Some New Yorkers take a dim view of those who leave. After all, this is the home of "New York or Nowhere" t-shirts. We bond over our mutual suffering. Packed trains, noisy sirens, overpriced food--it's all part of the experience!
Many members of Gen Y, aka Millennials, apparently don't have the stomach for the Big Apple. They just can't hack it. Sinatra would say they couldn't make it here, so they chose anywhere else.
But Ol' Blue Eyes would be wrong about some NYC defectors: the rich ones. They made it here just fine, but they had enough. Where do they go? Red states Florida and Texas, primarily.
Progressive policies in New York (and in our fruity, nutty political sibling California) are driving out big earners, even as illegal aliens pile in to collect state-sponsored welfare and housing. New York is on the losing end of this human trade, and worse, it's fueled by politicians like Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
That's right: Abbott claims he bused some 45,000 illegal aliens to New York, but only after embattled Mayor Eric Adams claimed Abbott was already sending illegals to NYC. To hear Abbott tell it, he was only sending them to Washington, DC to protest the Biden-Harris open border policy, but decided to stick it to Adams after repeated false busing allegations.
As Abbott put it, “I thought, ‘You know what? New York is a sanctuary city, if I’m going to get the criticism, I’m going to get the credit.’ So we started busing them to New York.”
Thanks, Eric.
Back to Millennial flight: Gavin Newsom and Kathy Hochul seem bent on bankrupting their respective states. Those in Gen Y (those currently aged 26 to 45) who earn $200,000 or more are leaving in record numbers.
California's net loss of high earners exceeded 9,000 in 2021-22, and New York was second worst with over 4,000 net losses.
