Moving to NYC from DC (Ridge, Lebanon: appliances, public schools, live)

[BXGEAR]

E 96th st., W 125th st.,& along Central Park N. are the cut off points for Manhattan. Poor & Rich. Yuppies are creeping in past the cut off.

Both the east and the west have been gentrified. Be brave to cross these boundaries (Exception being Hudson Heights)

Originally Posted by Freak

That's why my neighborhood rules all.

What neighborhood?

[Freak]

Van Cortlandt Village.

[NooYowkur81]

Originally Posted by onlinewebsearcher

....maybe

I was wondering where in Manhattan a single college educated hetero guy can find a middle class neighborhood that is not too overly upscale & expensive (not just yet anyway) yet not in the "hood" or dominated by gays.

I know Ny IS EXPENSIVE but i dont know the dempgraphics of Manhattan very well.

Try Morningside heights. Morningside Heights is the area around Columbia U. Its a relatively small neighborhood that people often confuse with Harlem or the Upper West Side but it is its own distinct neighborhood. Because of the proximity to Columbia it is a good place for young people. The rents can be expensive though, but they will definitely be cheaper than downtown.

If you are willing to get roommates try LES and Upper West Side.

There are not too many options. NYC has few places left that are middle-class friendly, and that is especially true in Manhattan.

On a side note, I have a hard time accepting Hudson Heights as a separate neighborhood. Its tiny! It's just a PC way of referring to a mostly white portion of Wash Heights.

[scatman]

How much are you willing to spend? What is affordable to you? And what is your craft/specialty/occupation in DC? (job market purposes).

[mead]

Originally Posted by NooYowkur81

On a side note, I have a hard time accepting Hudson Heights as a separate neighborhood. Its tiny! It's just a PC way of referring to a mostly white portion of Wash Heights.

Yeah thats all true, but while being small it is definiely completely different than the surrounding neighborhoods in Washington Heights, Harlem, and Innwood. The first major thing is that it has 2 subway statiosn on the A train. There is no open drug dealing in Hudson Heights like there is in Washington Heights, no random people hanging out on the side streets in lawn chairs or on their stoops at night, more upscale restaurants. And finally just the fact that the majority of people living there are white sets it apart from everywhere else in Northern Manhattan.

There was an article in the NY Times a couple of months ago that said that the number of white people was increasing there as of late (invasion of the hipsters?) and that was ticking off the Dominicans, who had probably assumed they would own that neighborhood by now, and instead have to flee to the Bronx because of rising rents.

[Hustla718]

The funny part is he wants a middle class neighborhood. None of the above areas are middle class.

OP, your better off looking around Queens.

[mead]

Yeah the middle class in Manhattan is dead, its only rich & poor now.

[briarwood]

Originally Posted by mead

Well its kind of a rough call for me. Yeah I'm not the biggest fan of random people from other parts of the country moving into the area, but if they don't move here then random immigrants certainly will.

So it basically boils down to, would you prefer Bay Ridge to become hipster-ville or would you rather prefer it become Little Beirut? Personally I lean towards the hipsters.

If everyone in the outerboroughs doesn't want their neighborhood to change then they should do the following two things:

1) Have more kids, and I mean lots of them
2) Don't move to the 'burbs or encourage/let your friends and relatives move their.

Nobody seems to be doing either of these things though and as a result neighborhoods change, some more drastically than others though. These neighborhoods can either become more upscale (hipsters) or downscale (random 3rd world immigrants). Take your pick.

Finally, someone ****ing gets it.


StraightShooter: **** about who moves to the city. NYC once had 1 million Italians. Now it's half that. the "real" NYers left this city for dead and caused the hipster/immigrant crisis. Not the hipsters/immigrants themselves. Stop moving out and start having kids. Or stop complaining.


It's either hipsters or Jamaican drug lords. Take your pick.

[kort677]

Originally Posted by briarwood

Finally, someone ****ing gets it.


StraightShooter: **** about who moves to the city. NYC once had 1 million Italians. Now it's half that. the "real" NYers left this city for dead and caused the hipster/immigrant crisis. Not the hipsters/immigrants themselves. Stop moving out and start having kids. Or stop complaining.


It's either hipsters or Jamaican drug lords. Take your pick.

let me see if I understand what point you are making,

hmm it seems like people here are advocating living in very dense urban areas in shoe box like apartments, many of which are vermin infested, sharing the streets with some very sketchy people, a place where the schools are struggling to do a very basic job of barely educating children, a place where police, fire and other emergency services are stretched to their limits, a place that is congested with traffic, public transport sometimes works and the streets are full of garbage.

you want joe italian to remain in brooklyn versus him moving away to the 'burbs where he'll find a lot with grass and trees that is affordable and open spaces, no druggies hanging on the corners, schools that work, police who seem to get the job done, no roaches, rats or mice, the ability to move around without constantly being stuck in traffic, being able to go to a supermarket with your car and being able to park it without a 20 minute search for a spot and a quality of life that is safe, secure and wholesome for his family to grow in.

Hmm that's a tough choice!

[straightshooter]

Originally Posted by briarwood

Finally, someone ****ing gets it.


StraightShooter: **** about who moves to the city. NYC once had 1 million Italians. Now it's half that. the "real" NYers left this city for dead and caused the hipster/immigrant crisis. Not the hipsters/immigrants themselves. Stop moving out and start having kids. Or stop complaining.


It's either hipsters or Jamaican drug lords. Take your pick.

first, you're right that neighborhood people need to stay their ground, be responsible citizens, have kids, parent well, send their kids to local schools, etc. that is the only way to affect long term change.

second, despite the way you characterize my views, this issue is much less about the ethnicity of the incomer and much more about what the incomer does/represents. if we had a large influx of UK, French, and Italians but it meant higher rents, more crime, etc., then i would be against that.

thrid, i segregate immigs from midwesterners/outsiders. immigs have been coming here since alexander hamilton. some have brought the city down, but many more others have made it what it is, or was. i may rail about their mannerisms, how rude they are, failure to conform, etc. but, i have never advocated throwing a wall up to keep immigs out. midwesterners/outsiders are different in two major ways. (1) unlike immigs, outsiders are not looking to make this their home. they are transient. this makes immigs more vested in their neighborhoods than any outsider will ever become. (2) immigs have a symbiotic relationship to the city; they contribute their culture, customs, etc. while adopting some of ours. midwesterners/outsiders are parasitic. they have no culture to contribute. they are merely looking to take whatever they can from the city and then move on to another host.

fourth, i challenge your hypothesis that some mystical nyc vacuum sucked all the midwesterners/outsiders here. this city has been at capacity since i was born. now, it is busting at the seams. ridden the 6-train between 7:30-10:00 much? i think that the influx was a result of the confluence of several events. (1) drop in the crime rate. nyc became (or in hustla718's view, appeared to become) a 'safe city.' (2) nyc leapt on the map big time from the late 80's-present. for example, the today show entertaining all the monkeys outside rockerfeller; fashion-setting comparable to paris, milan, and hk; dow jones closing at record highs in the mid-late 80's, contintuing through the 90's (save post-9/11 reactionism), and now we're at 14000...lots of money to be made; 9/11 itself engendered worldwide public sympathy and put nyc at the forefront. (3) gen-y kids have more surplus time/money than any generation in american history due to their parents' success and their grandparents' savings. most nyc outsiders aren't moving to the City with their money, they're moving with their parents' money. they may be using their parents' money to generate revenue for themselves, but at the end of the day, they aren't feeling the pinch of manhattan prices....it's found money. consequently, prices rise for everyone else, as the market seeks to arrive at an equilibrium. the victims wind-up being the guy who lives here, works here, and now has to pay four times as much for a good or service than he did five years prior. i'm sure i have left out other reasons, but i'm writing this stream-of-conscious and those we're easy enough to come up with.

fifth, i don't think that we have to choose between outsiders and jamaican drug lords yet. but, if we continue to develop every sq. inch of the city limits, then the surplus housing left over after the hipsters have left and nyc is no longer the chic, posh, fun thing to do will make the choice for us. then, you will have your vacuum and scumbags will definitely start to move in. the key is for the city to exercise a little forethought before acceding to the short-term demand of people who won't make any long-term impact or difference anyways.

sixth, the majority of the outsiders who move here are really, really obnoxious. clams who act like their jank is made of platnum, carrying their little doggies in arm bags with their heads sticking out like paris hilton, wearing oversized sunglasses, taking up as much room as they can on the sidewalk, having overly loud, vapid conversations on the train. dudes who went to prep school but act like they're gansta, wearing collar-up shirts, tight jeans, etc., talkin overly loud on the train about their frat parties at dartmouth, how much they make, etc. in one second and then about how tough they are in the next, etc. i think i have as much right to find these outsiders as objectionable as any reasonable person and complain about their infestation of my joint.