a photo tour of New York’s newest chic-park
At first glance the Highline can seem like your very own Chelsea roof deck. There are benches. Flowers. Shrubbery. Birds. A skyline. Views of the Hudson. But then you realize you have to share the roof deck with dozens of other locals, students, and (gasp) tourists.
the Highline = a Reason to Stay in New York
Filed under NYC, Uncategorized
The Windy City is glorious in the summer time. I spent 4th of July weekend there and was thoroughly impressed with this midwestern mecca. Chicago is a great escape from NYC in part because they are so similar. Both cities have great pizza. NYC – thin crust; Chicago – deep dish. Both cities have distinct neighborhoods with their own personalities. Both cities have good public transportation. Both cities are accessible to water. Both cities have 2 baseball teams. Both cities inspired Frank Sinatra. You get the idea.
Lake Michigan is a beauty. Having grown up on Lake Erie, I’ve never been impressed with Great Lakes. Lake Erie was always dirty, smelly, and murky. Lake Michigan gave me a new appreciation for fresh water swimming holes. The Lake is blue, clear, calm, and ultimately delightful. Chicago makes the most of being a city on the lake. The city beaches are rocking and full of hot young things having a good time. In Chicago, you really can go to the beach after work and hang out all night as the sunsets. We can only do this at the Frying Pan in NYC. And as awesome as that place is, it’s not a beach…and the Hudson River is not a lake. Plus 1 for Chicago.
Chicago is cheap. My brother pays $700 for a big, beautiful, and renovated brownstone apartment that has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a dishwasher, and washer & dryer. I was nauseated just being there thinking about my lowly walk-up and found myself thinking “why do i live in new york?” over and over again all weekend. Beer is also cheap. Any bar we went to had $2 drafts of something. Once again, New York – WHY?
Chicago is in the midwest. Therefore people are laid back. People leave the office not a minute later than 5 PM. There is not unruly foot traffic on city streets. The city is chill, yet very busy at the same time.
Would I escape New York for Chicago? I’d think about it. Things that Chicago lacks: It’s not on the coast and is not close to any other major cities or attractions that interest me (sorry Wisconsin). Also, something about being “midwest” rubs me the wrong way. Other than that, Chicago is my kind of town.
Filed under Cities
First year apartments are often ones you’d like to forget. You most likely have little money to spend and little time to spare. This means you will end up in a cheap place in a neighborhood you had little time to explore and get comfortable in. Or you will take the first apartment that comes your way because no one wants to commute from New Jersey – let’s be honest!
That is how I ended up in Spanish Harlem. I had limited funds, a new job about to start, and no time to seriously apartment hunt and look for roommates. As tempting as my aunt and uncle’s basement in the NJ suburbs sounded – I was not about to become anymore acquainted with the NJ Transit than I already was. So when an old friend from home called with an offer for a 3 bedroom in “SpaHa” I jumped at the chance – convinced that having spent 4 years in the Bronx, I could deal with living in Spanish Harlem.
Like most naive new New Yorkers, I was shocked by the broker’s fee and monthly rent I was about to subject myself to. I was continually shocked all year – I was living with 2 boys – one of whom I hardly knew. I lived in a neighborhodd that lacked any sort of conveniences beyond corner bodegas.
This is why the first year is called survival. Twentysomethings quickly learn that they can and must survive on very little luxaries.
It takes a lot to survive your first year in the Big Apple. Courage to move away from home. Patience to wait for public transportation. Integrity to deal with an entry-level job. Open-mindedness to not judge the hoards of people so vastly different from you. And common sense to not get raped, mugged, killed, or simply exhausted by everyday city life. Consider yourself a survivor if you got that all under your belt in the 1st year.
The struggle of making it in NYC is what makes it so great and worthwhile. It makes that dream all the more wonderful when it finally comes true.
My first year out of college and in Manhattan frustrated me more than anything. I knew I could not live the NYC life I dreamed of living in Spanish Harlem. I felt trapped by my neighborhood. While my friends were off gallivanting the busy streets of the Upper East Side or spending carefree nights at the Beer Garden in Astoria, I was left in bodegaville -but hey, at least my apartment had 2 bathrooms, a dishwasher, and HBO! However, these conveniences failed to provide much comfort. If I wanted to sit inside every day and night to watch TV I would have saved my $$ and lived in Jersey. It got to the point where everytime I walked off the subway uptown I would immediately become angry and jealous of all those NYers who were sitting in cute little cafes in every other neighborhood up and down the island.
I knew the city was testing me, and it was a test I was prepared to pass. For every wasted moment I spent in bodegaville I knew that my true NYC dream was not dead. I prayed for it. I would stand at the Reservoir in Central Park and stare at the skyline before me. I focused my eyes on the Chrysler Building – a piece of architecture that will always take my breath away. I focused my eyes on that sight and prayed. I love this city. I am invested in this city and am not giving up on it. I believe that someday I will live the NYC life I’ve always dreamed of living. That is how I survived a year in Spanish Harlem with 2 boys who could never appreciate Manhattan as I do.
Once I made the obvious decision to move out of Spanish Harlem to save my sanity and not waste anymore time living a half-hearted NYC Life, I knew that I’d have to overcome an awful challenge: the hair-pulling hunt for an apartment in NYC. There are many things you must accept and overcome in order to find a happy living space in this crazy city. You have to get over being depressed about having NO $$ to afford anywhere even remotely nice. You have to realize that your big apartment in Spanish Harlem only exists in Spanish Harlem – you won’t get that much bang for your buck anywhere else in Manhattan, or Brooklyn for that matter. You have to ask yourself the question – “What am I willing to compromise to live in NY?” I was willing to compromise space and money.
And that is how I ended up in a six floor walk-up in Yorkville.
Filed under NYC
Check it out! I made the cool picture cut on my new favorite website: GuestofaGuest.com. The New York Times wrote a great article about this site last weekend and now I am hooked.
“An Evening at the Garden” was by no means a Manhattan red-carpet socialite affair….but it was a nice evening outside (sans the constant rain) in one of my favorite parts of Central Park – The Conservatory Garden. Despite the fact that the Central Park Conservancy rejected me from a job after college, I still like to support them for making CP such an amazing place and lifts my spirits whenever I set foot in it.
Central Park will forever be a reason to STAY in New York.
The best thing about living in New York City is the amazing potential there is for greatness. All it takes is a small buzz and a walk across Sheep’s Meadow to smile and feel like anything can happen. To feel like the next step you take, the next corner you turn will bring you to greatness, to love, to dreams come true, to discover that New York you’ve always been looking for.
Everyone has their own ideal version of New York. For some it is landing that dream job on Wall Street or at ‘Vogue.’ To become the “it” girl of Page Six and Gawker. To become the next Carrie Bradshaw. 
To make it big on Broadway. To experience a true New York love story. Or, for some, all it means it to wake up here everyday and go to sleep here everynight. Success in New York can be defined in anyway. If you are physically here – that is already one success story and dream come true.
This idea of greatness, the potential to live happily ever after in New York City is why I think I can never leave. That possibility will always exist. And if I leave and never reach that desired greatness, then what? I will always wonder….what if I had stayed? Could I have found whatever it was I had always been looking for? These thoughts make it hard for me to sleep at night. Ugh.
The darker thoughts make me think this: what if this desire for NYC potential greatness is keeping me from finding the greatness that I could find in a heartbeat if I could just give up on my silly NYC fairty tale dream. Who is to say that I could not find everything and more that I am looking for in another city? Maybe the longer I stay in New York, the further I am of finding any kind of happiness? Am I sacrificing my own true love and fulfillment for my fervent NYC dreams? If I let go of New York, will I be able to move on and finally find what it is that will give me joy for an eternity? For the longest time I always thought – if I had NY, I would be okay and know all was right in my world. Now, I’m not so sure…
NYC apartment buildings are isolating places. Like most places in this city, people keep to themselves. It’s not like living in a college dorm where people are constantly running in and out of each others rooms, sharing bathrooms, dining communally, etc. Here – you walk up stairs, turn the lock, and close yourself off in a tiny apartment. The reality of living in NYC is nothing like an episode of “Friends” that I’m sure 16 year olds in Iowa think it is. You will never find an affordable apartment in the Village that looks like Monica’s. You will never have friends like Joey and Chandler living across the hall.
Despite this sad reality, a bff neighbor is on my nyc wishlist. I would love to have someone next door that I could borrow a cup of milk from. Someone I could watch trashy TV with at random hours. Someone I could have game nights with. Someone to have weekly “neighbor dinner parties” with. Someone to pregame with and have sporadic dance parties with. Someone who I could say hi to and talk to when I check my mail and walk up 6 flights. Come on New York, is it really that much to ask for to give me a friendly neighbor? It is the least you could do for making me live in a 6th floor walk up!
I’ve had a strange European neighbor for past year. She is about ten years older than me and lives alone. When I first moved in last summer I friendly knocked on her door to introduce myself hoping we would become lifelong friends. She looked at me like I was crazy and didn’t even shake my hand. Since then we haven’t had much interaction. I’m also kind of weird about her after I spent one sleepless night in the winter listening to her and another European get physical together. That was a lovely night.
this is how close I am to my neighbor...
Anyway – strange European neighbor is subletting for the summer! Which means I have a cute new Texan neighbor. She is an adorable college junior who is interning in NYC for the summer before heading to Argentina for a semester! Nice life. It is so cute to see how excited she is to spend a ‘life-changing’ summer in the city and then have a life-changing semester in South America. Ah, to be young with the world at your fingertips, to have life just beginning to get great and think that this is how it will always be. I was once that girl. Now I am like any other single NY career woman – jaded, bitter, and mean to old woman and small children who I have to give my seat up to on the bus. I am tired too, ya know!
New Texan neighbor is a step in the right direction to BFF. We bonded earlier in the week because she was locked out and came to me for help. We broke in with a credit card, which makes me feel totally safe about the security in this building. Then we shared a bottle of wine while I asked her dozens of questions about her cute life and what she thought about the city. To quote: “I feel like it will all go by so fast and I don’t want it to end!” That is how I felt in college in NYC, now I live a life in NYC that has no end in sight and it scares the hell out of me.
Filed under Life, NYC, NYC Apartments
I woke up at 5:00 AM on Saturday morning. I was at a Starbucks near Penn Station at 6:30 AM. I was on a bus leaving Manhattan at 7:00 AM. Aside from my loyal roommate, this bus was full of strangers. Strangers who I would spend the next 13 hours with whitewater rafting in Lehigh Valley, PA.
In addition to sports leagues, ZogSports organizes “outdoor adventure” trips for young professional NYers. My roommate and I thought a trip outside the city to hit the rapids would be fun, different, get us out of Manhattan, and maybe create lasting bonds with people. The trip was a success in all but the last item. My dreams of meeting the love of my life on the rapids of Lehigh Gorge did not come true. Regardless, I had a great time.
Whitewater Challengers is a rafting company that sets up camp in the Poconos. The people who run the show are total river rats and adventure junkies. You know, the kind of guys that spend all summer in a kayak guiding cityfolk down a river and spend all winter working a chair lift at some ski lodge. Nice life.
My roommate and I were thrown in a raft with 4 strangers who ended up being totally awesome and probably some of the most normal people on our bus. We paddled down the river for 12 miles! I felt miles and miles away from my walk up. The gorge was fresh, the trees green, the mountains high, and the sky blue….until it started raining and thundering. But we rafted rain or shine for about 5.5 hours. I couldn’t help singing various river-themed songs like Pocahontas “Just Around the River Bend” and Boyz II Men “River Runs Dry.”
The trip was very reminiscent of summer camp. Maybe this was because there were about 10 rafts of boy scouts surrounding us on the river. They had squirt guns and engaged in a 12-mile long water war with each other. Kids were falling out left and right and the chaperones aka Dads were worse than the kids when it came to plotting and scheming against other boats. They seriously acted like they were storming the beach at Normandy and kept screaming “STROKE! STROKE! STROKE!” and “Ready – Aim – Attack!” Entirely amusing.
Back at the Whitewater Challenge campsite a band was playing The Eagles and Johnny Cash to a swarm of more boy scouts and girl scouts. There were signs everywhere for a Magic Show later that night. Too bad we weren’t staying! I also caught an 11 year-old boy smoking a cigarette behind a fence. I was really embarrassed for him.
The bus ride home felt like a college frat party. We got cases of beer and listened to ’80s music on the radio for 2 hours. I drank one beer and quietly watched the strangers around me form bonds with eachother.
Whitewater Challenge/Lehigh Valley: Interesting day escape from NY – but NEVER could be a permanent escape from NY.
