Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on social media Monday that New York City has become too expensive for the working class, according to the New York Post.
The congresswoman made the comments during a virtual town hall meeting, in which she discussed issues such as the growing migrant crisis in NYC and the mayor’s proposed budget cuts to the police force and arts programs. Ocasio-Cortez suggested that Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams should attempt to raise taxes on the wealthy and dismissed the notion that increased taxes would push high earners to leave the city. (RELATED: California And New York Compete For Who Can Lose More Residents)
AOC claims working class residents fleeing NYC because it’s too expensive https://t.co/7dlfwLadrP pic.twitter.com/N0OQIX4rgB
— New York Post (@nypost) November 28, 2023
She then claimed that working-class New Yorkers are fleeing the city because they cannot keep pace with cost of living.
“But guess what? The people who are moving out of the city are not by and large the wealthiest people. They’re the working class. They can’t afford to live here any more,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Recent data shows that lower-income and middle-class New Yorkers are packing up and leaving the city en masse for cheaper destinations. Like other liberal cities, NYC has struggled with mounting crime and migration problems, leaving many locals frustrated with its leadership.
Many of these émigrés have moved to red states in the South in search of better economic opportunity and lower living expenses.