In which area of New York live to be 'cool'
'24.07.2018'
Everyone remembers the famous phrase by Carey Bradshaw about people who have an apartment overlooking Central Park? The times of the series “Sex in the Big City” are long gone, and everyone here still dreams of such an apartment.
Back in the days of another show, Gossip Girl (just my generation), we all thought New York City was aerobatics living on the Upper East Side.
Today, all the mods of the capital live in the East Village area. The place is really very beautiful, with lots of bars and restaurants.
In fact, the ability to live in Manhattan is already very good in itself (I'm not talking about the north of the island). After all, at the time of Cary, renting it cost her a few hundred dollars. Today they turned into a few thousand.
However, in America there is such a thing as Rent Control. Thus, many of those who now live in popular areas of Manhattan settled there even before the rent skyrocketed, and thanks to this law they pay “pennies”.
Today, people are already proud to say that they live in areas of Brooklyn (Williamsburg), Queens (Long Island City) or even in Jersey City, which is officially considered another state. Manhattan people, of course, look at it with snobbery.
I live in the very Long Island City (not to be confused with Long Island). It used to be considered part of Queens, but soon because of its proximity to Manhattan (5 minutes by metro to Times Square), prices rose and the area turned into itself. Today it is one of the cleanest and safest areas of New York.
What awaits you on the way to your dream apartment in New York
"In New York you are constantly looking for either a job, an apartment, or a boyfriend."
When I finally find a job, I'll let you know. The guy is already there. So while about the apartment.
“What, in fact, is the difficulty?” - you ask. New York is filled with people who want to live in it, so finding something decent for modest money becomes a real chase for gold. In general, the demand for any living space is so great that building managers (here they are called Landlords) can afford to choose. Owners as such, made of blood and flesh, practically do not exist here. Most of the buildings in New York are co-ups (probably a co-op is the most adequate translation), they are owned by corporations, managed and maintained by special companies.
The fun begins when you decide to sign a contract. From this moment on, your life turns into a chase for bank statements, providing credit history, letters from work, etc. Your goal is to prove by hook or by crook that you are a “safe” tenant. Everything is used. Our little family is a nightmare in the eyes of any landlord.
Neither me nor Lukas' husband has:
1. Credit history;
2. Tax history for the last year, which would show that together we earn 60-80K per year;
3. Stable work.
In this regard, we decided to sacrifice the dream of our own apartment and find some room. But even here everything was not easy. In a normal area, the two of you will not be allowed to share the same room (it's just inhuman). There will be an offer to remove another one. That is, more than half of a multi-room apartment. As a result, a "room" will cost the same as a single room. There is no sense.
We got out (as it seemed to us then) by renting an apartment from friends who were moving to Paris. They offered to "live out" for them a month and then renew the contract with the landlord (just call him and make an appointment). When we finally got through to him, it turned out that he knew nothing about us at all, and the guys rented us an apartment without telling him anything. In America, and probably in Russia, it is illegal. A man with a sort of Western European accent yelled at Lucas for a long time and threatened to call the police. The husband decided that he was Russian.
As a result, we were allowed to live until the end of the month, but they refused to sign a contract with us. I had to in a hurry to look for a new home. Fortunately, we are lucky guys. I managed to find a wonderful studio a stone's throw from the university, simply because Lucas was always on the websites and was the first (!) To get through to the broker. They didn't want to hand it over to us because of our background, or rather its complete absence. But something clicked on the landlord Victor, and he agreed! The broker was shocked, said that we are simply unrealistically lucky, they say, this does not happen.
Get ready to pay for a normal apartment in NYC, you will have 3 (!) Times at a time.
1 month rent, a deposit in the amount of one more month and one more month for the services of a broker. You will be given a contract on the 20 page describing the chemical composition of paint on the walls and will be given a container where you will put biodegradable waste, from which you will then make compost. I'm still not very good at recycling. Fortunately, I always have Lucas, in case I forget where to throw the skin off a banana.
