With great regularity, one of the Boston media outlets, runs one of two different stories. I’ll call them “Peoples Republic of Newton” and “Wealthy and Shallow in Newton”. The first portrays the population of the city as a uniform hyper liberal, politically correct, super sensitive wusses – i.e. the “can you believe those nutcases in Newton?” stories. The second type of story portrays the citizens as uniformly wealthy, callow, shallow fools with more money than sense.
When I read the opening paragraph of today’s front page Boston Globe story, I knew we had the newest installment of “Wealthy and Shallow in Newton”.
Is it the on-site Botox shots at Healthworks? The Himalayan salt wall in the sauna at Sports Club/LA? The fresh cut Winston flowers at Equinox? What makes a person choose one tony health club over another?
Further into the article we have a local expounding on the parallels between choosing a health club and choosing to cheat on your spouse.
“It’s like you’re thinking about having an affair because you’re bored”, she said. “Sports Club/LA is the new guy enticing you – he’s handsome and exciting. But Healthworks is comfortable.”
Newton’s certainly not the only town that gets this treatment. Brookline regularly gets the same. It’s also not entirely unfair, since Newton does politically lean strongly left and Newton does certainly have more than its share of wealth.
The “People’s Republic.” stories are slightly annoying but I can’t complain too much since I do tend to lean left a bit myself. I find the “Wealthy and Shallow” stories personally irksome though. If I’m going to get painted with the “Wealthy and Shallow” brush, I want to have the appropriate amount of $$$ to deserve it. Just being shallow doesn’t do it for me.
Every time one of these stories runs, no matter what the media outlet, it seems all of my non-Newton friends inevitably see it. I’m now looking forward to the days ahead with the inevitable questions about my Botox shots and my casual affairs.
I do love living here, so I guess its a small price to pay for the pleasures of living in Snooton.
Jerry,
Although we’ve had the reputation of being snobbish long ago, the price tag of NNHS doesn’t help. We took an 80 Million project and ballooned it to 196 in 10 years, has any city done such a thing since? Have we had a $200 mil HS since? It’s not hard to see why we get called that (and worse).
In 2010 statistics 2% of Newton’s family income was $10K or less, while 36% of income was $200K or more. Thus, Newton’s rich are 36 times richer than Newton’s poor! And Newton has 18 times more rich than poor citizens!
Newton citizens earning between $20K and $50K (middle class) are 12% of the total population. The incomes from $50K and $200K + are about 88% of the population! This means: Newton is the city for the rich, of the rich and by the rich.
http://www.usa.com/newton-ma-income-and-careers.htm
This is the downsize of living in Newton!
Sorry, the Newton’s rich are 20 times richer than the poor, not 36 times.
Antol – Yes that blue spike on the end is pretty striking.
Now if I could figure out how to move my income into that right hand column, I may be able to get my Botox shots after all.
There’s a LOT of variation in that $50-200K range. For example, a family with kids living on $80K is certainly not rich – and with the cost of living in the Boston area, $50K is not rich for a single person. There are a lot of people in Newton living in the lower end of that range. It is definitely not true that 88% of the population here is rich, unless you consider anyone rich who isn’t poor.
Also – $10K is a ridiculously low cut-off for poverty. Even if you use the Federal guidelines (which are low for the Boston area, which has a high cost of living), $11,490 is the cut-off for a family of 1. See below for the poverty levels for various family sizes.
Family Size FPIG 133% 150% 200% 250% 400%
1 $11,490 $15,282 $17,235 $22,980 $28,725 $45,960
2 $15,510 $20,628 $23,265 $31,020 $38,775 $62,040
3 $19,530 $25,975 $29,295 $39,060 $48,825 $78,120
4 $23,550 $31,322 $35,325 $47,100 $58,875 $94,200
5 $27,570 $36,668 $41,355 $55,140 $68,925 $110,280
6 $31,590 $42,015 $47,385 $63,180 $78,975 $126,360
7 $35,610 $47,361 $53,415 $71,220 $89,025 $142,440
8 $39,630 $52,708 $59,445 $79,260 $99,075 $158,520
mgwa – yes, there’s endless ways to dice and slice the numbers but by anyone’s measure Newton is a wealthy town (overall). As you say though, those statistics also include plenty of folks with more modest incomes, who’ll have to save and scrimp for their Botox treatments 😉
I’m not arguing that, but Anatol’s way of slicing and dicing was very skewed and leads to unreasonable conclusions. Speaking as someone whose kid qualified for generous need-based financial aid for college.
I get this all the time from my friends. I stopped apologizing. Left leaning? Massachusetts is left leaning! I come from a blue collar city and all my friends are democrats because they are union workers. Cops, Fireman and Laborers. Give me a break with this piss.
You guys are too defensive. You feel too guilty. Nothing wrong with Winston Flowers in a gym that can afford them. If you go there, oh well. Stop apologizing. It’s embarrassing.
#firstworldproblems
All right, we can define the poor and the rich in various ways, but this is obvious from that Family Income Distribution chart:
The 5 income groups on the left, from $10K to $50K amount to 12% of Newton population, while the other 5 groups from $50K to $200+K amount to 88% of Newton population.
This means that Newton is split in half between the relatively wealthy and relatively deprived citizens. The former voted against the overrides and Newton North, the latter voted for those proposals. But the former is a much bigger group (88%) than the latter (12%) so they win.
Therefore, THE HIGH MIDDLE CLASS AND THE RICH MAKE THE LOW MIDDLE CLASS AND THE POOR PAY TAXES THAT THE LATTER CANNOT AFFORD. Therefore, the latter must leave Newton – and this is exactly what’s happening. This financial inequality translates into political inequality as long as money dictates politics.
Anatol – I think that’s a gross oversimplification. For example, there are many of us who voted against the NNHS boondoggle and associated overrides but voted for the latest, much-needed ones who are in the lower half of the Newton income distribution. A lot of what contributes to the growing skewness of the income distribution is the housing prices – and much of the increase in housing costs comes from our proximity to Boston, being on transit lines, etc. Many of us who moved here a couple of decades ago wouldn’t be able to afford to move here now.
It’s pretty easy to fan the flames of biased articles (journalism?) with arbitrary income levels and statistics, with a Newton North comment thrown in for good measure, but I’ll join in. The Patch ran a story a few weeks ago on how much money it takes to raise a family around here and the numbers are shocking. And, if you really want to get divisive with statistics, take a look at the famed 99% percentile.
mgwa and Anatol just riffing on ridiculousness. Nothing to do with this post just two people trying to be smarter than the other.
mgwa wrote: “Many of us, who moved here a couple of decades ago wouldn’t be able to move here now.”
That’s exactly what the statistics are saying: the financial inequality of Newton is increasing. Money likes money. The geographical, educational, environmental and social advantages of Newton that you mentioned attract wealthy people who gradually supplant less wealthy people.
This is a natural process of the unmanaged capitalism so dear to conservatives. Ironically, Newton is a city of liberals who advocate for the managed capitalism, i. e. balanced communities.
Anatol Zukerman — Is there anything worth more than it’s basic value to the human animal than it’s organic parts that you value? A gran of rice no…, but a tulip bulb? A tuna fish sandwich not…, but a small piece of sushi? The value of Newton is not anything to do with location or trains — visit Dorchester, Mattapan, Jamaican Plain, Revere . The value here is the wealthy living among like wealthy ones with some security that things won’t collapse. More important to the economics of this tulip bulb, has been the cultural haven for wealthy jews. Newton, Brookline, not Waltham, West Roxbury. Attract those with wealth with something they can’t get elsewhere and you get a what the YMCA has in another setting with salt walls and nice flowers
Kim just being gratuitously nasty.
Kim’s comments are not worthy of answering.
Hoss, I read your last comment three times and still am not sure what you’re driving at. “…cultural haven for wealthy jews”? Jews amount to about 30% of Newton’s population. Are you saying they rule Newton? Any theories about the Jewish world domination? Henry Ford’s “The International Jew?” “Protocols of the elderlies of Zion”? Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”?
Whew!!! You folks are all getting way serious in response to a pretty goofy post.
It does make me think that there’s all kinds of unresolved issues involving class and income in this town. It could take a while to sort out all of that …. but in the meantime, do I go for the woman who is “beautiful and exciting” or the one who is ” comfortable”.
LOL
Hysterical that you call my remarks gratuitous. The definition of gratuitous says otherwise. You two just go at each other out of context of the post in your pissing contest. I call you on it and you dismiss me. Wrong! Read the initial post again and figure out how your arguments fit in. They don’t. I’m not being nasty. I’m pointing out your pissing contest that has nothing to do with this post.
JR — The choices don’t include Both or Neither? If I get to the Waban library and my reading list isn’t available, I’m gonna be bullchit
Kim, read the title of this thread: “The downside to living in Newton”. To me financial inequality is the real downside of living in Newton, not the fancy health clubs, though the latter is a butt of the Boston Globe’s and Jerry’s satire. And that too is a result of Newton’s inequality.
Besides, I’m not “apologizing” – I am disgusted with plutocrats who try to lose pounds in fancy clubs while their fellow citizens don’t have enough to eat.