apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

love that miami kitchen!

Read housing article... wow, Manhattan is a different world.

i give everybody in that article 6 months before they move to brooklyn and queens like sensible 20-somethings. it has LONG been near impossible to find anything affordable on an entry level salary in Manhattan. sure, it happens every now and again. and, sure, there are always trust fund kids and those whose parents don't mind continuing to support them. but once these kids get settled in at work and in a social circle, they'll discover that almost everyone they know lives in brooklyn, queens, upper manhattan, or points further. and they'll get their shit together and move somewhere they can actually afford.

Can you get Rene to post some more pix,the NYTimes was parsimonious graphically...

I will sort of echo opoponax's comments. I find it annoying that there are legions of barely-out-of-school twentysomethings, just starting their first jobs, who feel they MUST live in Manhattan -- and their parents are obligated to support the kids' super-fabulous lifestyles that their salaries can't begin to cover. WTF? It seems like a spoiled-brat syndrome to me.

When I was getting started I supported myself and lived where I could afford, I didn't call up mommy and daddy and say "I have to live in Beverly Hills and you have to pay for it. Send me a big check."

The ironic part to this is that if these legions of intelligent and motivated young people moved into neighborhoods they could actually pay for themselves, the neighborhoods they inhabited would be vastly improved and the "coolness" the kids crave would follow them because they WOULD CREATE IT FOR THEMSELVES, instead of buying into someone else's already-existing, overpriced version. Isn't it entirely possible these young people could live somewhere in Brooklyn or the Bronx and create a neighborhood way better than the East Village? Which, by the way, has its good points but it's also pretty noisy, dirty, and there are frat boys vomiting on the sidewalk and peeing everywhere -- yuk (I used to live there).

in regard to twentysomethings and their living quarters here on the world's most glamorous and meaningful island (i'm quoting miss lahoma van zandt) or any other borough, whether your apartment is paid for or you pay your own way; what's the difference, everyone is striving for similar goals in career and love. unless you are suffering from a case of sour grapes about your own situation.

it's not so much sour grapes (i wouldn't live in manhattan if i won the lottery) as just realism. i like my neighborhood because there are young creative people, lots of cafes and restaurants and cool little shops, and i can actually afford to patronize such places. pretty soon these kids from Kansas are going to look around and realize that all their friends live in Brooklyn and pay half the rent for twice the space. they're going to realize that nobody under 45 lives in the West Village and they can't afford to order takeout in Chelsea. and either they'll make the intellectual leap that will bring them to a neighborhood they can actually handle, or they'll go back to Kansas broke, thinking NYC is this crazy place where you have to pay $3000 a month to keep off the streets.

Patrick,

I think opoponax has a good point. There are so many areas of NYC that could be great. Instead, people who can't really afford it kill themselves to live in already established areas, instead of putting time and effort into creating interesting neighborhoods that are affordable. I know several younger people (a few of whom were subsidized by their parents) who ended up leaving anyway, because they said they "just couldn't make it in Manhattan." I don't think it has anything to do with sour grapes.

BTW, I find the marble windowsill shower in Miami fascinating. How would one do that? Just lay it like normal tile?

I think plenty of the tv shows and movies younger people have seen tend to really over-glamorize Manhattan while downplaying (or in some cases even bashing) the other boroughs.
Take the movie "Raising Helen" for example (yes, I admit I watched this on Oxygen last week). There is a part where Kate Hudson is looking for a larger place for herself and her nieces and nephews to live. The real estate agent tries to show her some places outside of Manhattan and she says something like "We are Manhattan people, we are not bridge- and-tunnel people".
For a more popular ongoing example, look at Miranda's character on "Sex and the City". She and Steve move to Brooklyn so they can actually afford some room to accomodate their baby. The other characters, especially Carrie, give her a hard time about moving into the "wilds" of Brooklyn. When Miranda goes to visit her friends she says she is so relieved to be in the city. In one episode when Carrie travels "all the way out to Brooklyn" to see Miranda, Miranda claims she and Steve are getting along better since there is nobody else out there. She spoke as though she lived in the middle of Siberia. I can't count the number of times "Sex and the City" slams Brooklyn and referred to it as infinitely less cool than Manhattan.
The characters on "Will & Grace" did the same thing, giving Grace a hard time when she moved into Leo's Brooklyn digs.
So even though people who actually live in New York know that there are interesting areas in all of the boroughs, and that you don't necessarily have to pay crazy Manhattan rents, it's fun to look at the fantasy-based source (tv and film) where many people get their introduction to New York. If you were a 20-something, who would you aspire to live like - Carrie Bradshaw? or whatever the name of Leah Rimini's character is on that show I don't watch about Queens?

Y'know, when I was 22, I was married and aspired to live in a place that was clean, safe, and left us enough money after rent to do other fun things like buy groceries. If we'd gone to NY, I would happily have lived on Staten Island if it meant there was money sticking to our savings account.

I've lost track of how many "transitional" almost-hip, soon-to-be-hip, declared-hip-by-the-alternative-weekly neighborhoods I've inhabited in the cause of Reasonable Rent. Our 'hood in Minneapolis actually did sprout hip amenities eventually.