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Have been reading this forum for a while now. I see hundreds of others like me considering a move to NYC. I know NYC a little bit...visited, have some friends in Long Island.
I am in my mid forties, am considering a move in two years. Am a single mom with two daughters, one will be in college, the other will be in high school. I am a Technical Writer and am currently getting my Master's in Instructional Technology.
Here is my plan: Have been checking out (online) neighborhoods like Kensington...seems nice, good high schools (I think???) and decent rents. I am fairly certain that my skills and experience can net me a job. I currently make $60k. I am in Michigan. My boyfriend may or may not come too. If not, I would rent a one bedroom to save money. If he joins, then two.
I am also considering Chicago and Boston (I lived there before). The boyfriend is lobbying hard for Chicago. Is close, cheaper...
I intend to visit in Spring and stay in the Brooklyn area for a looksee.
What have I left out?
Look forward to comments, criticisms, whatever ya got .
Have been reading this forum for a while now. I see hundreds of others like me considering a move to NYC. I know NYC a little bit...visited, have some friends in Long Island.
I am in my mid forties, am considering a move in two years. Am a single mom with two daughters, one will be in college, the other will be in high school. I am a Technical Writer and am currently getting my Master's in Instructional Technology.
Here is my plan: Have been checking out (online) neighborhoods like Kensington...seems nice, good high schools (I think???) and decent rents. I am fairly certain that my skills and experience can net me a job. I currently make $60k. I am in Michigan. My boyfriend may or may not come too. If not, I would rent a one bedroom to save money. If he joins, then two.
I am also considering Chicago and Boston (I lived there before). The boyfriend is lobbying hard for Chicago. Is close, cheaper...
I intend to visit in Spring and stay in the Brooklyn area for a looksee.
What have I left out?
Look forward to comments, criticisms, whatever ya got .
TRY STATEN ISLAND, IS A BOROUGH OF NYC. VERY FAMILY ORIENTED, AND YOU CAN RIDE THE FERRY AND STATEN ISLAND RAPID TRANSIT FOR FREE. LOTS OF BUSES TO MANHATTAN. I HAVE LIVED HERE FOR THE PAST 50 YEARS, AND LOVE IT. GOOD LUCK,
As much as I adore NYC, I would recommend that you wait until the second daughter is out of high school. Being a teenager is hard enough without having to figure out a whole new social scene.
Unless your daughter is into the move, then for all means go for it.
Visit Queens and Brooklyn while you are in town. Take the ferry to Staten Island and get a feel for the place. Go to grocery stores and take the subway at rush hour. Then listen to your gut.
i grew up there and kensington isnt a bad area. it is very VERY diverse. i mean EVERYONE is represented in kensington depending on which block you are on. the problem is, that there are no high schools in kensington. if memory serves, the closest one is erasmus hall in flatbush, and lets just say, the nicest thing about erasmus was that is was a great school 50+ years ago.
Depending on where in kensington you are, you have 2 train lines, the F and Q/B. 15 minutes to lower manhattan. or 10 minutes by car with average traffic.
In general, public highschools in brooklyn tend not to be very good and every single one is VERY overcrowded. As in the school was meant to house 1800 but now has 4300 and growing.
As for the decent rents part, well, thats pretty subjective. Kensington i think tends to lean towards the higher end of rents. Its not park slope rent, but its not too far off from there. Most of the buildings & housing stock is older so you do get more space for your money.
There tends to be parking in the street, but you will have to move your car at least once per week, if you have a car.
Let me know if you need more help. i grew up in kensington and ive lived in bay ridge, sheepshead, flatbush, bensonhurst and i live near brooklyn college now.
Thank you Alan B...The school thing is a big caveat. Need a decent public high school nearby. Ive heard good things about Bay Ridge, do you know anything about the high schools there? I have done some research online but get confused with the various school "zones" or whatever they are called. I think I will go online and see if there is a book that I can peruse that puts it into plain English.
i grew up there and kensington isnt a bad area. it is very VERY diverse. i mean EVERYONE is represented in kensington depending on which block you are on. the problem is, that there are no high schools in kensington. if memory serves, the closest one is erasmus hall in flatbush, and lets just say, the nicest thing about erasmus was that is was a great school 50+ years ago.
Depending on where in kensington you are, you have 2 train lines, the F and Q/B. 15 minutes to lower manhattan. or 10 minutes by car with average traffic.
In general, public highschools in brooklyn tend not to be very good and every single one is VERY overcrowded. As in the school was meant to house 1800 but now has 4300 and growing.
As for the decent rents part, well, thats pretty subjective. Kensington i think tends to lean towards the higher end of rents. Its not park slope rent, but its not too far off from there. Most of the buildings & housing stock is older so you do get more space for your money.
There tends to be parking in the street, but you will have to move your car at least once per week, if you have a car.
Let me know if you need more help. i grew up in kensington and ive lived in bay ridge, sheepshead, flatbush, bensonhurst and i live near brooklyn college now.
e-hall sucks, you're right alan. what about john jay isnt that school close to kensington? what is kensington's zone school, if you happen to know offhand?
e-hall sucks, you're right alan. what about john jay isnt that school close to kensington? what is kensington's zone school, if you happen to know offhand?
john jay is no picnic either, unless its changed DRASTICALLY in the last decade or so(which i doubt). i attended erasmus for i think 3 hours (my mom had a heart attack) and petitioned the school board and they got me into john-jay. Now JJ sounds great, as the full school name is/was the John Jay School of Law or something like that and its in the great neighborhood of parkslope. But when i went there it was close to like 85% black and it was considered a really poor school.
I just did a quick check, and it looks like its one of the schools that got "re-zoned". Most of the REALLY bad schools got rezoned in to new charter highschools, or completely shut down/renamed.
Anyways, in kensington, erasmus is the main/only zoned school. I think erasmus got rezoned to a new charter type school. New packaging, same present.
In kensington, for nearby high schools, you look up and down the trainline. i happened to wind up in dewey.
Convenience dictates, Lincoln, Dewey, Lafayette, and Grady, along the F train. (im not too familiar with anything north of there)
You also have erasmus, madison, sheepshead, murrow, midwood Along the D line.
And FDR, new utrecht, and fort hamilton, if you can manage to get to them.
Murrow and midwood now require excellent grades and test scores to get in. (they always did, but are even more stringent now.)
Madison is the place to be if you want to coast by but not get robbed/raped/killed in high school. Its kinda like kingsborough college (sorry to any KB grads out there, but the rep is deserved)
Like i said, on that side of brooklyn (west/south), while the highschools may not be DANGEROUS like they are on the east side they arent very good either. its really just a small handfull of schools in the brooklyn area that are GOOD while theres another very small handfull that are OK and the rest are just trash. and good or bad every single one is over-crowded.
yeah i know john jay isnt that great either....cause thats where the kids from red hook are zoned for....prolly gowanus too. and it seems like the majority, if not all of bklyn high schools are over crowded
Thank you Alan B...The school thing is a big caveat. Need a decent public high school nearby. Ive heard good things about Bay Ridge, do you know anything about the high schools there? I have done some research online but get confused with the various school "zones" or whatever they are called. I think I will go online and see if there is a book that I can peruse that puts it into plain English.
Bay ridge is a decent area, but again, theres only a few high schools to handle all the people. depending on how far you want to travel, Bay ridge is home to
Fort Hamilton (one of the most over crowded, but its ok)
New utrecht (ok school)
Lafyette (really bad school, since its near the projects)
John Dewey (used to be a great school, now its garbage, across the street from the projects)
FDR (pretty over crowded, next to a cemetary i believe, ok school)
with the exception of dewey and lafayette (which are closer to coney island area anyways) your other 3 options are not bad.
they are decent schools, in pretty safe areas with the trials and tribulations of an overcrowded school in a diverse city.
Trials, tribulations, alan, what are you talking about??
1. racisim/classism. these schools are in clasically white/italian areas. there was a huge influx of chinese and latinos. the chinese are basically well to do, while the latinos are on the lower spectrum of the socio-economic ladder. rich whites, poor colors = problems. its not as bad as it can be/used to be, but the problems are there.
2. crowds. most of these schools were built to house 1/2 the kids that they have now. if you dont stay on top of your kid, he/she can get lost in the shuffle. its important for a parent to stay on top of a kid and keep them focused in school. with most high school classes having 30-40 kids per class, the teacher just cant do it.
3. immigrants. Lots of classes have been put on the back burner to handle ESL (english as a second language) due to the high amounts of non-english speaking students. Many high-schools now calculate a 5-7yr graduation rate along with the typical 4yr. yes, there are lots of 20yr old highschool kids (super super seniors)
4. gangs/sex/drugs. yes, they are there and very in your face. its not just the black/latino kids either.
as scary as this is for you, imagine your daughter being thrust into this. high school sucks.
getting thru highschool in nyc is what makes most new yorkers, NEW YORKERS.
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