Best place for young family in lower Manhattan? (Newark, Newport: renting, daycare)

[rayona]

Anywhere below Canal gets you into a stellar elementary school. West of Church Street will have you zoned for the new middle school on Morton Street and East of Church will send you to Baruch. You will also be able to apply to any middle school anywhere in District 2.

[Kefir King]

Move to the Ironbound in Newark. quick walk to Penn Station and the PATH train.

[WhyRUMad]

You can find a one bedroom for tgat budget, but Im afraid your credit rating will have you also facing a brick wall with no heat.

[macnyc2003]

Battery Park City is filled with kids and great public schools. The trouble is that the area may be a bit out of your budget.

[WhyRUMad]

Originally Posted by macnyc2003

Battery Park City is filled with kids and great public schools. The trouble is that the area may be a bit out of your budget.

Also the flooding. It will only get worse over the coming years

[BugsyPal]

Originally Posted by johnnysalami

Sorry to be captain obvious but Manhattan is no place to raise children. Children require physical activity, solitude, and breathing room (so to speak).

There also won’t be many children nearby they could hang out with. The only other kids in the area will likely be of extreme wealth and would look down upon you and your kids.

I would only recommend Manhattan for somebody rich and childless.

Don't listen to this advice, because in first place it is just flat out incorrect, and very uninformed.

[coolwaves]

Usually you have to make 40 times monthly rent to qualify for a rental. Let's say the rent is $5000 per month, then you'd better to able to prove that you make $200K per year. If you are able to find a good place with reasonable rent, you have to be ready with pay stubs, check for deposits and the application form right away. There will be a long line of applicants and it's usually first come first serve and if they have better credit rating, you will be out of luck.
If you engage a rental agent to find something, you have to pay them 10-15% of your annual rent. Then you have to come up with the deposits. Since your credit rating is low, some landlords may require you to prepay several months' rent.
Good luck.

[Pope of Greenwich Village]

Battery Park City. Plenty of kids, plenty of playgrounds. Easy access to Newark and Flatiron. Like a little slice of suburbia right here in manhattan.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by Mavis42

Thank you! This is very helpful. FiDi was on the top of my list too. Glad to see I’m on the right track!

Lots of activities in that area for kids. The park system along the river is fantastic and always has kids' activities going on.

[Javawood]

Interestingly, the school zone where I just moved to in the Lower East Side has a better elementary and junior high school (by a good margin) than where I grew up in Chicagoland. High schools of course are kinda a s***show, but that won't be a consideration for a few years at least, tis the nature of city schools across the nation.

Elementary - PS 42 Benjamin Altman - 9 on GreatSchools ranking
Mine was Schiesher Elementary School which gets a glorious 7 over in IL

I'm not quite sure how Junior High School zoning goes, but most of the ones, particularly the close ones, are 8's and 9's. I would have loved to go to a good Junior High School, mine is a 6 and remembering the experience, I wanted to gtfo.