A report issued yesterday by the Center for an Urban Future noted that "a recent survey found the city to be the worst urban area in the nation for the average citizen to build wealth," adding that "For the first time in its storied history, the Big Apple is in jeopardy of permanently losing its status as the great American city of aspiration."

"The ACCRA Cost of Living Index, an analysis by the Council for Community and Economic Research, finds that Manhattan is by far the most expensive urban area in the United States, with an aggregate cost of living (224.2) more than twice the national average (100)," the report found, "and considerably higher than the second most expensive city (San Francisco, at 173.6). But the other boroughs don't necessarily provide much relief: Queens had a higher cost of living (156.2) in the third quarter of 2008 than all but four of the 315 major urban areas measured....Housing costs constitute a significant part of the cost burden. In the third quarter of 2008, only 10.6 percent of all housing in the New York City region was affordable to people earning the median income for the area - the lowest share of any major metro area in the United States."

"Of the 10 occupations that are expected to have the largest number of annual job openings in the city through 2014, only two offer median wages greater than $28,000 a year," the report continued, adding that "The acceleration of the financial crisis is expected to produce 243,000 job losses over the near two years."

The study, entitled "Reviving the City of Aspiration, a study of the challenges facing New York City's middle class," was prepared by the Center for an Urban Future and written by Jonathan Bowles, Joel Kolkin and David Giles.

The report also found that "In 2005, 46 percent of New Yorkers living below the poverty line held regular jobs, versus only 29 percent in 1990."

Noting that the city's median household income in 2007 was $48,631, the report said that "Given the vastly higher cost of living in New York City..., it is doubtful that any New York household that earns even $60,000 per year enjoys a quality of life that remotely approaches what we typically imagine as 'middle class.' The 'New York City premium' on goods and services from housing and groceries to utilities and transportation means that a $60,000 salary earned in Manhattan is the equivalent of making $26,092 in Atlanta; $31,124 in Miami; and $35,405 in Boston."

With the "Wall Street-dominated economy in deep trouble," the report observed, "The "danger of the city's dependence on Manhattan has never been greater....There is a clear need to return to some semblance of the geographic and industrial diversity that served New York so well in the first half to the last century."

The report noted that "The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) considers households that pay more than 30 percent of their monthly income on housing to be 'cost-burdened' and those paying more than 50 percent of their income to be 'severely cost-burdened.' But a recent study showed that nearly 28 percent of New Yorkers - 529,171 renters - are paying 50 percent or more of their income toward rent, a 15 percent increase since 1999."

"Between 1975 and 2007, average weekly wages, when adjusted for inflation, barely increased in the boroughs outside of Manhattan," according to the report, which stated that "During this period, real weekly wages went up by just 1.1 percent in Queens, 1.7 percent in Brooklyn, 2.5 percent in Staten Island and 8.6 percent in the Bronx."

The study was critical of the city's efforts to promote "high-profile development projects" such as sports stadiums that "would cost taxpayers billions in dollars in subsidies while providing minimal benefits to the average middle class resident."