From the NYT
Roommates Divide and Conquer with Temporary Walls
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/realestate/temporary-walls-for-manhattan-roommates.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=mini-moth®ion=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0
26 years old!
Someone please explain the NYC worship to me.
If you don’t get it, it is hard to explain.
The first two years in NYC, D1 shared a one bedroom with a good friend. They put up a wall to make the living room into a second bedroom. They only had a large kitchen as the common place. They were in Union Square and it was close to everything. Both of them were working 80-100 hrs a week, so they were rarely in the apartment at the same time. They moved to a small 2 bedroom in the village for 2 years. Now D1 lives in a large 2 bedroom with her BF. This apartment is very nice and she decorated it beautifully. I think it is a rite of passage for a lot of young people.
D1 is thinking about buying an apartment as an investment to rent out because her current apartment is such a good value.
When I read the OP. All I could think was that the landlord doesn’t know there are four people sharing that apartment. Many do not allow this.
I thought about these kind of places when hearing about the Oakland CA warehouse fire. One of my kids spent a summer in NYC and saw some interesting set-ups when looking at sublets. Some looked very unsafe, sketchier than the ones in the article.
I don’t personally want to live in NYC either, or any other major city. But many millions of people do love big city living and are probably mystified that anyone would choose to live in a suburb. To each their own.
D lives in a non trendy but safe area of Brooklyn. She and SIL have been renting a very nice size one bedroom place for 3 years. They make more now, but didn’t when they first moved in. It’s doable for 2 people.
Reminds me of hacker houses in California http://grist.org/living/hacker-houses-offer-shared-living-for-the-young-green-and-tech-obsessed/
it is a bragging right among many…
“when i lived in NYC I paid 4000 a month for a one bedroom with broken heat and a shared communal bathroom with a 100 year old bathtub two floors down,and it was worth every penny” —you know how many times I have heard a line like that.
I scratch my head every time…and say why?
I was born in NYC and the best thing ever is that my parents moved far away when I was still very young.
That sounds wonderful actually. My cousin the actress lived in what I could only describe as “a basement storage room” for several years. You had to go through a long dungeon-like basement hall to get to it and the first time I saw it I was scared. She painted it very colorfully, was creative with string lights, fabrics, and plants, and the space beyond “the storage door” was given an exotic but cheerful demeanor. There was a toilet but the jimmy-rigged shower was horrible. Her “stove” was a cast off from childhood camping days. But she was right under some gorgeous buildings and it felt fancy as soon as you stepped out the door. She shared it with another girl who was a dancer. That apartment served them well!
the other thing people do with NYC is oooo yeah I grew up on 12th and 18th…no kidding I grew up on 8 and 22nd…I wish my parents kept that apartment.
I am like you people are nuts.
I know Madison ave, wall street, and times square.
DD moved back to NYC from the South in part because all her friends from high school and college were in NYC. She shares a roomy 1 BR with 3 other girls, but they have 2 bathrooms. And yes the landlord knows about it – the apartments are actually marketed with the idea that renters can put up partitions. She had a nice 1 BR all to herself in Atlanta, but she had no friends there. When she moved back here, she was so much happier. One day she texted me: I saw 3 friends today!
I think it’s exaggerated. My D’s friend lives in UWS. They skipped. My D said her friend’s apt is bigger nicer and less money than what my D pays for her apt not in NYC.
It could be fun while in one’s early 20s. Then I think it would get very old.
@oldfort, I hope your D1 has been able to reduce her hours substantially. IB hours just sound more than brutal to me. I get it that the compensation can be very good, but still…
My D lived in a 300 square foot studio on the UWS her last year of college. Then she moved to a 5th floor walkup further uptown in the Hamilton Heights area and had a large 1 bedroom converted to 2 bedrooms that she shared with one roommate.
My daughters both live in Brooklyn, in large apartments in which they have their own bedrooms. They’re both supporting themselves. One is in New York because that’s where her “ideal” pre-graduate school employer is located; the other is in New York because of the artistic scene.
I absolutely don’t get it. Ds2 has an externship in NY this spring. I think he’ll be miserable in the city, but whatever. I told him that he should get used to the high life he’s living now as a poor college student.
It’s a mystery to me. I don’t like cold weather at all. I’d rather live in the tropics some where.
if I lived in a city like in the heart of a city not a suburb…I would choose Pittsburgh.
NYC is a place where you can have a heart attack and the only person who will stop …will stop to take your purse or the people who record you on their smart phone to post it on line.
I live in NYC.
Many of these young people work long hours. Given a choice between commuting 45 minutes or more each way from Astoria or Long Island City and having more room, they’d rather have a cramped space close enough to work that they can walk it in the morning ; some companies provide cab fare home if you work late. They like buildings with amenities–a laundry room, an in-house gym, a doorman with whom packages and dry cleaning can be left. and be able to order take out to be delivered within 15 minutes. They like having bars catering to 20 somethings with a couple of blocks from home; living spaces already configured for high speed internet, etc.
If you move to the boroughs, you may have to schlepp your clothes to a laundromat, pick up dry cleaning yourself, pay for a gym membership–spend at least 30 minutes getting there and back; wait 30 minutes for a food delivery, etc. And in some areas further out, you may need a car.
It’s not as irrational a choice as many think.
jonri, what’s irrational to me is making either of those choices. 