Metro

Quinn: Squeeze on city’s middle class

The new millennium has been a bust for the middle class in New York City, according to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Quinn, a Democratic candidate for mayor, today will unveil a today that will highlight the increased costs for middle-class New Yorkers since 2001, a time frame that overlaps Mayor Bloomberg’s tenure.

But she was careful yesterday not to criticize Bloomberg, her political ally, whose third term she helped orchestrate in 2008 after he insisted his fiscal know-how could shepherd the city through the national recession.

The report makes clear that middle-class unemployment tripled to 6.2 percent since 2008; rental costs went up by 6.2 percent and condo prices increased by 47 percent since 2001; and median income for the middle class.

The report was compiled by Quinn’s finance officials.

“This is a national trend, which New York City is impacted by,” Quinn said in an attempt to avoid laying any blame at Bloomberg’s feet.

Still, she said, there are ways the city can raise employment and wages within the middle class, which the study defines as a family of four making between $66,000 and $198,000.

She declined to offer specifics, which she will release today in the speech — her final State of the City address as council speaker.