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I would investigate schools and then determine where to focus a search, so as to make life easier for you and your daughter. For example, if you settle on a school on the UES, you do not want to have to commute from Riverside Drive, which is a bit to the extreme, but can be a pain in the neck to get crosstown with a young child, especially driving.
Do you have parking at work? If so, I would look at Riverdale in a nanosecond, because you have "the hill schools" (Ethical Culture Fieldston, Riverdale Country Day, and Horace Mann) within the community, whereby it would be a very quick trip to drop your daughter at school and then be able to drive to work without too much difficulty. $4k will go further in Riverdale, and would get you a good 2BR, including parking, whereas it could be a challenge to find a true 2BR in a top Manhattan neighborhood for that price. If you could handle the drop-off in the morning, you would then minimize child care expenses, since you would only need a nanny for the afternoon shift, and school holidays, not a full-time nanny for morning and afternoon care; or, you may be able to find a neighborhood after school care co-op, which would make for a more cost effective solution, and allow your daughter to have supervised play with peers.
You can find apartments in range in Manhattan, but as pointed out above, for a 2BR, they would not be in luxury doorman properties, and the bedrooms could be disproportionate in size, which likely is not an issue with a younger child. Riverdale offers an easy commute to Morningside Heights, and your money will go much further, either for purchase or rental. TriBeCa would also be a good place to look, since the commute is not bad for Morningside Heights, and you have good schools in the vicinity. It is also a very family-friendly neighborhood, but you would likely need to stretch your budget even more than the UES/UWS, and your car would be much more expensive to keep, owing to the price of parking.
If you were to look at Lower Westchester, you would not only find it easier to keep a vehicle, but you would not have to pay city resident income taxes. With a $4k budget, you could also find a more spacious rental, and still use private schools if you wanted to do so. For example, if you wanted to use any of "the hill schools," it would be a convenient drive to drop off at school in the morning. Sarah Lawrence College has an early childhood education center, as well, but the schedule would necessitate having a nanny, depending upon the age of your daughter, since the days are not long for younger children, and you have to work around the college schedule. There are many fine public schools in Westchester as well, which you might consider, as well as religious-based private schools of varying denominations. Lower Westchester, particularly areas around Bronxville and Pelham would add about 20-25 minutes to the Riverdale commute by car, so about 45-50 minutes to Morningside Heights.
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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
Given your budget I would definitely live on the west side, not the east. The public schools on the Upper West Side are excellent. I don't know about in Morningside.
if you do live on the east side, there's actually a bus that goes directly from there to Morningside (the M4). But you would never want to depend on that one bus.
Remember that anything above 96th street (both east and west) gets ethnic and sometimes that can equal danger. At the same time, when things are dangerous, rent prices go down. You can also live at the very tip of Manhattan in Inwood where you can get a gigantic 2 bedroom for under 2K a month. If that's your thing, get ready for loud salsa music, possible gun shot noises, and people selling drugs in your lobby but they'll pretend they aren't when you are heading to work.
Also, don't let the bed bugs bite.
NYC is very tough and especially in Manhattan where you have sleazy slum lords taking advantage of innocent hard working people and making them live in horrible conditions and collecting fat rent checks in return. Remember that jewish slum lord that got thrown in a Brooklyn garbage can and then burned to death back in 2013? He was taking advantage of tenants left and right and refused to fix anything broken.
This is too much. A person who knows absolutely nothing and yet comments with such confidence.
The OP should help herself.
My daughter is an infant right now, so I would need full-time care for her until she is old enough for preschool.
I would have parking at work, so it sounds like Riverdale would be a good place for me to look. $4000 is my ideal for rent, but I can stretch up to $6000 if need be. I was hoping to put that extra towards childcare because it is so expensive, but if it needs to go to rent, it will go to rent. Unfortunately, I don't have any family near NYC, so I will have to rely on a nanny or daycare for childcare.
My daughter is an infant right now, so I would need full-time care for her until she is old enough for preschool.
I would have parking at work, so it sounds like Riverdale would be a good place for me to look. $4000 is my ideal for rent, but I can stretch up to $6000 if need be. I was hoping to put that extra towards childcare because it is so expensive, but if it needs to go to rent, it will go to rent. Unfortunately, I don't have any family near NYC, so I will have to rely on a nanny or daycare for childcare.
So look up some of the lux rental buildings in LIC with full amenities with parking, where you can get 2bedroom for $4k so you live rather comfortably with a nanny. The commute will involve connections between 7/n/q to a/b/c/d, or by car for about 30 min to morningside I would say. LIC on the river is becoming trendy and vibrant with a lot of strollers and more affordable than ues or uws.
You can easily get something amazing with 4K. Dont listen to most of the people who dont actually leave their apts/neighborhood and get their real estate facts from stuff online without really understanding how things work.
This is too much. A person who knows absolutely nothing and yet comments with such confidence.
Race-baiting troll with multiple accounts.
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