Refugees

This is what the folks driving up rents in Bywater these days are running from.

Recently I asked several old friends — all, like me, born-and-raised middle-class New Yorkers — if they still liked living here.

I was curious because, a year ago, as a freelance magazine writer unconstrained by workplace, I headed west to a small town in Colorado, where rents are low, life is relaxed and the landscapes are wild and beautiful. A beer at a bar runs a buck-fifty, a big meal for two at a decent restaurant $15.

My poll produced some very angry commentary about the outrageous cost of living in a city Mayor Bloomberg once described as “a luxury product” and about the takeover of neighborhoods, especially in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, by the super-rich, who drive rents up and character out.

“The city is almost entirely about money now,” said Dave, 39, a Manhattan contractor. “A dead place full of people so tired and overworked they don’t remember what it feels like to feel good.”

The problem is that this is how the infection spreads.  Shouldn't we have some sort of ebola protocol in place?