How New Yorkers Spend, Splurge and Scrimp to Live in the City

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A New York State parks worker who lives on $37,500 a year in Tompkinsville, Staten Island. A Manhattan family of five who lives on $140,000 in Morningside Heights. A house cleaner who lives on $24,000 in Rockaway, Queens.

“Some people here are really enterprising and really resourceful,” said Eliza Shapiro, a reporter who writes about the affordability crisis in New York City for The New York Times’s Metro desk.

When she put out a call at the end of last year asking New Yorkers to talk about how they navigate living in such an expensive city, she didn’t expect the outpouring of responses — more than 900, featuring a wide variety of incomes, job titles and locations — she has received so far.

In January, the Metro desk began publishing a weekly series, Affording New York, based on those responses.

“I think part of New York is learning how to make it work,” said Ms. Shapiro, a lifelong New Yorker who grew up in Morningside Heights and who is the daughter of two journalists.

In an interview, she talked about what has surprised her while working on the series, how it has made her reflect on her own life and what feedback from readers she has received so far. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.