Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The reality checks being offered to you do not seem to be working. This thread is useless, obviously, because you only want the type of response that encourages you to move here. No responsible member of this forum would ever advise you that that would be a good idea given your circumstances.
hello, we are a family of 5 moving from Illinois to NYC after this coming school year. We currently have a $35,000.00 a year income that is guaranteed because it is Social Security retirement income. When we move I will be getting a job that will supplement that income.
I would like Brooklyn but am flexible about any other place within the 5 boroughs. our 3 kids will be 17,15 and 6 when we move. we are looking for advice on a good starter neighborhood for at least the first year. My oldest is an artist and my middle child into sports. What areas would people here recommend for an eclectic neighborhood. I am thinking of a 2 bedroom apartment.
Brooklyn on 35k a year?. This is 2014 right. Why wouldn't you look at the immediate suburbs where many of the schools will be better and housing costs less. I mean have you researched Brooklyn at all? 2 million will get you a fixer brownstone in Bed-Stuy.
Brooklyn is has some of the most over priced real estate I've ever seen. I never thought I'd see a property that cost well over a million dollars that I wouldn't want to live in but Brooklyn has several of them.
I love culturally diverse neighborhoods with lots to do but you'd have better luck in Queens or the Bronx given your budget and even most of Queens and the better sections of the Bronx would be a stretch.
I've spent a good bit of time in what some might consider marginal neighborhoods from Harlem NY to Venice Ca, and the only places I've ever felt uneasy was certain streets in South East Los Angeles and Brownsville and East NY Brooklyn
The reason why I've mention the latter is because that would be one of the few neighborhoods in Brooklyn where you might find affordable housing.
Brooklyn on 35k a year?. This is 2014 right. Why wouldn't you look at the immediate suburbs where many of the schools will be better and housing costs less. I mean have you researched Brooklyn at all? 2 million will get you a fixer brownstone in Bed-Stuy.
Brooklyn is has some of the most over priced real estate I've ever seen. I never thought I'd see a property that cost well over a million dollars that I wouldn't want to live in but Brooklyn has several of them.
I love culturally diverse neighborhoods with lots to do but you'd have better luck in Queens or the Bronx given your budget and even most of Queens and the better sections of the Bronx would be a stretch.
I've spent a good bit of time in what some might consider marginal neighborhoods from Harlem NY to Venice Ca, and the only places I've ever felt uneasy was certain streets in South East Los Angeles and Brownsville and East NY Brooklyn
The reason why I've mention the latter is because that would be one of the few neighborhoods in Brooklyn where you might find affordable housing.
Are you in an interracial relationship? If you aren't then you can't say a thing. Also I hate the bone chilling cold. I am not "used to it " soo what if I want to get away.
You won't be getting away from the cold, it is very cold here during the winter and our winters are very long. Also Illinois is ranked in the top 10 for best states for interracial relationships so I wouldn't worry too much about that.
We get winter here. A few weeks shorter but some days it's just as cold as Northern Illinois.
When in downtown Manhattan, you feel the windchill factor, the same wind-tunnel effect between skyscrapers that you know from around Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.
Instead of one big lake downtown, there are several large rivers that define island and its boroughs, so the air feels wet on many cold winter days.
I understand what you're trying to do. I wonder if a different city with cultural attributes would work more affordably, for example...
Providence, R.I. has Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design with some good art classes for your daughter, plus small galleries along Water Street, and a jewelry industry.
Or study Baltimore, MD for an affordable neighborhood along the corridor near Johns Hopkins University (not the Hospital of JHU downtown). There's some student type housing that could be affordable to a family. She could bus to classes for community offered by the Maryland Institute of Art, or spend time at the Walters Art Museum or Baltimore Museum of Art.
Some people in NYC think that Philadephia has everything NYC has except the prices, neighborhood called "Fishtown" comes to mind.
That's just 3 examples of more affordable cities with quality art offerings. By living more center-city, your youngest gets the change from rural to "city upbringing" you desire. Your husband in retirement would enjoy more sophisticated medical care, most likely, because of Brown U (Providence) or Johns Hopkins U (Baltimore) hospitals and specialists. Baltimore and Philadelphia have professional sports teams, if that's helpful to enthuse your middle child.
So we are paying attention -- really. Try comparing something from those cities to what you'd find for the same money in Brooklyn's neighborhoods of Crown Heights, Bushwick, Prospect Lefferts-Garden and see what you think for the dollar value.
Last edited by BrightRabbit; 07-12-2014 at 06:30 PM..
At best, the OP is misguided. "Sell our home & move to NYC for the teenagers"? WTF?
Well, I can understand wanting something more interesting for your children.
It's just that the sad reality now is - here, impossible without significant income.
Since your 17-y.o. is "an artist" perhaps you are inspired to imagine all the museums and galleries he can see in the city on a regular basis. Look, nobody at age 17 is "an artist" but they might have potential talent, that's really all you know.
If anything you'd be wiser to stay in place and send him here alone as a student after high school than to bring the whole family in now. Let him strive and make it on his own.
I'm concerned your middle school son who likes sports will be dependent on whatever's happening at public school, which at your budget will be in a tougher neighborhood not ready to receive him kindly as a newcomer/transplant from Illinois. I predict much teasing or possibly bullying as he tries to claim a place socially within the circle schoolkids and neighborhood friends.
Why not devote your energies instead to growing your business in the coming year. Bank some money towards the oldest one's college applications. See if he can get accepted at an art school in NYC which hopefully will also include some hard skill training in something applied or commercially marketable so he can stay on after college and work/do his art.
If you feel you can grow your own work output, try doing that now for a year in place to test your theory. Don't come here and put your whole family into an untenable situation.
ETA: If you are convinced your son needs access to NYC artistic stimulation right now, then research some far-flung suburb or small town 2 hours away by train. He can come in by bus or train every weekend, seeing art to his heart's content. The rest of the family could afford a place, find acceptable schools and comfortable outdoor natural space. Examples: eastern PA, or towns in Ulster, Sullivan, Orange or Greene County NY.
Your last sentence may be on to something, as the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown metro is one of the most integrated top 100 metro areas in the country and may have some areas affordable enough and within a train ride into NYC to where there may be a real possibility of pulling this off. It still would be tough though.
This may be possible in Upstate NY in one of the bigger metros(Buffalo and Rochester have Arts specific high schools and I believe that Binghamton High has a pretty good arts program, for examples), but I don't know if that would work for the OP.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 07-13-2014 at 07:35 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
