Possibly moving to NYC -- Advice?

[The DaveR]

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Neighborhoods - if you are working in the financial district, the upper east side (low 60s through high 80s) is nice and will get you to work in about 15 mins.

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It took me more than 15 minutes to get from E 86th, one block from the express stop, to across the street from Grand Central. If you think a standard UES finance commute is 15 minutes you must own a flying carpet.

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Hahaha, when I read this the first time I thought it said 45 minutes. 15 is majorly hilarious.

Edit: According to Hopstop, if you live literally on top of the 86th St. station it would take 30 minutes to get to 40 Wall.

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Yeah, I forgot to mention that the commute from 86th St includes about a 30 second average wait time for an express train during rush hour.

[turnipmonster]

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15 is majorly hilarious.



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I live 1 subway stop away from wall st and it's a 10 minute commute according to my wife. no way anywhere north of canal is a 15 minute commute, lol.

[turnipmonster]

OP, you should mention how old you are. I live in brooklyn heights which is very very close to financial district.

pros:
- nice neighborhood to walk around, promenade is beautiful, lots of great old buildings.
- lots of restaurants, movie theatres, laundery places, wine shops and stuff like that nearby.
- there are a million subways nearby. I live right next to the 2/3 and A/C, other trains close by are the 4,5,R and F.
- cheaper than manhattan, though not by a whole lot.
- you are looking at a 10-15 minute commute to financial district. on nice days you can walk across the brooklyn bridge home which is pretty fun and nice.
- lots of things within walking distance, like restaurant row on smith st and atlantic ave with great middle eastern groceries restaurants. also you can walk to prospect park in ~30 mins.

cons:
- not very many young people other than college kids, not a great bar scene or anything. I used to live in williamsburg which was much better for going out.
- a lot of the restaurants in brooklyn heights (montague st in particular) aren't very good.

[Evan]

We should make some sort of bet about who can convince the OP to move to their neighborhood.

[oddjob]

i moved to nyc last last year, and spent a few months. my advice. forget the car. if you're just trying it out, get rid of it, or store it.

as an outsider here's my take.

if you are trying it out or only moving there temporarily, move to manhatten. my preference was the e. village, mostly cause a lot of my friends lived or hung out there. nice bars, great places to eat. close to the financial district. young and hip.

i ended up getting a sublet in williamsburg. otherwise known as hipster central. and it is. Karen O from the yeah yeah yeahs, taught thousands of mediocre looking girls that they should think they are much much hotter then they really are. but i'd rather be surrounded by a bunch of hipster douchebags that think they're better then me, then a bunch of post frat boy douchebags that think they're better then me.

it's a very nice neighborhood. close to e. village, and midtown. i worked in midtown and on days the L was working right, the commute was short. on days it didn't, ugh, pure pain.

you're also on the border of greenpoint where a lot of polish people live. you get that mix of little old polish women that are absoulutely tiny, and super tall hot as [censored] polish girls. it kinda makes you wonder if they shrink as they get older. either that, or you thank america for it's growth hormones in the meat and milk.

the food situation here is ok. there are some decent places, if you're going out, but i didn't find that much good stuff to take home and chow down. manhatten is much better for this. our kitchen was tiny and not super clean, so i didn't like cooking there. it's hard to find a greasy spoon diner for breakfast here. on weekends, it's all fancy brunches. there's 1 diner, that was close by, but it absolutely sucked. i would never go there. they coudlnt' get toast right.

it's fairly peaceful in williamsburg. much less noise pollution then manhatten. that's nice.

you can own a car here, but you have to move it like every 2 days, and there weren't that many spots in my hood. parking tickets are not cheap. i think like $135.

night life seemed ok. i didn't really hang out here at night, but there are tons of bars.

when i lived there, they were doing work on the L line, so most weekends it was shut down. i was in between the L and the FV, but weekends when i was closer to the L in manhatten really sucked. on the nights, it's very tough to get a cab, and if they think you're going to brooklyn, bam, they turn their availble lights off. you gotta do [censored] like make it look like you're going to midtown, by standing on the other side of the street. and do not let them kick you out if you tell them you're going to xxx in brooklyn.

i had a good time, and the food there is amazing. i don't really party that much, so it was a fairly mellow time for me. in the end it was too stressful for me.

things that drove me nuts about ny/brooklyn. there is dog [censored] everywhere. people don't pick up after their dogs, and it drives me crazy. there is trash everywhere. it smells. it's always noisy. most people are super cool, but you will run into some miserable [censored] that will make it miserable for everyone, mostly cause you are in a lot of places that are small and full of people. i loved the subways in theory, but hated them in practice.

good luck. and have fun.

[The DaveR]

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but i'd rather be surrounded by a bunch of hipster douchebags that think they're better then me, then a bunch of post frat boy douchebags that think they're better then me.

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Awesome.

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there's 1 diner, that was close by, but it absolutely sucked. i would never go there. they coudlnt' get toast right.

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Hahahahaha. That has to be Kellogg. FWIW, I think the food in Williamsburg is generally very good.

[oddjob]

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but i'd rather be surrounded by a bunch of hipster douchebags that think they're better then me, then a bunch of post frat boy douchebags that think they're better then me.

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Awesome.

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there's 1 diner, that was close by, but it absolutely sucked. i would never go there. they coudlnt' get toast right.

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Hahahahaha. That has to be Kellogg. FWIW, I think the food in Williamsburg is generally very good.

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yes! that's the name. Kellogg. it's absolute [censored].

williamsburg food is good. i didn't go out to eat much, cause, i'd meet friends in manhatten and eat, so when i came home i'd want to pick something up, and there wasn't that much good stuff for that, imo.

[TroutMaskReplica]

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i'd rather be surrounded by a bunch of hipster douchebags that think they're better then me, then a bunch of post frat boy douchebags that think they're better then me.

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nh, this is also my philosophy, i live in williamsburg. rest of your post is good too. yeah the kellogg's diner sucks.

i saw the "real" odd job in an exhibition wrestling bout when was a kid which is a fond but bizarre memory. afterwards they allowed people from the audience could come up and punch him in the stomach hard. i wanted to too and went all the way up to the ring but i was too young.

I agree with folks who are plugging the East Village too - I lived there for a year and if you can handle most likely having a tiny apartment it's great.

[ChipStorm]

Chrisman,

I did 3 tours of duty through NYC over some 15 years, living in Manhattan a couple times, Brooklyn (way out), Jersey City and Stamford, CT. It's fabulous.

New York is infinite, and in your first few months there, your whole viewpoint and mind will change a hundred times on where to live, what to do, etc.

So don't worry about your first choices, just keep your powder dry. Watch your $$$ very carefully, because everything is expensive. Don't commit early to anything very long term, because you'll want to change. And don't burden yourself with any possessions you can do without (car included), because space is item #1 to the "everything is expensive" rule.

My commute was always downtown to the financial district. From the Upper East Side, 45min (incl. walk) from 86th & Lex to Wall. From Jersey City, thirty minutes each way, door to door, crossing the Hudson via the ferry, which is the only civilized mass transit in all of NYC. I have snapshots of the twin towers taken from the ferryboat upper deck on a sunny, beautiful summer day. Jersey City was meh, but damn that ferry was a great commute.

[burningyen]

I live in SoHo. There are (tiny) studios to be found for ~$1700. The neighborhood is touristy but pleasant with great places to eat. The commute to Wall Street shouldn't be more than 25 mins door-to-door. And going out at night usually won't involve a PATH train or $20 cab ride. Is nice.