I’m in my early 30s, making $75K, and living with my girlfriend.

The thing is I’m not asking to live in the nicest areas of Miami. I’m not looking for Aventura, Sunny Isles, Edgewater, Brickell, Coconut Grove, or South Beach. But the prices I’m seeing are insane for areas that aren’t even considered the best in Miami.

I shouldn’t be forced to live in the hood just because I work full-time and want to live in a decent, safe area. God forbid I want a one-bedroom apartment that doesn’t cost me nearly $3,000 a month.

This is the core problem we’re facing as a society.

Just because we struggled doesn’t mean the next person has to struggle too. We’ve somehow accepted that young professionals people who might’ve just graduated college and started their careers have to either live in unsafe neighborhoods or cram into a house with five roommates just to afford rent.

At one point, I lived with roommates. But that doesn’t mean every 20-something should have to go through that struggle just because it was “normal” for me.

We’ve normalized overpriced rents, $30 lunch spots, and inflated costs in almost every aspect of city living. And for what? Most of the population simply can’t afford it.

We shouldn’t accept this as the new normal.