› Today, the commuter-rail system that once made it comparatively easy to live in suburban New Jersey and work in Manhattan is falling apart, and commutes from other New York suburbs, whether by road or rail, are also becoming unworkable. Increasingly, this means that only the very rich can still afford to work in Manhattan, much less live there<p>I don&#x27;t find this to be true.  New York City subways are better now than they were in the 1970s.  Public transportation into Manhattan has not changed much in the past decades, although the prices have risen.  There are plenty of places to live for working class people with decent commutes to Manhattan.  I know plenty of people at startups who lived in Manhattan - engineers could live by themselves, others needed roommates.  You&#x27;re not going to live on 5th Avenue, of course.  I live in the suburbs so my apartment has some space, not due to expense - I could rent a smaller Manhattan apartment for the same price.