finding an apartment in nyc

(My serious answer is actually ALLY TO THREAD, as I imagine she could be an invaluable resource here.)

Do not use a broker. Ever.

Really, Geeta....Tracer is right: persistence, persistence and more persistence: trawl the US version of Loot (I *swear* I've seen some decent flats there); the NY Times (online: http://www.nytimes.com); Apartment.com; Time Out New York (http://www.timeoutny.com): recently, I'd found an article detailing Astoria, Queens as the new mecca: it's cheaper than Manhattan, close to the subways and the restaurants/diners aren't bad. Use the Search engine, and type "apartments".

(Figures that more interesting folk arrive, just when I'm leaving NY;>)

Yeah fuck brokers.

I am so glad i signed a 2 year lease.

Douglas, if you're reading this—what's Hunter(')s Point like these days? I just read some about.com story that says $1100 for a one-bedroom, that's not really what I was thinking.

According to the Census Bureau's 2003 American Community Survey, the latest data available, the median household income for all of New York City was $39,937. By the federal government's 30 percent standard, Dr. Ellen noted, that would define an affordable rent for the entire city as $998 a month.

Can we like, sue someone?

In what she described as "an ordeal," Ms. Simpkins, 22, researched perhaps 50 apartments on the Internet, "trying to figure out what I could afford, if it was someplace I wanted to live." She worked with five brokers, visiting "maybe 10 apartments," she said, most of them "completely out of my price range."

There's one born every minute. For the record I've taken Wolk's advice upthread, and just tromped around, putting up signs. Ms. Simpkins would be astonished at how willing people are to help you, once you tell them what you're doing.

I think I'm returning, to Queens this time. Please let me know if you or anyone you know has a room for rent in their apartment around the $700-900 range in Jackson Heights, Astoria, Sunnyside, Woodside, or any other place you think I might like to live. Thanks . . . (I suppose Brooklyn on the G train might be a possibilty as well.)

--Mary

I hear Bed Stuy is "up and coming"

Ditmars is too far of a commute, so if anyone knows of anything in the Sunnyside/Woodside/Jackson Heights area, let me know. Astoria (Broadway/Steinway) also works. This is for April 1.

I have ridiculously cheap rent now ($600/mo) for a pretty big room in a 3br warehouse conversion with central air conditioning... Right by the Montrose stop in Williamsburg'ish. But then I just got offered a 1br off the Grand Street stop thats originally a 4-room railroad, but two walls were knocked down to make 2 bigger rooms rather than 4 small rooms. Pretty nice - the bathroom is tiny tiny tiny and the kitchen appliances are decrepit, but the rest of the apartment is quite nice. Only $1250, rent stabilized...

It's twice what I pay now, but I can afford it without too much hardship...... But damn $600/mo is sooooo cheap. What to do. Someone tell me how to live my life.

Grand Street stop on what train?

L.

pretty close to where i live now, but less puerto rican'y and more industrial'y

paul, is that you?

1250 for a 2br off the Grand L? Total rip, I lived 3 blocks from the Lorimer L in a huuuuge 2br for only $1,100... that's probably what it still is. I'm paying $1250 for a nice new studio apartment in Greenpoint currently.

its a big 1br with an office, which is what i need. i thought 1250 was pretty good...

Whoa, i cant believe that there would be a huuuuuuge 2br 3 blocks from Lorimer for $1100 unless you were touched by an angel and got really lucky. I've had some spectacular luck before though - like my first place in Williamsburg in 2001 was n8/Roebling in a 2BR loft and I paid like $550... Didn't think deals like that still existed.

I'd rather have a big 1br and office in bushwick than a studio in greenpoint. just barely though.

First, find an apartment building in nyc. After that the rest of the process just naturally falls into place.

Oh, it's a 1br. Why not if you want to live alone

ok thanks thats what i want to hear. im unable to make somewhat important life decisions without second and third opinions, even its from internet strangers.

Phil I woulnt base any important life decisions off the advice of burt stanton.

The apt sounds nice and a good deal tho. I would go for it.

RENT MY ROOM!!!!!

where is it??

graham ave. L in brooklyn
$860/month
2 very awesome roommates
42" plasma, playstation 3, wii, etc.
backyard access
2.5 bathrooms (one roommate showers in yours, but it's basically like having your own bathroom)

oh man. back to roommates again.. hmm

need a job, also. anyone needs a web editor or something along those lines?

ari and i are looking for a place!!! anyone have any leads?

im also looking for a part time job so

bump for max's birthday, someone grant his wish!

looking at a place in ft greene tomorrow fingers crossed

Wishing u the best of luck.

hah max thought you were all about living in the boonies on the c train

gentrifying yuppy scum, this one

i know dudes with this... LOTS OF SPACE, but very much in Kensington...

1 BR - $1000/month negotiable including utilities (avail 10/3, 10/15 or 11/1)
Nice one bedroom on third floor of the house. Lots of character, very private. Full bath and kitchen. Great for one person or a close couple.

some good ppl live in Kensington.

that's a good deal!

"all about"!!! ps i was on the A train

im seeing stuff for around $1000 in hoods a little bit closer to work & stuff--tho probably not as private... whiney let me check w/ the girl and i might hit u up for contact info

fort greene place i was going to look at is ~1 mile from the C train and ~.5 mile from the G train. should i still go see it or bag it??

Is that more, or less, of a pain than having to take the A to Utica? If answer is "more", probably bag it. I would never even go SEE an apt that far from the train unless I worked from home, but that's just me.

if it was like april i could probably convince myself taht itd be nice and id get a lot of exercise but...

Yeah, is Ari going to walk that far in girly shoes to her office/gallery/whatever job over the winter? Maybe she doesn't wear girly shoes, I don't know, but it seems like a bum deal.

she wears sensible oxfords but i think her short legs wouldnt make it

My short legs sympathize.

get a segway

sewgay

looking at a place in WILLIAMSBURG today

that is a long walk to the train. sayin'. i mean, sometimes i walk a mile to work but i'm AT WORK at the end, not waiting for a train with further commute.

I'm leaving a 1300/mo 1 bedroom in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens at the end of the month. As far as I know, it hasn't been rented yet.

williamsburgle sux max don't do it

Don't u live in wburg Ian???!?!

thanks for the tip Colin but 1300 is a little bit out of our price range

i do, max.
but i do not like it that much.

:-/ i just want a place to live. wburg is the most expensive place to look at but right now its the only place where ppl are responding to my emails!!!

stop fighting it, max.

succumb to your inner union pool.

Any thoughts on legion bar? Looked at a nice but $$ place above it

legion sux imo :(

legion was great when it first opened. now it's always filled with 22 year old douchebags and by the time i left town i couldn't stand it.

most bars are great when they first open cuz they're empty.

exactly!

noted

its weird not being a 22 yr old douchebag anymore

now im a 24 yr old douchebag

hey me too! high five!

man no one wants to live with a couple

i mean i understand

but were nice people

not a 100% sure thing yet, but there is a decent (?) chance that I will be in max's situation maybe around december and so I'm doing some preliminary research. is it ridiculous to think that me and the gf could find a tiny studio in a decent part of western queens (preferably) or brooklyn for $1000? I see some stuff on cl and I have had very, very good luck when apartment hunting in other difficult places (sf/paris) but I know ny is its own beast...

yeah totally doable

gf and i were in a pretty nice studio in a suboptimal location for less

"suboptimal" = utica stop on the A train

once you open up to queens your options increase tons!

^^ thats the dating advice i gave morbs

OH YEAH

yay - good to have that verified. is there any site other than cl worth checking max?

lol dont ask me im terrible at finding apartments clearly

LOLLLL

very funny, max, if it were 5-10 months from now u could be living w/ me.

LIKES
-rock music
-all kinds of animals
-clean / neat people
-cool tattoos-nice people

DO NOT LIKE
-rap music
-animal haters
-messy people
-people with attitudes

it's important that housemates have cool tattoos

when i look for apartments on craigslist i have fun flagging posts that violate the fair housing act. you should too!

max just squat in one of the thousands of never to be inhabited new condos in willaimsburg

craigslist flagging is one of life's simple joys!

SEEKING INDIAN GIRLFRIEND/ROOMMATE TO SHARE A LUXURIOUS APT
CENTRAL AIR/HEAT
NEW APPLIANCES, DISHWASHER, MICROWAVE
NEW HIGHWAY AND SHOPPING
GREAT PLACE

PERFECT COMBO SHARE LOVE + HOUSING = LOVE CONNECTION

I AM A SINGLE CUTE ATHLETIC NORTH INDIAN MALE USA RAISED WITH AN MBA AND I AM A PROFESSIONAL. I AM LOT'S OF FUN TO BE WITH, PRETTY DOWN TO EARTH KIND OF GUY.

RESPOND WITH YOUR PHONE#

Location: EAST BRUNSWICK,NJ

I always wonder if those "sleep with me four times a week and get a free place to live" ads ever work

u want 2 try this one out?

East Brunswick? Please.

ya thats what i said

$475 Brooklyn Sanctuary Dodge seek InternStudentTLearnThe ArtOf RubaDub SE- ( Williamsburg ) (map)

Date: 2009-10-12, 1:31PM EDT
Reply to: see below

425 room is rented. Please read carefully look at pictures. No phone number your email is deleted. There is a questionare that needs to be answered

emails not answering the questionare are deleted. Sorry very busy no time for the jerks and sketchy people.

Good luck !

1 Gruaimin seeks humans to train in Art of Rub A Dub! Please read reread carefully before emailing The time you Waste or Save is your own.

This Cat{ir-esponsible} He does not use the scratching post! He prefer the chairs and speaker cabinets Argh!

Responsible quiet 3F 3M Seek Romy for 10x15 bedroom. No Loft bed partially furnished 475 monthly plus utilitys AVAILABLE now.Utilities Aprox 30 - 40 each month .

NOTE: 6 month Sub-Lease minimum at 475. Under Six Month 3-5 months 500.00 Under 3months 525.00.

NOTE: First Months Rent , Last Months Rent + security deposit NON- NEGOTIABLE

425 monthly smallest room 8x13 built in Loft bed furnished....6 month Sublease...2-5 months 450.00 monthly

10x15 Loft bed furnished 475.00 monthly 6month Sub-lease..3-5 525.00 3 or under 550.00 monthly

10x16 Loft bed furnished suitable for two persons 650 two, 500.00 1 6month sublease 3-5 525.00 3or under 550.0

September 1, Two 525 10x15 Bedrooms available for Long or Short Term.

Dodge Ball 15 talkative friendly energetic loves to be petted and held.Always around every ones feet when you are walking.

seeking rub a dub. or a tidbit. Awesome Mouser.He even devours Rats !

Female F 21 US,F 21 US ;,36 US M 51 US 2M US 21 M current servants of the Gremlin Dodge

Around corner Hassidic Temple.Mexican Spanish Kosher Chinese restaurants Internet Cafe shops.Just up Bedford 2 blocks wonderful

community garden where you can pick up fresh herbs spices anytime free.5 blocks Pratt University Lovely park like Grounds.

5 minutes by bicycle to Williams burg bridge.15 minutes to Mclaren Park.Hassidic Jews Latinos African Americans Arabs Yuppies

Lots of them. Starving not so Starving Artists diverse cosmopolitan area safe foot patrols 24/7 Policeman at Bed ford G train

B-54 Myrtle bus,B-61 Limited few minutes down deep into Williamsburg proper,Nostrand Limmited Bus 5 minutes to Fulton A express Stop.Cheap Car service 1 block Dekalb Bus.Supermarkets Bodegas everywhere.99 cent shops etc.

A potential deal breaker of this Raw 5,300 square foot Loft is the available bedroom has no windows though fully furnished

with Loft bed electric ventilation system cool in summer warm cozy in winter.Walls 12ft to cieling door lock and key.

Windows near Kitchen dining area in this Artist live work Loft.

Great starter room Transitional housing on a Budget.Flexible sublease committment.2 blocks south Williamsburg

border 3 blocks west Clinton Hill 3 blocks Clinton Hill police Station.A movement in two precincts is on to redraw the precinct bounderies and include

this area into Williamsburg or Clinton Hill oficially.

Tell us about yourself your housing needs hobbies lifestyle anything you wish to share.European Interns Students Welcome.Flexible

terms depending on Length of stay.Wireless high speed electric utilities split evenly,Free house phone.Laundry in main building.

3000+ square foot roof access.Tables chairs Hibachi on Roof!

Must like Gremlins Domestic House cat! Dodge will have you trained fast with his cunning antics and pleasing behavior!

Do not forget to give him fresh water when his bowls are empty or else!

2 Vegetarians 4 meat eaters.

2non smokers 3 smokers 2 persons Allergic to Gremlins

1 Republican 1 communist 1 Anarchist 1 A-political fighting Budhist 2 out of the Hood Leftists

1 Give us Rub A Dub party! "[United Gremlins of North America]"

Dodge require"s that his future guests and roommates be like his current Sub-tenants.

Responsible Goal oriented solution oriented considerate respectful of others personal boundaries.

Come join the crew that serves Dodge!

This is the Closest at this price range that you can get to Manhattan,Williamsburg Proper,Green Point Fort Green

Park Slope.5 minute walk to Bedford G train 15 minutes to 20 minutes 1 avenue 14 street off L train.5 min walk

to Nostrand B-44 Limmited express Bus 5 min to Fulton A express 10 minutes to 14 street 8 avenue Manhattan.This is a safe
<br
Eclectic vivacious neighborhood.

IMPORTANT we apologise if this is considered by some to be RUDE.

We may not answer any email that does not answer most of this Questionar. As AN ANTI SCAMMER Measure NO PHONE No return EMAIL. The Time YOU waste is Your own.

1} First name Age

2} Employment Status....Students..Interns...Unemployed...Foreighner"sProof of Financial ability to pay rent share Utilities during Sublease Term.

3} Term of Sublease Length of time you want to cater to Spiffy and Dodge and live with their Human Guests.Please be exact.eg Dates.

4} Special needs eg Artist needs a bit of Work Space eg How many Square feet.Type of Art.Air conditioning etc.Musician..Band Rehearsal etc

5} Your schedule times Days eves you are available to view Space.

6} Your PHONE# and best day TIME to call

7} Your current living situation...very important

Good Luck and thank you for looking!.............................Spencer Street and Myrtle Avenue

Please email us at flores11✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧ Note: Potential Deal Breaker.....Sub-Lease Application must be fillied out. I use an Agency that does a FIFTY State Crimminal Backround Check/ Civil court Records Check.

Minor stuff such as open containers, turnstiles, 1 or 2 shoplifting etc. Do not care. It is the major stuff and Civil court records. Bad credit no credit low credit do not give a HOOT. The best way to avoid a Problem

roommate is to not let them move in In the first Place. You are 33 the only reference you have is your Mother. ALL Nusances Move unto the Next add. Yup you got it. DODGE is HARDCORE though not mainstream.

Last thing...I only sub-mit the application after I recieved a SECURITY deposit. Capish ! In other words If you are the type of Person where People cannot wait to get away from you after they know you. Crimminal Low Life

Substance abuser etc. Iresponsible Jerk move on to the next add.

P.S. Yes rooms will be available for Europeans for short periods during the Summer Season.

However if you are 2,000 miles away you cannot view
rooms.

Obviously we do not hold a room for a date without A security deposit.So please do not Spam our mailbox use Google your friend to research area

We can provide references.If you are prepared to place a deposit in advance then email if not when you are in NYC contact us for availability.

Very Very Important READ BELOW CAREFULLY BEFORE EMAILING

Use GOOGLE your friend to research.

This is a RAW Huge Loft. Habitable basic Crash Pad. Did you notice The picture of the TOILET. Many persons have enjoyed their time in this Unique DUNGEON. Basic Bohemian Living on a Budget.

Their is a SUB-LEASE application that must be filled out. 50 state Crimminal backround check,Civil Court records Check. Have very little interest in Credit. No credit bad Credit Low credit score could not care less.

Student Loan problems like me so what. Verified income or Job is cool.

I am not Main Stream but I am Hard Core. You are a Nusance? Eveyone that knows you for awhile cannot wait to lose you. Iresponsible, Substance abuse problems, Part time Nut case when you do not want to take your Meds.

Issues with human Beings of Color, Drama King or Queen, All around Arse Kindly move on to the next add. Problems with adhering to a Sub-Lease you signed Etc. move on. The time you waste is your own

Under NO circumstances is this Humongous Loft to be used For commercial purposes or other purposes unless fee Paid to the Primary Lessor and use added in writing with details to the Sub-Lease.If you need space

for a Studio other than youre BDRM it is a dollar a square foot with a custom Partition that I make in open area.
<br
First Months Rent Last Months Rent 1 month security. On a 9 month Lease will finance over a few Months Last Months rent in writing and added to sub-Lease. I am HARD CORE but fair. READ MY LIPS if you are a

NUSANCE. Move on to the next add. A current 23 year old female describes this Loft as the Movie Set of SAW III.......Wana Play?....Ready to take the "TEST" ?

spencer at myrtle (google map) (yahoo map)

what the fuck does that mean?

$633 Room for rent in Awesome Apt off Montrose Stop on L (William's Bush)

^^ really hoping this neologism doesnt stick

lol.

even worse than billyburg iirc

what do you guys think of this email? im sketched out by it but the guy isnt asking for anything weird... yet

-----------

Hi
Thanks for your email... My name is Dr. V1ct0r W4r3h4m, I am the owner of the apartment located at 238 Cl1nt0n St #G, Brooklyn NY 11201 which rent per month= $800 and security deposit=$800

This apartment is still available and as furnished as on picture. If you are moving in with your own furniture, No problem! There is a storage room in the unit where you could keep our furniture. Utilities Gas, water and electric are included in the rent. A parking space is available. However, I would prefer a situation whereby you can come around, see the apartment for yourself. But since I am not around, currently.... That would be based on appointment. I now have a permanent Job in West Africa, Where I work with Guiness Nigeria Plc Brewers of stout. Let me know how serious you are via email or give me a call

The kind of tenant we want is A responsible person, serious and trust worthy, who is willing to pay 1 month rent and a security deposit. Also someone that can take care of the kitchen, because my wife loves the kitchen very much...

We are renting this apartment for long term.
my phone # here in Nigeria, you can call me any times .Calling from a Home Phone: Dial or Calling from a Cell Phone: Dial +

As it seems, I am a very busy person and would like to work with time while it is available..However,I would like to know when you will be available to look at the apartment and to be sure that you are financially capable to pay rent 1 months rent and a security deposit.

IF YOU ARE STILL INTERESTED KINDLY RESPOND WITH THE QUESTIONS BELOW:

Applicant Full Name: ????????
Profession:??????
Number of Adults ????????
Number of Children ????????
Number of Pets ????????
Cell Phone ????????
Address for Last (2) Years: ????????
Person to Notify in Emergency ????????
Relationship with this person ????????
Phone number ????????

I have a business meeting coming up in 3 days to attend in the states which I would like to use the opportunity to meet with you for viewing and lease signing.
TO AVOID MULTIPLE CANDIDATE: We are going to remove the ad from www..craigslist...org.

Regards and God bless
Dr. V1ct0r W4r3h4m.

seems like "too good a deal to be true" tbh

hahaha

Hahaha I was momentarily piqued by one of those ads once. It was for a great-looking place, the funniest part of which was the writer saying, "I'm in Africa for a teaching fellowship and therefore can't show you the inside, but you're welcome to walk past the outside and confirm that the building looks just like the pictures." REALLY, THANKIN U!

hey my sister got email like that in suburban dc apt hunting!

yes! i have received a email from like the same dude about an apartment in queens for a friend.

Hi,
I did get your response concerning the AD I posted on craigslist. The house is still available but presently I'm not around.. I did bid for a portion of petroleum land sometimes ago in West Africa and fortunately I won the bidding so I have to move quickly down to Africa to have my company set up because I will still have to rebid for it in the next 10 years. I came over here with my wife, we both bought the house when we got married. As soon as we settle down here I had a thought of selling the house so I have to look for an agent, after getting one, we got a deal but later my wife advised against that. She said we may not be able to win the bidding next time, in other to keep our head when we return that we have to keep the house.. I reasoned with her and accepted her advise. So I contacted the agent back and requested for my keys and documents. Later we decided to have the house rent out, we would have give the same agent this job also but the truth of the matter is that the agent would want to handle it professionally and the occupant may not be able to reason along with him later.. If you notice, you will discovered that the price we are offering is far below standard price, this is enough for you to know that we are not after the rental fee but the absolute care for the property. I know there is no way I can be sure that you are the right person to live in the house because we won't be able to see physical before sending you the keys and the documents to occupy the space. But I just had a feeling that anyone who knows what it takes to put the kind of structure down should know that maintaining a building is mandatory, so if you belief you can take good care of the house and handle it like yours then I will be more than happy to
let you rent the house.

followed by questionnaire etc.

yeah

i am a doctor
who works for a beer company
in west africa

they never choose believable scenarios but people still fall for it! it's amazing tbh

sometimes ago

I don't understand what they're getting out of that info, though...unless it's just a gateway to further details.

So what’s the scam? They get you to send them the security deposit and when you go to move in people are living there and they think you’re crazy?

my guess is they just rip you off for the deposit, yeah.
seems so elaborate for not that much $.

yeah thats what i figured. didnt write em back.

got a lead on a promising place in clinton hill that im going to look at tomorrow wish me luckkk

you even get those things apartment hunting in munich

clinton hill studio was a total bust

Could two people really live in a studio anyway? Yikes. Sorry, max.

What abt Kensington?? There's stuff there I'm sure.

kensington ditmas winsor terrace etc

we lived in a studio last year and it worked out fine. It was pretty big, though... Kensington and ditmas are on our list too. Laurel how long did it take you guys to land a place?

im staying in ditmas at the moment and its pretty sweet but def fringe compared to my ol ft greene location - would live in a victorian turret in a sec tho

yeah we had this whole plan to be patient, wait for a good place in a good location at the right price but im already desperate to get out of my parents house so

obv were already priced out of ft greene lol

I am going to rep for Crown Heights. Not as exciting as Williamsburg/Bushwick but I think I am getting more (musical) work done here than I would if I were up there. YMMV.

I am on beautiful Eastern Parkway and within .5 miles is: Great Indian, good chinese and pizza, 3(!) subway stops servicing various combinations of 2/3/4/5, laundromats, 2 grocery stores, a gourmet shop and a few good bars. Prospect Heights has some cool stuff and it is only 5 minutes away. Busses also run to Clinton Hill, Williamsburg, etc.

I do not think it would be too difficult to find a studio, or maybe even a small 1br, in $850-1,100 range.

Oh god max, it took us MONTHS of rejected applications. We made plenty of money to qualify, but had credit problems repeatedly. Finally got a place in a brownstone-style row house with a private owner who liked us and didn't care about the credit. We didn't intend to stay there cos we sacrificed the amt of space available in bigger buildings, but we just couldn't get in, and now we really like where we are.

FYI you know I love Crown Heights but prices have already gone up/are still going up on Franklin and points west. Try Nostrand maybe.

That is where I am. Franklin is still a close enough walk if I want to catch the express train, but there is both a 3 stop and a 2/5 stop on Nostrand as well. northbound B44 on new York Ave to (sort of) Clinton Hill (10 min) and Williamsburg (20 min) for record shopping.

I TOTALLY FORGOT - we have Dunkin Donuts now too! Movin' on up!

Tbh I find some of the people I see around Franklin more than a little offputting. I'm moving either east or south next time. Kensington, Ditmars, Pros Pk South, and so on -- or else over to like Brooklyn Ave.

Was the Utica Stop really THAT bad? There's a lot of nice apartments out there...

nothing going on where we were... 1 restaurant, 1 coffeeshop. more stuff opening up, but even so--we have a lot of friends in manhattan, especially up in mngside heights/harlem, so we were hoping for somewhere a little closer in to the city--if only to help convince them to visit us

but no it wasnt THAT bad

Xpost

I have never had any problems out here. But I see your point.

My experience:
Eastern Parkway itself seems very safe at night, and an apartment procured ON this street is a good bet.
Franklin and Nostrand Ave NORTH of Eastern Parkway might FEEL a little dicier but there are always people and cars around.
South of EP definitely seems sketchy past one or two blocks.
Cross streets and avenues without commercial development are maybe a bit sketchy. I tend to walk along Eastern Parkway and then go north to wherever I am going if I am alone at night.

max, did you see this one:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/roo/1424015292.html

me and my gf woulda jumped on it, but we need something starting dec 1...

haha thats even farther out than we were last year!

fwiw im being pretty picky right now cuz im not super rushed--as time passes i will probably expand my desires

You misunderstand me. I've never had any problems either, which is why I'd rather move east than get enveloped by strollers and children who apparently don't pay their own rent. But more about max... If you wanna be closer to uptown Manhatt, what about Riverdale??

lol

i have friends in brooklyn too laurel... like YOU

Pshaw, I never see you anyway.

because i lived off the utica stop

maybe i should just live in the subway then it would be easy to get wherever i wanted

Heat & AC included!

I understand Laurel. No more derailment.

Max if you like camping...
http://mta.info/nyct/service/sline.htm

going to see a place in crown heights 2 morrow

I love it! Sooner or later you'll all feel the pull of Crown Heights -- it's a tractor beam of convenience and awesomeness.

hahaha

its close to ians old place too!! maybe ill go egg his ex-roomies

That means it must be close-ish to MEEEEEEE. I haven't run into his ex-roomies, fortunately for everyone.

Talked to my boss today about quitting the job and leaving Kenya. Timeframe looks like about six months.

Next stop New York City!

This ad is cracking me up. Is there something up with the camera, or do you have to crabwalk sideways down that hallway??

no furniture allowed, apparently. woah

$899 SUNNY studio with seperate KITCHEN (map) - NO FATTIES

Seriously if this weren't the ass-end of nowhere, in Brooklyn terms...those layouts look sweet.

im @ e 18th and beverly right now - its not thaaat far out - right by the q & b - problem is that ad doesnt give the cross st

looks like where i am tho - i dont think the big pre wars go much further south - just right s of the park right here

ice cr?m, you are within a mile radius of me, bevare

haaa just house sitting - not sure id consider it permanently - tho i guess if i was priced out might go here over crown heights or bed stuy

we should take in a playoff game at ye olde pub morbz

I don't know y o p, but there may be something in the offing on Tuesday.

ye olde pub is a state of mind more or less - only bar ive been to around here is sycamore - totally nice no tv tho

yeah, ive been to Syc a couple times.

if you've got buddies in manhattan how about queens on the 7 line?

THATS THE DATING ADVICE I GAVE DR MORBIUS

cuz i have buddies in brooklyn too

if it was all about manhattan i would just move there

friends i have in manhattan: several
friends i have in brooklyn: literally thousands
friends i have in queens: zero
friends i have in the bronx: the members of the new york yankees
friends i have in staten island: my barber

friends you have in queens: delicious foods

loved the place I saw on Bergen and Franklin today--first floor, nice and big, sunny, building has roof access, close to a bunch of trains. Probably going to go for it so our long natl nightmare can end

siiiiiiccck.

wish u were still in th hood boo!!! now that we live in NYC well catsit 4 u anytime

man i wish i lived in the hood too ;(

toms

cherry lime rickeys

steampunk beer, japanese brunch on washington avenue (i miss this so much), botanic gardens, brooklyn museum, west indian food, beer distributor on washington ave (great selection, not terrible prices--can't find anywhere else to get old rasputin!), prospect park, fried chicken from mitchell's on vanderbilt AND. SO. ON.

also the used bookstore that is now on vanderbilt is pretty sick imo.

i had islands for the first time while at a bday party at frankling park. DAMN that's some good chicken.

fuck you guys for making me miss my old neighborhood btw.

what kinda chicken did you get dan? my fave is the jerk but others rill rep for the curry chicken & stewed chicken. i find the bbq a bit sweet for me.

ian ill let u sleep on my couch

oh you'd just "move to manhattan" well la di dah

ill move your face to my fist if you catch my drift

whoa easy fella.

Short of some shocking deal I have a hard time imagining anyone moving to Manhattan now and liking it, except maybe Inwood etc.

I didn't order, some folks brought the chicken to the bar, it was the jerk. Super spicy and tasty. Up there with Pio Pio in Queens for fave chicken in NYC.

psyched to move back into the city, but the lease doesnt start till nov 1

congrats max!! franklin and bergen is not too far from me i don't think, but who knows i have a sense of direction from hell :)

its like a few blocks southeast of the clinton-washington stop?

er, sorry, the franklin ave stop

Short of some shocking deal I have a hard time imagining anyone moving to Manhattan now and liking it, except maybe Inwood etc.

don't hate us cuz we're beautiful.

mmmmhmm http://images.scotsman.com/2006/09/26/2006-09-27T072031Z_01_NOOTR_RTRIDSP_2_OUKEN-UK-HILTON.jpg

how's the rent maxers?

a grand + utilities? split btw me and the gf obviously. seems about right for that area--maybe a little bit more, but what are ya gonna do.

niiice! that's pretty great

welcome to the neighborhood dude

foodwise there's also a second Pequena (mex place in Ft Greene that I like) opening on Vanderbilt in what used to be Barrette

Freanklin Park fap? or is that place douchey

fucking love pequena

word

xp - a little but not too bad. or actually, what do I know I've only been over there once. but it's probably better when you can be outside. Washington Commons fap would probably be my pick

favorite lunch = spicy black bean soup and chicken caeser salad from pequena

actually i'm gonna get that TODAY

oops I jumped the gun on the PH Pequena, originally some of the blogs said opening in October. lame.

I called the Fort Greene branch to check, and the lady told me they weren't expecting it to be open until January.

xp - no fair

i dont know how you can eat pequena in a world where bonita has been closed

i dunno man i had bonita's like restaurant week thing and it wasn't that hot

also the waitresses at pequena are hostile

restaurant week things are never that hot ime

I had only been to the williamsburg bonita and wasn't that into it! never went to the Ft Greene one. which one closed?

bonita had shitty tacos but their daily specials were manna from heaven, just insanely good

greene

yea pequena waitstaff can suck it

both!!! ;_; i never went to the w'burg one--a lot of people didnt like bonita but i think its cuz they ordered off the menu, i never liked anything they had on it, but every time i got a special i was insanely happy

why are yall antagonizing the waitresses

they are always nice to me

i dunno it's like they decide when to be nice, and when to be "new york"

haha

think we might go try Piquant on Flatbush (former "Mitchell's Bar & Grill" not to be confused w/ the Mitchell's fried chicken place)

menu looks a little fancy-fancy for Tex Mex but hoping for some good lunch stuff

and this has been another exciting episode of every new york thread eventually becomes a food or bar thread. tune in next week

:-)

yes max, shitty tacos!

well i would say go back and get the specials but alas

yay max when i stay with my friend at sterling and classon you will be so close i will be angry if we don't hang!

if you end at up Franklin and Bergen, you will be a couple of blocks from:
http://www.bombaybrooklyn.com/

MAX THAT RULES. I didn't see the street names til I got online today (no computer over the weekend). You gonna be like one block from me, dawg! Seriously living on the 2/3/4/5 with walking access to the C at Franklin is the most perfect transportation set-up ever. You can almost always get on the train you need, instead of xfering somewhere else.

going to put my deposit and application in today!

glad to be near u lauren!! yah the ease of transportation was a major factor in the decision--plus like a block away from b44 for north-south transit

The B44, the B48 for Gpoint and Wburg, the B65 which goes to Downtown Bk along Dean & Bergen...a cornucopia of transit options.

so I guess I'm in this situation for real now

I'm in CA w/ free time to look at every cl listing ever, gf's in NYC working / living in a sublet

we need something for december 1st. a month is enough time, right? as mentioned before, the goal is (probably) a cheap studio in western queens.

how long did it take you, max?

a month should be time, you just have to be prepared to jump on something you like ASAP -- make sure all the paperwork's in order, deposit ready, etc.

noted

t makes a good point

knowing if something is good is tricky tho - i passed on the most insane apt ever when i 1st moved to ny

btw i think i need to live in a the ditmas victorian bad

yeah it took us a couple weeks but if we had passed on this place it could have taken another couple to see something even remotely acceptable i think. a month is almost definitely enuf time.

its prob worth looking at a lot of ads tho just to get a sense of what kind of price for what kind of space is acceptable

one-way ticket bought!

I have read the entire 'brooklyn vs. queens' thread twice and maybe should be posting this there instead, but: is astoria boring? it seems really cheap and ideal in some ways, but sorta isolated in others. I guess that seems to go for queens in general?

It's not really that cheap unless you're willing to live ~20 minutes away from the train. It's a little boring, and not actually that isolated, but people have a weird thing about going to Queens. There's a few great restaurants, and lots of passable ones. The bars are mostly terrible. I would recommend the border areas around Broadway/the R train over the northern heart of the neighborhood.

im all moved in yall

my gf is visiting this place:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/nfb/1443348358.html

tomorrow. what is ilx's judgment??

I want it.

Seriously Lefferts/Kensington is probably my next destination, if I want to live alone. If the building isn't disgusting and the studio is of a good size (and most of those buildings are), then that's a good price I think.

pretty!!!

that place looks pretty nice. I don't know the block but I have two friends who live in that general area. some good restaurants and bars around the Cortelyou stop. Q is a good train for getting into Manhattan

some parts of that hood are great and nice, some are getting hip and gentrifying, some are shady as hell. Course you can say that about just about every neighborhood in Brooklyn. I would visit it at night and walk around a bit.

I've never been so pumped up by a craiglist apartment listing before:

$725 Be independant Move in now!!! We can do this!!!! (Hollis) (map)

Date: 2009-11-03, 3:50PM EST
Reply to: hous-3hekf-1450020✧✧✧@craigsl✧✧✧.o✧✧ [Errors when replying to ads?]

We can do this!!!!....

Move in asap!

so, we're also including harlem in our search

advantages/disadvantages vs. brooklyn or queens?

if you live in harlem you will not visit brooklyn or queens v often - likewise if you choose brooklyn you will not visit queens or harlem v often and so forth

its like rock paper scissors

its like max says exactly like rock paper scissors

when i played rock paper scissors my brother would always bust out the 'dynamite' move which was his pinky finger. what would be the 'dynamite' move in this case?

manhattan BOOM!

TRIBECA LOFT BOOM

houseboat boom

HOMELESS LIVIN IN THE SUBWAYS boom

wandering the streets of staten island muttering to onesselfboom

It all depends on what you're looking for. If you want social life, Brooklyn is probably your best bet. But don't worry too much, you can't really know what you want until you are here. You could take any apartment anywhere for a year, and after that you'll know better where you want to be.

id sublet til i get a feel tbh

agree, it probably would be better to sublet first, but our situation's a bit weird w/ some coming and going and we'd rather just have a place. also gf's already subletting in sunnyside (which she likes a lot) and she went to columbia so she knows...well, manhattan...and is comfortable w/ harlem.

seeing lots of cheap lefferts garden stuff that looks pretty good...me and her like the idea of that neighborhood at least, she'll go visit soon.

sunnyside is awesome.
it is like, the next big thing, i hear.

when i lived in wburg i went to sunnyside a lot, very easily. b24 otm for all time.

I'll believe it when I see it. Brooklynites move up to Sunnyside then get lonely and move back to Greenpoint. I've seen it happen. But every year there's one or two more bkln-quality hipsters up here. Still most of them are married and making babies. There's not one bar worth hanging out in...not one book store...maybe 1 place to get eggs benedict and a bloody mary and they only serve brunch on one weekend day. Most people in Queens probably prefer it that way. Hey, if you want to chose between 15 different kinds of Feta, it's a great neighborhood!

http://sunnysidepost.com/2009/11/sunnyside-rents-fall/

still haven't fallen enough to reach our budget!

(unfortunately - I think we'd rather live there than astoria, but most of the western queens stuff in our budget is in astoria)

dan my friend is enjoying a wine bar in sunnyside... but yeah, i think it is less the new thing for hipsters and more the new thing for more settley people? or at least, people who care about living alone or in a nicer place that's not an hour commute to work.

Queens has always been about people who live alone or are settling down. The wine bar is Claret. I've read mixed reviews, certainly a step in the right direction. Or wrong direction, depending on your pov.

I spent the last three years bragging about my 10 minute commute to the west side on the LIRR that now I'm being punished as my other job is in Gowanus, and after years of dreaming of the chance to actually work in Brooklyn, now I live in Queens and have to take the 7 to the G everytime. So my midtown west job is a 10 minute commute and my Brooklyn job is over an hour.

Look further than Sunnyside for cheap rent, Woodside and Jackson Heights are both cheaper then Sunnyside, and while most of those neighborhoods aren't as pretty, they have better food and better transportation.

Jackson Heights seems cool but kinda far? ideally I'd be able to walk to manhattan and back on a nice day (I'm fine walking ~10 miles a day)

gf beginning to think that almost nothing in brooklyn (or harlem) is worth the cost + is generally less convenient. I'm worried we won't have social lives in queens, but her opinion counts more than mine.

i wouldn't worry about that toooo much. remember, you can always move.

fwiw iatee ari and i were pretty isolated (on stuyvesant and halsey in bed-stuy last year) w/ only one train and it wasnt too bad--i mean, we had social lives.

it only really gets to you in the winter when its already painful to leave the house and then to know that youve got a 45 minute trip to go see your friends...

yeah for us it's like, I dunno, gonna have to carve out a social life to begin with and it seems like it'd be easier w/ the environment brooklyn. I mean she does have something of a social group in manhattan, she just doesn't like them that much. I know a few scattered people, but none in queens. I dunno, probably overthinking it.

environment in brooklyn

yeeeaaahhhh i mean i want to make you feel better about it but we were in very similar circumstances last year and i certainly wasnt depressed w/ them or anything but it was definitely an issue. i dont know exactly how different it will be where we are now--i.e. more ppl around, more to do, more subways to take--but it just FEELS different. its hard enough to make friends after college, and harder to do it as a couple, and its even harder when youre far away.

lol the catch-22 is that if you move somewhere more expensive to be in a place where you can be more social, you dont have enough money to actually go out ever, so

Being able to walk to manhattan may be the only thing Astoria has over Jackson Heights, in my book! But Astoria only has the N/W train while JH has the E,F,V,R and 7. Astoria just has a weird vibe to me, and it's kind of isolated, walking to other hoods involves crossing the Sunnyside train yard or Northern blvd, whereas JH is more pleasently connected to Sunnyside, Elmhurst, Corona etc...

haha well we won't either way. I dunno, I guess it's still better than being in the same circumstances and alone.

xp

also: I think gf secretly has subconscious thing for astoria cause her mom's 1st gen greek

Astoria is a great place to live, and you two have each other--you don't really need a social life:) None of your options are bad in any sense--I'd let it come down to the luck of the draw.

I live in Queens and neither live alone nor am settling down. What am I doing wrong?

sooo, I guess we're considering jackson heights after all! gf visited a place there tonight and liked it a lot...less than 1k, no broke fee, utilities included and two blocks from the 82nd/JH subway. decent sized studio. I gave the green light but her cell phone's out of battery now, so who knows...hopefully she gets it.

she also put down a $200 refundable deposit for a place a block from the ditmars/steinway intersection...seems great except for being .5 miles from the nearest subway.

good streetview has been soooo useful during this process.

she called and is not sure we're gonna get it :(

jackson heights places sounds like a good deal!

yeah we are looking at others there too...it does seem like a good place to live...

Jackson Heights is awesome. Sammy's Halal alone is worth moving there for.

unless something horrible happens, we might be done with this awful process by tonight!

found a place in woodside for 800/m - it's (according to the gf) in a huge and gorgeous house owned by filipinos. we'll have a few roommates, but our own big furnished room (apparently fits a couch as well as a bed) and our own bathroom, big kitchen that they apparently never use...

gf was in awe of the place and apparently they loved her in the interview and is going in to give them a deposit tonight.

one block north of the 61st street subway!

excited! woodside seems great.

the cl ad specifically was "looking for couples" which was pretty unusual too

probably looking for swingers

ooooh you will be near sripraphai!

own bathroom is a+

you don't know who the roommates are?

roommates are:

another couple in a similar room who work nights so they don't sleep there
young filipino guy
30s filipino woman (who I think is moving out? or to a different room?)

sripraphai party @ iatees house!

being able to walk to sripraphai and sit outside when it gets sunny again a++

well, I can say from 3+ years of experience that that's a pretty awesome place to live. Woodside isn't always the most beautiful areas, but you've got easy walking to Sunnyside and Jackson Heights and Elmhurst. And Astoria and Corona and Flushing aren't far. You've got about 10 of the best Thai restaurants in the city within walking distance, (Srip, Zabb, Ayuda, Central Point, Arunee etc, even the bad Thai places in this area beat most of the rest of the city) as well as some very decent indian and an exciting influx of Nepali/Tibeten food. There's also amazing mexican food. Run, don't walk, to Tia Julia at the corner of 68th and Roosevelt for a Cemita for one of the more serious sandwiches ever. And under the 7 train/LIRR there are usually 3 carts, the tamale cart which is great, and two mexican carts. The one that DOESN'T say "sabor mexicana" is the good one.

And 1 block south of the 61st st 7 stop is a new thai shabu shabu place that's supposed to be really good.

dan, part of the reason why I was really looking forward to this is that I read all your posts about woodside while doin research! (brooklyn v. queens thread and this one) will def be asking you for advice in the future!

gf really clicked w/ the people too. sooo stoked.

I can tell you all the bad parts too, but mostly you only miss the ability to walk to places like Book Court on Court St. or that bookstore on bedford or go to a bar like Daddy's or something. It's cheap, it's friendly, it's diverse and it's convenient. That little intersection, which I call "downtown Woodside", I mean, it's not every neighborhood in NY where you have your bank, a butcher, several different ethnic groceries, dry cleaners etc, all within a block or two.

yeah it looks lovely (google streeview is my friend)

gf also raving about how cheap it is around those parts.

gah. so excited. now I just need warm clothes. I own like two sweaters and am moving on 12/1.

You guys should go see this if it ever comes your way: http://thefilmdesk.com/combat/Export1.htm. With Jean-Louis Trintignant and Romy Schneider in her first grown-up role, after all the Sissis.

Oops. Wrong thread. What I meant to post on this thread was, no walks along the Promenade, to add to the bad parts. You could always go walk along Flushing Bay if you want, but it's pretty funky when the tide is out.

And yeah, no Book Court, so you will learn to love your local library. And the Flushing branch, now open 9-9, six days a week.

And you should try to go to the Jazz Masters concert at Flushing Town Hall on Friday. http://www.flushingtownhall.org/events/?cat_id=1002

Actually there is one bookstore in Jackson Heights, a nice little Spanish-language place called Barco de Papel on 80th Street near Roosevelt. Used to be just a kids bookstore, but the guy stepped it up a little when the Spanish language bookstores on 14th Street went under. Guy can be kind of grumpy but he listens to WBGO and is happy if you talk to him about jazz.

http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2007/11/28/2007-11-28_latino_bookstores_turning_the_page.html

Maybe I should have saved all this stuff for the Brooklyn vs. Queens thread.

There's another spanish-language book store on roosevelt about a block up from Donovans, but I can't buy the giant Gasoline Alley Sundays reprint book there.

I love woodside!

roommates are super nice - picked me up from the airport, our room is giganticccc, and has a great view, we're super close to the subway.

we got amazingly lucky, cause compared to the other stuff in our price-range this place is a palace. we're still in awe.

Cool. Post to the bklyn vs queens thread or let's start a new one to discuss queens eats or whatever!

general apt-hunting question: do you guys think its better to grab a place early in the month, based on the possibility that all the good stuff w/ a nov. 1 lease will get snapped up early? or does it pay to be more patient?

i always felt like if you didn't have to be out of your current place it's best to wait and find something you really like and have a great feeling about.

yeah i gotta be out by nov 1, theyre already showing the apt

If that’s the case and you’ve found something that suits your needs, you gotta snatch that shit up. fuck leaving it up to fate later in the month. It’s gonna get cold soon yo

there was something in the paper about vacancies being v. low, too

Apt search was bonkers but we seem to have found a place. Everything we made an appointment to see would get snapped up before we could even get there, so first thing we liked we just took.

Q: Should I feel any duty to tell people who come see my current apartment about problems, e.g. recent break-ins in my bldg?

if there is reason to believe the problems are building-specific and not neighborhood-specific, sure

if anyone is looking i highly recommend my broker/landlord carroll gardens realty. i just went in today and re-signed my lease, had no increase in my rent from last year, AND they had the office cat do tricks for me (he sits on command and gives high fives). they are seriously the nicest people.

before i found my place last summer i was jerked around a bunch by brick realty who took three deposits from me on apartments that all fell through and in one case they cashed the deposit check even though i didn't get the apartment!

were looking, it sucks, new york sucks, apartments suck, i hate this

Career change time. "Esteemed visiting lecturer Maximilian R. Esq...."

a friend is moving out of a large 1 br in jackson hts:

http://www.elliman.com/new-york-city/35-15-84-street-unit-2e-queens-hwyihxm

brick is how we found the current apartment that we're moving out of actually, although it was a no-fee at that time. I mean generally I find agents to be useless though, at least the ones who rent lower-end places (I imagine that if you're interested in 15K/month lofts you get better treatment).

FWIW, I don't think anyone rented my place yet. If you want to pay imho way too much money ($2525/mo now) to live in a 2BR at the butt-ugly crossroads of Williamsburg, Bushwick and Greenpoint, let me know

I do think it's partly a building-specifc problem. Front-door is not very secure and the locks on the apartments are easy to force (my wife did it by accident the other day trying the wrong door). '

$2525/mo to live in a 2BR at the butt-ugly crossroads of Williamsburg, Bushwick and Greenpoint

!!!

To be clear, that's the whole apartment rent. Still.

I know that neighborhood. I worked for someone on Cooper Park for a while. That's about what she paid too...

It's just... Brooklyn. Prelapsarian, arcadian living

carroll gardens realty

haha presumably you did not deal with 'frank' or he'd still be trying to get in yr pants. tbf he got us a good place that was not otherwise on the market, tho

he let you move into his apartment?

I know that neighborhood. I worked for someone on Cooper Park for a while. That's about what she paid too...

― elan, Sunday, July 8, 2012 6:13 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh was it that newish building right on the park with the montessori school? They have a doorman and a pool and a fitness center iirc, it's schmancier than our building.

Anyway there ain't shit arcadian about my busted block.

barcadian

btw how are y'all looking? Broker? Streeteasy/craigslist/trulia? I mean hopefully the apt I applied for comes through and I don't have to look anymore but I have a weird feeling and I might wind up having to look more.

It seems like there's so few listings right now, idgi.

People are still calling about seeing my place so I guess they didn't rent it out yet. I feel like people are gonna feel sticker shock at first but ultimately someone will take it, most likely a roommate situation (I guess two people with ok jobs who don't care about saving money can afford $1250/mo each).

I'd say that's a better than okay job, that's more than my entire paycheck and my job isn't shitty!

I mean lol publishing and everything but still that is outrageous.

Yeah IDGI. We seem to be the only people in the building with a baby and among the oldest at 32.

Maybe students living on loans? Otherwise mom & dad seem to be the only answer. We did have a few people show up to look at it with mom. But it's not exactly a location a mother could love - there's nothing commercial for two very long blocks except a laundromat, a convenience store, and a bizarre warehouse that sells knock off toys on the sidewalk. All the buildings are tagged up to the hilt, and not with the *hip* kind of graffiti. Giant projects on the other side of the park and a few blocks in the other direction as well. Boarded-up crackhouse looking buildings on both cross-streets. I mean honestly I don't see why someone wouldn't just live in Bushwick proper over my buidling, much cheaper and only a couple L stops further in.

One group wanted to try to do three people. There's sort of an office-like *nook* that you could wall off and make a small br I guess.

moving sucks. i feel blessed that i live in a v nice place now, after living in pretty crappy places for most of my time in NY. i hope i never have to move. signing a new two year lease and it's only gonna increase the rent a hundred bucks or so total.

Ugh just fucking approve my application already. JFC.

(trying to rent in a co-op bldg)

carroll gardens realty

haha presumably you did not deal with 'frank' or he'd still be trying to get in yr pants. tbf he got us a good place that was not otherwise on the market, tho

ha, no one has tried to get in my pants! i worked mostly with mike though. and valentino the cat.

ian that's good to hear!

i love my place too. signing on for another year was such a relief. moving suxxxx

I don't love my place, but I hate moving.

Fun for the future:

City officials unveiled a competition Monday to develop a new breed of teensier, tinier “micro-units” even more cramped than what is generally built today. “We’re inviting the private sector to creatively answer this challenge: Come up with innovative models for buildings that offer apartments with new, smaller floor plans ... that will produce attractive apartments with competitively priced rents,” said Bloomberg, announcing the plan at the American Institute of Architects’ Center for Architecture.

The competition invites developers to bid for the right to build a new apartment building on a city-owned parking lot at 335 E. 27th St. in Kips Bay without the usual zoning restrictions on size and density. Under the guidelines, at least 75 percent of the units must be micro-units, which are expected to measure between 275 and 300 square-feet — significantly smaller than the the 400 square-foot minimum typically allowed under current zoning rules, city planning officials said.

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20120709/kips-bay/bloomberg-launches-competition-make-studio-apartments-even-smaller

in my old building there was a studio on each floor that was like 8x15

As an adult pushing 40, there is no way I would willingly move into a living space smaller than my freshman, junior or senior year dorm rooms

ah yes, let the market fix the lack of affordable housing in new york. sensible.

thats how it works in most of the country and housing is affordable the thing that diff abt new york and other similarly expensive places is the intensity of zoning/regulation - basically its more expensive and time consuming to build tall apt buildings than need be is the reason why housing is so expensive

did you guys know that in the UK, if you lose your job, the government will pay your rent for you until you find a new job?

just throwin that out there

sure sure some magical land called 'the UK'

basically its more expensive and time consuming to build tall apt buildings than need be is the reason why housing is so expensive

IMO the reason rents are so expensive here is because it's 'new york city' so there is always any number of ppl from Munich or Japan or Charlotte willing to pay the asking price to live here.

well there are not infinity people in the world so that theory kinda breaks down at some point

it should, I just don't think that point has been reached yet.

no it breaks down right away is the point, theres plenty of space in new york for new housing, and its not getting built even tho existing housing is v expensive, so why is that

existing housing in the 15% of new york under consideration, you mean

naturally

tho tbf rents in bay ridge are not exactly cheap either

I think micro-dormy units for singles make a lot of sense. I watched three 20-somethings try to figure out how they'd split up my current 2-bedroom, and I'll bet at least one or two of them would be happier without roommates.

Living alone is a must for me. Living in an egg carton, maybe not.

If two of us were ok in 400 square feet for three years, I'm sure one person can survive in 300.

300 square feet is a lot of space for 1 person idk how much room do you need to be plugged in to your computer anyway

NYC micro units: poop sock included

i think 300 sq ft would feel a lot more livable if there was more public/semi-public space in the city and the outside-of-the-apartment space was generally more friendly to actual people and not cars

my old apt was like 375 and it was p comfortable for one guy tho i never had a table that was not my desk to eat at which always felt a lil degraded

i think 300 sq ft would feel a lot more livable if there was more public/semi-public space in the city and the outside-of-the-apartment space was generally more friendly to actual people and not cars

also if you are not working out of your home (I have a good friend who has a 325 sq ft place that he also works out of and he basically cannot invite anyone over to his place; I don't think we've been inside of it in about 3-4 years because he doesn't have enough space to segregate his work stuff from his living space)

lol midwest living sensibilities will never die, I guess

I fit 7 ppl into the 80 square feet apartment I lived in once

people stack up real nice once you chop off the ends

it doesn't count if they are from Jengaopolis

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/thingstodo/marx-bros.jpg

I lived in an 80-square-foot apartment once, but it was 2x40, so it had a really nice, open feel.

A loft, if you will.

Well, we got the place. Whew.

xps micro units sound rad in theory but yeah, seems like there is a good chance that they won't actually be very affordable

is there another good housing thread on ilx? i'm not from ny but lag∞n is veering into some conservative think tank/ed glaeser bullshit with his whole 'regulations are why housing is expensive' trip

Oh is it that time again already?

People Who Live In Suburbs: Classy, Icky, or Dudes?

is there another good housing thread on ilx? i'm not from ny but lag∞n is veering into some conservative think tank/ed glaeser bullshit with his whole 'regulations are why housing is expensive' trip

― akadarbarijava (psychgawsple), Tuesday, July 10, 2012 3:27 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you have no idea what youre talking abt

clearly any critique of any regulation must be some think tank/ed glaeser bullshit -- a who has thoughts on the internet

haha, i knew this would get weird super fast, and i knew ppl had already discussed this somewhere

you drop a lil 'conservative think tank/ed glaeser bullshit' comment re a topic you know nothing abt and things get weird super fast what is the world coming to

*shrugs*

heh i think psychgawsple does know some stuff fwiw

who is psychgawsple

i'm certainly not saying all regulations are the same, and none should be critiqued! but there is way too much literature that clumps all of them together and your post was prob more reductionist than your actual views but it def irked me quite a bit (intensity of regulation =/ type of regulation)

well you certainly expressed yourself well

ya i mean i don't feel the need to like prove my credentials to you but come now that comment was actually v similar to something glaeser/guyorko would argue, esp from someone who has not participated in any housing discussions on ilx and might not understand the subtleties of your actual thoughts

Good timing, I was just about to get bored with the internet.

lol no it was not be srs and then you come back w/the faux naive i knew thing were gonna get weird and then well yr post was more reductionist than your actual views, you know whos post was reductionist, it was yours

calling out zoning specifically was key

all we need itt now is iatee

he's prob stuck in traffic

i mean the idea that housing gets more expensive when its rare and their are regulations that contribute to it being rare is completely uncontroversial and not conservative think tank bullshit, its just like obvious

genuine irl lol

(xpost)

glaeser and guyorko think that housing is affordable in most of the country because there is a lack of market regulation, they also think that intensity of regulation is directly correlated with housing cost, pls explain how equating your comment to their views is reductionist

lots of people think that tho!

not just conservative think that bullshit people

i mean the idea that housing gets more expensive when its rare and their are regulations that contribute to it being rare is completely uncontroversial and not conservative think tank bullshit, its just like obvious

this does not mean that getting rid of reg's will solve problems, it means that those reg's are designed to keep housing rare and different ones with different priorities wld have different results

there's a lot of specific discussion about this in the icky suburbs thread, but the regulations that usually get called out are those that restrict building heights, restrict mixed use development, and set *minimums* for things like parking spaces per unit, empty space between lots, and general space per person/unit. not really conservative stuff.

xxpost

so mostly the regulations that get called out are those that encourage sprawl and discourage density.

no one has called out the general broad concept of *regulations* as an inherent evil.

this does not mean that getting rid of reg's will solve problems, it means that those reg's are designed to keep housing rare and different ones with different priorities wld have different results

― akadarbarijava (psychgawsple), Tuesday, July 10, 2012 4:10 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

youll have to point me to the post where i advocate doing away w/all regulation

did I miss the point where lag∞n said "we should get rid of regulations", because I don't remember him actually saying that

^ called out by whom? this is reasonable, but the phrase i reacted to was 'intensity of regulations', not 'subpar regulations' or like 'regulations designed to protect prop owner elites' or w/e. this distinction is the distinction lots of ppl fail to make, so i apologize for not reading the suburbs thread first but that is sorta what i was reacting to

im sry you have to suggest a replacement phrase thats less than 200% longer or youre veering into conservative think tank/ed glaeser bullshit because theyre bad at writing

lol

but srsly i bet if you replaced the entire regulatory scheme re building in ny w/an ideal one it would have fewer rules and be less intense, cause just over time they tend to pile up

thats how it works in most of the country and housing is affordable the thing that diff abt new york and other similarly expensive places is the intensity of zoning/regulation - basically its more expensive and time consuming to build tall apt buildings than need be is the reason why housing is so expensive

basically, "ny is expensive because of intense regulation, other places are affordable because of fewer regulations." i never said you were advocating for no regulation, just pointing out that regulation type or the intent of that regulation is more important than intensity, which seems as though it's something you'd agree with?

you're prob right about things accumulating over time, it's not bad to streamline but my god is it a pain to make even minute changes to zoning codes, esp in a place like ny

im willing to admit that intensity was not the most precise word but i imho regulations are prob both too many and the wrong ones, tho obvs at some point the distinction gets a lil blurry, like if you have a regulation that both the person who thinks there are too many regulations and the person who thinks we just need better regulations want to get rid of it amounts to the same thing, then i dont know what you do like weigh their respective plans to make sure theyve kept to their idealogical guns

and its worth recalling that a lot of the best things were built in a era of fewer zoning regulations, tho obvs im not willing to go to bat for the worker safety standards of 1920s or w/e new york

i mean, even in the UK a lot of people are equating zoning/planning with barriers to affordable housing, regardless of the type or intent of that planning/zoning, and there is a very strong "planning is bad, let the free market handle things" mentality that is extremely popular and extremely short-sighted and has already been pretty detrimental

i want to be able to buy a building and then build a lil house on top of it w/o an hassle from the man basically

Little House on the Skyscraper

howbout instead of regulations we say 'laws', I am pretty sure nobody itt thinks there should be no laws, laws are useful, not all laws tho, some are bad.

'planning is bad' when planning is bad, which is a lot of the time.

and its worth recalling that a lot of the best things were built in a era of fewer zoning regulations, tho obvs im not willing to go to bat for the worker safety standards of 1920s or w/e new york

well yeah, zoning basically created a monoculture of building types and wasn't exactly created with the intent of protecting people who lived/worked in unsafe conditions

I think most people here are probably totally cool with, like, building regulations that are safety codes, maintenance requirements, clearly outlined responsibilities for property owners, laws outlining compliance with rent control/stabilization, prohibiting discriminatory housing practices, clearly outlining tenants' rights, etc.
prob just cuz the suburbs thread is a fave that is close to my heart I read "regulations" as "zoning regulations" when people on here talk about planning/housing etc.

xxxpost

i think there should be no laws... for me

portland isn't exactly perfect but we would prob let you build a little house on top of a skyscraper fwiw

there are prob ADUs in ny tho too

'planning is bad' when planning is bad, which is a lot of the time.

otm

just for you, lag∞n

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7ZUAGg358M

did Portland finally get a skyscraper

anyway i am sry for turning this thread into the suburbs thread its better as a place to bitch abt finding an apt in ny which does truly suck then for figuring out why

ha dan thats a really out there song

also i think there are too many laws

I don't know about skyscrapers, but my friends in Portland have rats.

no rats in new york tho

yes, nyc is clearly winning when it comes to rat-free living environs

ever accidentally kick a rat, what a horrifying experience

not in my apartment. they're fine on the subway tracks.

xxp

(or, u know, in your apartment)

we had a lil mouse in our last apartment, the last month we lived there

i had a few mouses over the years

BTW iatee, I have been kind of wanting to kick up another argument with you about the renting/owning thing, because one of the big downsides of majority renting is the kind of instability created by overheated rental markets like the current one (in NYC especially but nationally to a lesser extent) -- i.e. people wind up having to move every couple of years, which is extraordinarily disruptive to family and community life. I mean owning is the only way out of the milennia-old problem of being at the mercy of the landlord class.

me had meese too. found a real dried-up one in the summer.

i kept telling myself 'i should catch that lil guy'

I think most people here are probably totally cool with, like, building regulations that are safety codes, maintenance requirements, clearly outlined responsibilities for property owners, laws outlining compliance with rent control/stabilization, prohibiting discriminatory housing practices, clearly outlining tenants' rights, etc.

the reason i prob reacted so strongly is because i think other codes are boring and usually my mind just skips to inclusionary zoning as a regulation that developers want to do away with and we actually don't have that here. so score at least one small win for ny housing regulations

A lot of people are not cool with rent control/rent stabilization though, and I think there is a reasonable argument to be made against them, at least as they are implemented.

they are absurd as far as how they work irl in new york for sure

tho obvs they dont comprise the whole of inclusionary zoning

yea rent control is a weird, weird thing that could prob be designed better but prob never will

rent control is different than inclusionary zoning

had 2 little mice living in an apt of mine in seattle, then one morning found one of them drowned in a bowl of water in the sink. looked so sad. felt just awful for the mouse's friend. scooped it out with a spoon. :(

well rent stabilization at least how it works in ny i think falls under the heading of inclusionary zoning as like when you build a new building x% of apts have to be rent stabilized based on w/e factors

BTW iatee, I have been kind of wanting to kick up another argument with you about the renting/owning thing, because one of the big downsides of majority renting is the kind of instability created by overheated rental markets like the current one (in NYC especially but nationally to a lesser extent) -- i.e. people wind up having to move every couple of years, which is extraordinarily disruptive to family and community life. I mean owning is the only way out of the milennia-old problem of being at the mercy of the landlord class.
--click here if you want to load them all (Hurting 2)

well meet me in the burbs thread in like an hour

but ya, sorry for mucking up this thread with stuff that should prob go on the suburbs thread. i guess i never clicked on that because i thought it was more like a 's/d - suburban life' kind of thing

everyone lets go click on that thread now

well meet me in the burbs thread in like an hour

― iatee, Tuesday, July 10, 2012 5:05 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If you're not too chicken.

yea rent control is a weird, weird thing that could prob be designed better but prob never will
--akadarbarijava (psychgawsple)

it could be designed better as 'get rid of constraints to large buildings'

I think rent stabilization would be better if it bore a little more relation to the market. Like what it ought to do is smooth out the bumps by preventing sudden sharp increases in overheated markets. And I think it should cover everything, as opposed to the two-tiered system we have now, or it should only exist where tied to income.

Hello, all.

Those of you happy to live in a biggish studio in Windsor Terrace (16th Street) should look up my college friend S1m3on's place on Craigslist - it looks pretty good from the glance I've had. He is the landlord/owner. There's an open house on Saturday and he wants a new tenant for 1 August. If anyone likes it, let me know here and I may be able to subvert the process.

^this is the type of post this thread could use more of

Whoa Windsor Terrace is pricier than I thought. Damn. Everything is pricier than I thought.

I mean I get that it's on the park but I figured being stranded so far out in F/G land would depress rents a lot.

yeah, that mighta been useful to me if it had been for July 1.

lol, "stranded so far out in F/G land"

xpost u probably want sunset park for that iirc

I have been stranded there since they kicked all the middle class outta Pk Slope.

Having the F/G is almost like living near the subway.

Hurting, you do realize that apartment is practically in Park Slope? It's 2 blocks from the main drag.

ie, I am 3 stops further out and am paying almost the same figure for a studio.

oh no I didn't mean the apt I was commenting on WT in general. Just didn't realize market rents there were so high now.

they should have all the "middle class" outta Brooklyn by 2022, I think.

Ain't you heard son? Mill Basin is where it's at now. Or as I like to call it, Free Basin

i take a rowboat to work now, i make my own mayo, downtown brooklyn seems a distant dream

My friend is a Brooklyn native, from Sheepshead Bay. He is totally ILX apart from the whole 'owns rentable property in NYC' thing, and would probs be a very nice landlord.

Sobro rowboat, bro. No dobro mayo.

Now I bet you there's some CHEAP rents in Sheepshead Bay!

#yolo

I dunno about that, but I live in a carved out sheepshead floating in a bay, and my rent is pretty cheap.

otm

Suzy, I'm moving to New York (from Australia) to work at the NYU Langone medical centre, 333 East 29th St. Would this be an appropriate location for me? I'm finding the whole finding a place to live in NYC deal kind of intimidating. Should probably stop reading this thread.

i recommend subletting at first and waiting to find a more permanent place til you have the lay of the land, much less stressful greater chance of success that way

getting sublets is actually not that hard as long as you dont mind hanging out on someone elses furniture

Cool, thanks!

ya mang craigslist and airbnb r prob yr best resources

last time i was in new york i rented a place on airbnb & it was a p good xp - there are quite a few listings across a decent range of prices and it seems a little more secure than craigslist

ya its a p sweet service, i got a place for a month off it over the winter, its nice it has short stay stuff and longer like month to month sublets - craigslist def involves a lil more trust

also fwiw my bf and i used airbnb to rent a place in paris and got like an insanely good deal, there didnt seem to quite the same caliber of bargains in nyc but its still slightly below market for a month rental if you hunt

insanely good deals in paris airbnb are prob the ones on the metro but outside of the city borders, cause a lotta people would be scared off

how did airbnb not happen sooner

ya that is kinda weird

there were def a bunch of services that overlapped w/it but none quite hit the sweet spot

you know what I think it is - if cl had turned into a corporate giant it prob would have naturally gone that route, but instead it owns the market for most of these things but doesn't attempt to coordinate much

ha yes craigslist is so awesome and weird

if youve never read this article do yrself a favor, it is delightful http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magazine/17-09/ff_craigslist?currentPage=all

insanely good deals in paris airbnb are prob the ones on the metro but outside of the city borders, cause a lotta people would be scared off

haha i think i told you abt the place but we were like 12-15 min walk from gard du nord so in a 'bad nabe' but not like that far from the center. anything in those kind of nabes is a total steal i think but also sometimes w/airbnb people just want to make some money back when they have to leave their apts empty i remember we saw a really big 1bdr in the 6th for like $350 a week but the guy was only renting it for times we couldnt go

Do you guys have a feel for when to look on airbnb in earnest, if I was looking to sublet for about a month?

unless you're not moving until 2013 or s.thing you can start looking now really there are often places up 6+ months in advance

ya even if its early youll get a sense of what prices are like etc

i mean id just surf the shit out of airbnb, use hopstop or w/e to figure out what your commute would be like, read up on neighborhoods etc, educate ones self

i posted this in another thread already but found out the bldg had bedbugs lastnyear. the problem was on fl 2 and we're supposed to be on floor five. reason not to take it?

that craigslist article really makes me hate those guys cause they are so smug and sure that their success comes from having a good and simple product when really the product is terrible and they've just surfed a massive network effect. I guess fb could take over but their attempts all seem so half-hearted. I actually found an apt on the fb market years ago, but it as a total fluke thing.

I would take it

you hate them because they dont know why theyre successful, smh

I miss Loot.

gotta figure out whether to stay in a cheap large and reliable 2 bedroom in boring flatbush where no one ever visits, or consider a move to a different cheap (really!) 1 br + office (?) in williamsburg, where I'll be by all my friends, but will prob have to move in 2 years (person is renting it out while they are in LA).
stick with the safe* boring bet or try the new thing that will likely not be permanent?

*safe meaning reliable, not uh safe from crime

not safe from HIPSTERS right guys

new impermanent thing!

Flatbush is not that bad, I don't think! I was just down that way last night.

two years is p permanent, also the person will prob never come back at which point you have yr own reasonably priced apt in hot location

But two years is plenty of time to live somewhere! That's longer than lots of people stay in a rental, right?

xp yeah that!

i have never lived for two years in a nyc apt

NSFH

i have never lived for two years in a nyc apt

u mad. I hate moving.

also hate searching

yeah I was actually thinking 2 years is not that bad. I mean I haven't even been in the current place that long, but after hearing all the stories in this thread about rising rents and forced moves... !

think you guys are prob right about this one
don't really mind flatbush at all except that it SUCKS coming home late at night from wburg or wherever. hour and half on the train or an expensive cab ride, ugh. and I'd like to be able to get a nice drink in my own hood.

(two years *could* mean one year. it's a little uncertain)

who tf goes to l.a. for a year, why would they ever some back, come on

I guess the other question is whether you really need that second bedroom. Although the office in a 1BR + office is probably essentially just a small 2nd bedroom with no closet.

our 2nd bedroom is small and has only served as an art studio. my gf will probably want to get a separate studio in the next year anyway.

our current place is so big we had no idea what to do with it when we first moved in.
had a living room mostly full of garbage.

I would be pretty open to moving if I was still single and travelling light. Now it sucks.

But yeah, a cheap place in Williamsburg is hard to turn down. I mean I know it's easy to complain about now but I think the Bedford area has become nice in a sort of West Villagey kind of way, especially when you get off of Bedford. I don't know anything about Flatbush.

Man, knowing someone is like the only way to get a decent place in this city. I'm glad we're moving to a much cheaper place that's about the same size (although 1BR instead of 2), and I like that I'll have a good commute and that things are more well suited for having a baby and such, but still living half a block from queens boulevard is not exactly my ideal. We almost had a better place through a connection, but it turned out the guy only wanted to rent it fully furnished, and he had tons of furniture in there, and we have our own furniture including baby furniture so it wasn't going to work. I often feel like my next move will just be the fuck out of New York but I always have some reason not to move.

The years I've lived in my NYC apts:

2, 1, 11, 2, 4

(except for the 1 year -- sorta hellish roommate sit on the LES -- they've all been Brooklyn. Obv the 11-year place in Park Slope is the one where I was FORCED to move.)

my apartment spans were 3 yrs (Astoria) and 6 yrs (current place in Prospect Heights). we're probably moving by the end of the year. either farther out in Brooklyn on the Q (Windsor Terrace etc) or somewhere in Queens like Jackson Heights or LIC.

3yrs, 7yrs

1 yr, 4 yrs (both Jersey City), 3 years (student housing), 1 yr.

1 yr, 1 yr, current place for nearly 2 but not quite. were looking to move again soon, hopefully to a place we can stay a long time

3 years, 2 years (outside of nyc), 6 years, now buying a place, which i have to keep remiding myself is different than signing a 30 year lease.

Haha.

Uh...4 yrs, 3 years, 1 yr, 1 yr, 1 yr, 1 yr, and now in 2nd year at the new place.

There were a bunch of not-full-year moves in there, too, when I stayed on someone's couch for a month or whatever. It's been a rough half-decade.

Were most of those moves rent increases?

I can at least say that this is our first one of those. In Jersey City our first move was just not liking our illegal loft situation, second was because I went back to school (we had an awesome landlord who was renting our place to us at way below market). Last move was because I FINISHED school. But this one is an affordability thing.

6 yrs

This mom came with her five year old to buy something from us off craigslist, and she was like "Yeah I used to live in Williamsburg. Then I lived in Greenpoint. Then I lived in Fort Greene. Then I lived in Clinton Hill. Now I live in Bed Stuy" and I was just thinking how much I don't want that to be my daughter's life. We at least tried to aim low enough with rent that an increase won't kill us.

i imagine she'd be fine, unless you make her move her own stuff

None of mine were rent increases! Leaving the 3-yr place was "crazy landlord who yells at us in the hallways goes bankrupt and loses building, which is collapsing anyway." Leaving the next place was b/c lease-holding roommate got his ex-gf pregnant and wanted to move her in and take my room, so he asked me to move out. The next one was getting out of the unheated, rat-infested loft + personal drama w male roommate, then uh...after a while I found a place with a friend, but after a year with her she said my boyfriend wasn't welcome in the apt and I would have to choose between them: either him or her. I did not choose her. And so on.

oh yeah: ROOMMATE-FREE SINCE '95

As it turns out I should have chosen NEITHER of them, which explains the move after that. Oh no wait I forgot about Midwood--actually there should be a "3 mos" in there after the string of singles.

So two years! That's like forever!

:-( laurel

Seriously. I love my roommate. Have you met him? You should!

leaving Astoria was partly because of a rent increase, didn't make it unaffordable but was more than we thought we should be paying in Astoria. we wanted to move to Brooklyn anyway.

where are you going in brooklyn for cheaper than astoria?

well that's true. that's what I meant that it wasn't really an affordability thing but when our landlord in Queens raised the rent we started looking elsewhere.

9 years and counting. Rent controlled in Wmsburg, cold dead hands, etc.

i wouldn't say that too loud

lol

I wouldn't want an apartment with cold dead hands but different strokes etc

U know if my wife and i turn up dead it was Dermot Realty Management that done it.

i've never lived in a place in ny more than 2 years but i hope this current place is "the one" (that i live in for at least 3 years).

when i list out all the places i've lived it makes me sound like a drifter :/

xp me too, i'm in my second year at a place and do not want to have to move for the forseeable future, unless it's out of NY.

1 year in south slope

3 years in cobble hill

3 years in boerum hill

6+ years in woodside

After 6 years the rent for my 2 br in Woodside is still less than what the people who moved into my 1+ bedroom in boerum hill were paying 6 years ago.

DMR, forget LIC, it is sooo bad. You know I'd say don't forget Woodside/Sunnyside, but we have the Queens thread for that.

yeah there is like one half a grocery store in lic

10 months in greenpoint
6 months in midtown (decrepit factory loft)
1 year in carroll gardens
1.5 years in red hook
10 months in astoria
1 year in williamsburg
2 years in crown heights
2 years on upper east side
just renewed lease for y2 in carroll gardens again

i at least seem to be trending towards staying in places longer

you should write a screenplay about your transition from being a crown heights girl to a queen of the upper east side

this is the kinda stuff where this thread shines. the nyc apt rental *real dirt*.

haha my ues side place was LESS than the crown heights place. the ues rents were crazy low in 2009 on account of half of wall st losing their jobs. i was actually priced out of my apartment in crown heights, they wanted to raise the rent $100!

plus i was working up there, so i saved money on subway fare. it mostly sucked though (aside from the bagels and the park).

as a recent transplant I was like 2 months prospect lefferts (with relatives), 2 months bed stuy (myrtle willoughby), 1 month outer edge of sunset park (really 24th & 4th, and really mostly with my girlfriend in clinton hill), and then here, flatbush.
I hate moving, but I'll hate it a lot more when I finally get my records shipped out from CA some year or another.

where was the UES place? I kinda like a lot of that area, especially along 1st.

87th between york and east end. it's really quiet and peaceful over there, which appealed to me after living on a really busy corner in crown heights with a firestation up the street.

it's less peaceful these days w/ 2nd avenue subway construction

I used to work round there. I like it, feels a lot more old timey manhattan but the area is gonna change drastically.

yeah old timey is what appealed I guess. just sort of seemed like 'normal' city, which I like. dense, not too chic, normal bars.

i like boring stuff

DMR, forget LIC, it is sooo bad.

yeah there is like one half a grocery store in lic

huh well yeah we'll probably cross that one off. that was the situation when we looked at LIC in 2006 or whatever but I thought the neighborhood would have happened a little more since then. guess not. it is pretty industrial feeling over there when you walk around. so close to manhattan though!

so is sunnyside!

oh god the ues bars were so awful. the only establishment i really miss be close to is a japanese place called gajamaru.

oh and the aspca with the cat window!

there was a fat cat in the window of the vet on henry between carroll and first, but he/she is gone now.

this thread is horribly horribly depressing, i should stop reading it!

I didn't look a lot but I'm pretty sure UES rents are cheaper than Williamsburg now, although not cheaper than the way east part of williamsburg we live in. If it were a little cheaper I'd probably move there over Queens - it'd be the sweetest commute.

anything that's happened in LIC has been for the worse. There's a good coffee shop, some sort of eastern european chimney cakes place that's cool, but not a whole lot else. The Creek and the Cave which has burritos and comedy but I've never been. Some more really nice and expensive markets for the people in the skyscrapers and some kind of asian fusion.

When we were moving to queens we compared LIC to Sunnyside/Woodside/Jackson Heights and the decision was easy. At the time we knew LIC had some cool stuff, the occasional art thing, Dutch Kills, PS1 etc, but not much else. These neighborhoods (and Astoria as you know) at least have lots of life. Banks and dry cleaners and diners and restaurants and whatnot. You can always hop on the 7 and go to LIC for Warm-Up or whatever.

They couldn't even keep M Wells!

they are tearing down 5 pointz soon and what replaces it will prob make the neighborhood more of a neighborhood but who knows

I don't really like brooklyn bars. they're all kinda corny playspaces. car grill hanging on the wall or bowling or pinball or some stupid thing. dumb lighting, cheeseball menus. coming from sf, I just want bars that are tiny, narrow, kinda crowded and have a juke box and decent beer/cheap cocktails.
manhattan is all sports bars or upscale stuff??

there are many bars like you describe in brooklyn, and manhattan

where I'm coming from with bars

name names! I feel like I'm always kinda making do!

what neighborhoods

any downtown manhattan neighborhoods, and anything between there and flatbush. so prospect heights, fort greene, a bit of clinton hill.
right now I visit one park slope place by a photo lab I use (5th and 12th), and otherwise just stop in for a beer wherever. used to stop by white slab for an early drink before it closed. liked white star for strictly cocktails. kinda like daddy's but it's actually a bit too roomy for me? but that kinda thing. when I'm on bedford I'll go to the soft spot. I like tavern on jane in the west village.

bars without tvs

off the top of my head monas, blue and gold, international, big bar in the east village - the alibi in ft greene - johnnys in the west village - these are all kinda charming dive bars which is k what it sounded like you were talking abt originally but now after your examples im not quite sure, anyway i vouch for them - i could picture some of them in sf

the bars on the ues are all corny sports bars with stupid basketball machines.

try mini bar in carroll gardens! it's tiny and unadorned.

none of them are v wide xp

lag∞n don't you live in new brunswick or something now

ha my info may be a couple years out of date, im p sure all those places r still there

tile bar in the east village i think fits your description

(you can still recommend bars, tho, thx!)

and tbf when i really put my time in at those establishments was quite a while ago thank jesus

I just want bars that are tiny, narrow, kinda crowded and have a juke box and decent beer/cheap cocktails.

in Prospect Heights your best bet is Washington Commons on Washington Ave. also Woodwork on Vanderbilt can be cool, especially if you like soccer. and Soda Bar is ok.

Freddy's RIP.

xpost ok "no tv" rules out Woodwork it's sports and has flat-screens. but they show mostly like Euro Cup soccer and shit

yeah my examples seemed a bit all over the map when I listed them. I like blue and gold bar though! I'll look the others up.
this kinda of info is in fact very valuable to me!

freddys wouldve been ruled out too because of lurch rip

my pleasure xp

this all makes this thread even more valuable of course. much appreciated.

(and I am aware of the vaguely bay area related bar on 4th ave in brooklyn)

pacific standard

some guy tried to fight me in the blue and gold once because i was talking to girls he was with, totally just being friendly shooting the shit not doing any sort of cool moves, but he didnt want them to know that he was trying to fight me so he was like whispering at me when they were looking the other way, it was v funny and weird, i told my friends what was happening and they were having a hard time believing it

there is a super narrow bar in prospect heights, i live above it, it sucks, it is the worst bar, only go there if you are going to set it on fire

blue and gold, comfy as it is, does have a bit of a bro factor

ya i was on the edge re blue and gold for that reason, but its ok if you go there on off hours, so inexpensive too

good board game selection

i loved the blue&gold circa the late-80s, glad to know it survived

feel like 85% of bars in nyc have a bit of a bro factor

it used to have another bar next door to it w/a polish name that was its mirror image

I dig fire, starting fires, etc.
what bars can you guys recommend? anything cool for that??

feel like 85% of bars in nyc have a bit of a bro factor
this has been my feeling too

maybe you can go every night and just ask the bartender to turn the music down every 5-10 minutes

lot of bros around

maybe u would like heathers on 13th st

yes, it was called Verchovynya or something, didn't like it as much but it was nice to have them side by side
xpost

I love heathers!

i left a sweatshirt there once and was too lazy to go back for it rip

yes, it was called Verchovynya or something, didn't like it as much but it was nice to have them side by side
xpost

― buzza, Thursday, July 12, 2012 11:56 PM (23 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes!

forgot to mention that I guess. ilx connection w/dan selzer et al and dazzle ships.
although that moved now

"et al and" sorry

scratcher on 5th and bowery is kind of narrow iirc?

streetview looks promising

my fave east village bar when i first started going there was joe's bar, i guess it is getting a facelift/new owner

http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/joes-bar-getting-made-over-into-josies-with-a-nod-to-the-past/

lol
http://observer.com/2012/05/its-hip-to-be-square-on-the-upper-east-side/

Between Lexington and the East River, 59th to 99th Streets, the median rent for a studio apartment is $1,900 (median size of 500 square feet), according to data from StreetEasy.com. In Williamsburg, the median studio is going for $2,800 a month, although it will get you a slightly larger space of 602 square feet. (More expensive even than the East Village, where the median studio runs $1,940, with a median size of 452 square feet).

sorry to re-rail but...

they are tearing down 5 pointz soon and what replaces it will prob make the neighborhood more of a neighborhood but who knows

Is totally bonkers. It will be another bland condo for people with boring midtown jobs and maybe the bottom floor will have a Duane Reade, or maybe just maybe a Ramen place or something.

Bars suck.

it's not gonna be 'cool' but a duane reade and more people are basically what that neighborhood needs to be a decent place to live

maybe it will be a cool duane read w/indie beer growlers in it like williamsburg

I mean I like 5 pointz but the area around there is bleak and empty after 5pm and on the weekends

xp

h8 how all the graffiti on there is so neatly spaced, looks dumb

speaking of that area, have you been to lic market? their brunch is really good, they give you this huge plate of mini pastries before you even get your food.

xp

WTF is a bro factor, exactly?

right now I visit one park slope place by a photo lab I use (5th and 12th)

This is my friend's Kentucky-themed (sorta) bar, probably? I show up once a week usu. Nothing wrong with that one.

there are tons and tons of people in LIC. You just don't see them because they have zero interest in queens as a life outside of maybe sunday brunch. I met a girl once who moved to Sunnyside because she couldn't afford LIC. She did her grocery shopping in manhattan. Her gym was in manhattan. Her dry cleaners were in manhattan. She went out after work in manhattan. To me that's what LIC is.

Dutch Kills makes good drinks.

Haven't been to LIC Market. Sage is decent, especially for the area.

you should try it, it's like the only lic restaurant that hasn't been disappointing. get the bulls-eye toast.

but I'm gluten-free. (sad face).

we tried to go a few times I think but it was always some weird hour when it was closed. I think it wasn't serving dinner at some point?

we went to brunch at some New Orleans themed cafe/restaurant in LIC and it was terrible.

oh if you're gluten-free forget about it

the bars on the ues are all corny sports bars with stupid basketball machines.

― john zorn has ruined klezmer for an entire generation (bene_gesserit), Thursday, July 12, 2012 11:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

tbh getting drunk and playing basketball on a stupid basketball machine all night sounds great, I will be getting drunk in an UES bar w/ a stupid basketball machine soon

Between Lexington and the East River, 59th to 99th Streets, the median rent for a studio apartment is $1,900 (median size of 500 square feet), according to data from StreetEasy.com. In Williamsburg, the median studio is going for $2,800 a month, although it will get you a slightly larger space of 602 square feet. (More expensive even than the East Village, where the median studio runs $1,940, with a median size of 452 square feet).

― buzza, Friday, 13 July 2012 04:16 (7 hours ago) Permalink

Wow this is even more stark than I thought. I wonder if it's partly a matter of building stock -- UES has a ton of high rises and a ton of studio apartments. Williamsburg, outside the newer rental buidlings which mostly aren't even that high, has a lot of two or three family houses, most of which wouldn't really have studios unless you divided up a larger apartment in a weird way.

WTF is a bro factor, exactly?

loud fratty kinda dudes? the uncool.

think the bigger factor is the crappy transit. xp

my studio on the ues which was not TINY by studio standards (probably 700 sqft) and in a co-op building with laundry, was $1200 a month. you don't get much cheaper than that anywhere.

bro factor = fans of tosh.0

though, the landlord was asking for $1500 a month for my studio when i moved out in 2011. which incidentally is how much i pay for my huge 1 bedroom in carroll gardens now.

where in c gardens? i would like a 1500 1bdr

dan otm about lic people just wanting to be in manhattan. the coffee shop there is really good though.
my favorite bar, o'connor's, is on 5th ave near flatbush. but very worringly it is currently closed for renovation, it will probably be ruined. plus it's close to the arena which also might ruin it.

max - i'm on luquer st. right by the bqe, not a fancy block but i love my place.

Oh, it's going to be ruined. They're re-conceptualizing it as a sports bar with a roof deck, due to its proximity to the arena.

huh that's red hook to my mind, but I guess carroll gardens was all red hook once according to old locals

http://carrollgardensrealty.com/
these are my beloved landlords, check them out!

it's definitely not red hook - red hook is the other side of the bqe.

Laurel that is some of the saddest news I have ever heard.