that takes you back to the top of this post.
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