Moving to NYC with a toddler! Help! (Roosevelt: apartment, for rent) - New York City - New York - City-Data Forum

shopgirl927 · 02-05-2009, 11:06 PM

I've lived in the city for 3 months back in the early 2000's, so I'm very aware that I'm going to have to learn my way all over again.
I'm moving to the city with a child that should be starting pre-K soon, as my job requires me to. My question is that....
1) Which are the good public elementary schools in Manhattan?
2) What are the good areas to raise a young child?
3) What are the amounts to expect for child's afterschool program and such?

By the way, how's raising a kid in Brooklyn, Roosevelt Island, or any other areas? Any good public schools and neighborhood?

Any suggestions and comments would be greatly appreciate it as I haven't gotten any answers from yahoo answers in several occasions.

Thank you in advance!

Viralmd · 02-06-2009, 04:57 AM

Before we can answer any of your questions you need to give us a budget, and tell us whether you're going to be renting or buying and how long a commute is tolerable to you.

shopgirl927 · 02-06-2009, 10:06 AM

Having to commute doesn't really bother me. I guess anything less than an hour will be fine with me. As for renting or buying, I'm going to start off with renting and to save money to buy hopefully in the future, I want to only spent between $1,500-$2,500 for 1 bedroom. Sorry for not being so thorough with the question.

Viralmd · 02-06-2009, 10:08 AM

Are you looking for a 1BR apartment or two?

With that budget I don't think Manhattan is do-able, honestly.

shopgirl927 · 02-06-2009, 10:40 AM

1 bedroom is fine with us, however of course more room the better. I've been apartment searching for a bit and had no problem finding 1 bedroom and even 2 bedroom under $2,500. I just have no clue to what area would be good with a child.

clevedark · 02-06-2009, 11:31 AM

There is a fantastic website about public schools in NYC--if I was able to find it a few years ago, I'm sure you'll be able to dig it up.

There are top public schools scattered throughout the city. I have heard of people running into problems, however, moving into or buying a place with the assumption that it will guarantee a place in a certain public school--sometimes the class is oversubscribed and you're shipped somewhere else, and sometimes an unscrupulous agent will tell you you're in a certain district when in fact you're not.

So always do your own independent fact checking concerning your apartment's school district.

bmwguydc · 02-06-2009, 01:59 PM

You need to select by school, and then look for an apartment in that area. Check Insideschools.org for information on rankings. Off the top of my head, there are good schools in Queens, Park Slope in Brooklyn, and parts of Manhattan, including TriBeCa. TriBeCa is going to be out of range for a 1BR. Queens might not be a bad bet, since it's a short commute from some places, especially on the LIRR (15-20 minutes) and you can find more in range. Riverdale in The Bronx also has good schools and is on the order of 25-30 minutes to Grand Central via MetroNorth train.