It is all over the country though. Minimum wage is 7 dollar and rents are too high for that. There you have to pay for a car. As long as jobs don’t pay enough and the cost of living is so high, people will be poor everywhere . It is easy to survive with 25000 in savings and any job. Middle class people say you can’t but are used to more comforts . You just rent a room and not live in trendy neighborhoods. North Brooklyn and Manhattan are far more expensive that most of the city .