We're Number One

The City of Boston has been dubbed, the number one city for sports. It’s the city of champions, with the Patriots winning three Super Bowls and the Red Sox winning the World Series. Today we hear that Boston is number one on another front; it’s now the most expensive metropolitan area in the country, outpacing Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and even New York City. I think it’s time to celebrate this grand achievement! We beat the Yankees and now we beat New York City in being the most expensive city.

Do people really want to be number one? It’s very costly to maintain such a lofty position in anything unless you’re on the ownership end of the spectrum. As a sports fan how much more are you paying this year for the team’s success? Keep paying the steep prices because next year they will be even higher. How about getting one of those bargain houses for $1million? I just hope that when it’s time to sell, the market will still be as lucrative. You would think that being number one would be an attraction for people, but I see that the statistics show that Massachusetts was the only state to lose population last year.

We’re losing population because we’re number one. And some people thought that being number one was good. It’s not good if even with an income of over $100,000 you can’t afford a house in Canton or Dedham. It’s not good when many renters are spending more than 50 percent of their monthly income to pay the rent. It’s not good when there were only 27 Boston-area communities in which a household whose members made the median income could afford the median-priced home in that city or town. By comparison in 1998 there were 148.
Being number one is not good when it means a loss of critical young workers and families due to high housing costs. This also means a higher dependence on immigrants for future workforce skills. Being number one contributed to the cost of living outpacing average earnings in 2004 - more than 40% of Boston families had incomes below Self-Sufficiency Standard
Being number one is affecting family life. Family working hours are becoming longer, with families at each successive income level needing to work longer hours to maintain their standard of living. Today, it is no longer possible for most single-earners to provide income sufficient to support a middle-class standard of living. Take solace in learning what my grandparents used to say, “Work never killed anyone.”
I think it’s time to become a Cubs fan and move to Chicago where it’s still fairly reasonable to live. I don’t want to be around when Boston becomes number one in energy and health care costs later this year. Can’t take the rarified air of being number one.