A lot of these people living there have been there for decades. You absolutely could not easily afford to move there today making only that much, but that's different. We're talking long-term existing residents with locked in rent controlled rates and/or coop owners who bought decades ago when it was still relatively affordable.

And yes, all of the "data" in the linked article is complete garbage. Don't take any of it as fact.

According to this report the income of people just now moving in was $84k which as you mentioned is wildly incorrect.