TOTTENVILLE, STATEN ISLAND July 22, 2003 —

The Cost of Living: Stories from the Front Lines in the Five Boroughs
The Bronx
Staten Island
Brooklyn
Manhattan
Queens

Staten Island is considered the city's most middle class borough. It's got the highest median income in the city: 60 thousand dollars per household compared to 39 thousand citywide, according to the 2001 U.S. Census figures. But behind the tidy, green yards and well kept houses, Staten Islanders are tightening their belts. In the second part of our week-long economic series, WNYC's Beth Fertig went to the South Shore of Staten Island to see how people there are coping.

It was the last week of the school year at PS 37 in Great Kills, and the staff and parents were celebrating a new mural painted by one of the teachers. Inside, everyone was munching on pastries and cheese. But outside, school aide Marian Viola Salzone wasn't so festive. She had just gotten a letter of termination.

SALZONE: I enjoy working here. I really do. And it's like, I'm devastated. I need a job.

After a long career in childcare, Salzone had taken a job with the education department two years ago. She and her husband live near the school. And though her salary was less than 20 thousand dollars a year, she says they really needed the health insurance.

SALZONE: I need the benefits. You know, at this point in my life I'm 57 years old. Where am I going to go for benefits? Where am I going to go period?

Staten Island's unemployment rate is lower than the citywide average, but it's still about 6 and half percent. There are lots of city employees here who are vulnerable to budget cuts, and people who worked in Lower Manhattan. There's also a growing number of Hispanic immigrants who thrive on day labor. The social service agency Project Hospitality says it's seeing a growing number of homeless people and families in crisis. But in this heavily middle class borough, other economic indicators are much more subtle.

TEACHER: This is the lad bug's body...

At the Bethel United Methodist Church in Tottenville, there are just ten children attending summer day camp. Pastor Ann Morgan says that's unusual, because she typically gets 20 or 25. Morgan says some families told her they couldn't afford the four-week program, which is just under 200 dollars per child.

MORGAN: They volunteered the fact they couldn't come this year. They were sorry they couldn't come, they liked the teachers, they wanted to be here. But they had extra financial burdens due to things in general, whether it's house taxes, or medical problems that have arisen.
Tracy Morelli is one mother who wanted to send her two sons back to the day camp this year but couldn't.

MORELLI: Everything else other than our salaries have increased tremendously, we're city or state workers taxes have gone up, Con Edison's gone up, every part of my household budget went up but my salary.

Morelli works as a homecare nurse, and her husband is a court officer. Their nine-year old son, Chris, says he's having a good summer anyway.

CHRIS: I basically stay home and I basically play outside. The pool is rather small but my mom said we might get a bigger one in one or two years.

Here in Tottenville, people are extremely status conscious. Big new houses are going up all around. And SUV's are everywhere. But Tracy Morelli says she sees people illegally dumping their trash to avoid paying for pickups. And the pastor says even flower donations for the church's Sunday altar are down.

Some families who did send their children to the church's day camp this year also had a difficult time. Victoria Seracin is about to go back to work as a teacher. She says her husband lost his job in advertising after September 11th, and is now teaching yoga and painting houses.
SERACIN: We watch our food bill very closely. We don't have parties. We don't invite people over, we don't entertain. We, um, we're going on one vacation this year to my sister's house.

Still, what about those big houses that seem to multiply like weeds? For Seracin and her struggling neighbors, it's almost an urban legend.

SERACIN: I don't know anyone who can afford them, I don't know who is affording them. People, I have heard stories when you go to visit people who have moved into the houses they have no furniture, it's lawn patio furniture because they can't afford it!

For Seracin, she doesn't even know what it means to be middle class these days. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.