Debbie1328

Times Square is primarily thought of as a commercial area, but there is plenty of housing if you know where to look. The side streets are rich with small, old buildings with units for rent and for sale. There are studios, and one-bedrooms, but you can also find spacious floor-through lofts.

There are two major downsides to this lively area: tourists and dirt...and they’re related to some degree. Because so many people in Times Square are visitors – from other parts of Manhattan, from other boroughs, and from other countries -- they have no community pride and seem to be unconcerned about throwing their garbage on the streets. These visitors clog the streets on weeknights and weekends, turning Times Square into a sea of humanity that’s hard to navigate.

There are two major upsides to Times Square: food and entertainment. Times Square is home to dozens of movie houses and theatres, as well as jazz clubs, strip clubs, and comedy clubs. There are literally hundreds of restaurants in the area, ranging from chain eateries (like Red Lobster) and fast food (McDonalds) to upscale dining options. And on ‘Restaurant Row,’ a block of West 46th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues, you can rub elbows with Broadway stars and chorus kids at iconic theatre district restaurants such like Joe Allen’s

If you live right off of Times Square (east or west of Broadway and 7th Avenue from 42nd to 47th Street), you will enjoy an endless stream of free outdoor entertainment. The area is home to major broadcasting companies such as ABC and MTV, and every month they and other business enterprises turn Times Square into a performance space, with concerts, fashion shows, and product launches.

There’s great everyday shopping just a block away on 8th Avenue where you can find shoe repair shops, supermarkets, and pharmacies. The area is heavily patrolled, but it is also considered a terrorist target and several plots have been foiled there. And when the garbage cans are removed and the manholes sealed for New Year’s Eve, it is hard to think of Times Square as safe.

New Yorkers just love coming up with shortened nicknames for their neighborhoods, and it was only a matter of time before SoHo (the hipster area South of Houston Street) spawned an uptown neighbor called NoHo (the hipster area North of Houston). It is a stylish, inviting area that runs north from Houston Street to East 9th Street, and west to east from Mercer Street to the Bowery.

NoHo is incredibly inviting and friendly. Unlike other neighborhoods in Manhattan, it has lots of welcoming benches and public spaces where residents and visitors can sit and enjoy their surroundings. There’s a lot to enjoy! Businesses include trendy clothing boutiques, home furnishing stores, antique shops, and (of course) an appropriate number of bars and eateries.

Nearby subways make NoHo extremely accessible. The N and R trains stop at Eighth Street and get you to midtown in about 15 minutes. You can catch the B, D, F and M trains at Broadway-Lafayette station and make a connection to the downtown No. 6 train. There is a cross-town bus on 8th Street.

NoHo was hit hard by the real estate meltdown and property values took quite a hit. The neighborhood remains pricey, however: the cost of a studio averages $299,000 while a floor-through in a post-war co-op with four fireplaces and a balcony is being sold for $19.5 million. Rental prices are comparable to other upscale Manhattan neighborhoods with studios renting at around $3,000 and one-bedrooms at about $4,000.

What makes NoHo truly special is what you don’t find here: no big box stores, chain restaurants, or multiplexes. NoHo has been designated a historic district by the Landmarks Preservation Society, so you can be sure that this neighborhood won’t be changing any time soon. And while there are plenty of high-rises in NoHo, most buildings are under 5 stories, and you can depend on area residents to fight to keep it that way.

“To each his own,” said the lady when she kissed the cow, and that’s how I feel about the Meatpacking District. It is one of New York’s ‘scene’ neighborhoods, with hip restaurants, crowded bars, and upscale boutiques. Personally, I find it overly self-conscious and filled with people who are fashion followers rather than fashion trend-setters. But if you love being where the glitteratti meet to eat, drink, and party, you’ll be right in your element here.

Warm spring and summer weekends are when the neighborhood is in its glory. Restaurants and bars have seating that spills onto the sidewalks, lending to a party atmosphere. The energy can be frenetic, but noise can be a problem.

Meatpacking District kids have it made. In addition to A-rated schools in the area, they are near the Hudson River, can play hide-and-seek in the area’s twisty, turn-y stone-covered streets, and can easily grab buses and subways to visit their friends or take advantage of everything New York has to offer.

The latest and greatest addition to the Meatpacking District is the Highline. An extensive length of elevated train track, it has been reclaimed and provides residents and visitors to the Meatpacking District with access to nature year-round. It is extremely beautiful and a wonderful community meeting place where you’ll see hipsters walking along bohemians, slow-moving seniors sharing the path with racing toddlers.

The price to live in this tony neighborhood ranges from $450,000 for a studio to $20 million for a penthouse. For people interested in purchasing one of the Meatpacking Districts historic townhouses, expect to pay up to $2,000 per square foot if you want a ‘desirable’ location near the High Line...$1,200 per square foot elsewhere in the area.

Lenox Hill is a glorious New York neighborhood on the eastside of Manhattan. Barely half a mile from its southern tip at East 60th Street to its northern border at East 72nd Street, and just a mile from Fifth Avenue to the East River, this small area is home to BIG money and that’s what you’ll need to live here.

Rentals here are thousands of dollars more per month than in other Manhattan neighborhoods. Studios start at over $3,000 which is about the price of a one-bedroom on the west side. You are also more likely to find a space for rent from a co-op or condo owner, as many of the units in the area are investment properties for their owners. As a result, you will likely be limited to a one-year lease, with no protections regarding rent increases.

For those who dream of the life on the fashionable Eastside of New York and want to live in an area that is lively and urbane, not stodgy and mundane, Lenox Hill is a dream come true. Unlike entrenched neighborhoods to the north and south, this Eastside environ is home to a shifting parade of successful young yuppies and enterpreneurs, most of them single. This young demographic turns the neighborhood into a noisy, crowded party scene on weekends when residents and visitors fill the avenues on ‘pub crawls’ to the area’s many bars.

Beyond the high rents and mortgages in Lenox Hill, there are other cost-of-living expenses related to life in a luxury neighborhood. There are few cheap restaurants and most retailers reflect the upscale nature of the residents.

For example, food costs are abnormally high with Lenox Hill and other eastside supermarkets charging as much as 30% for items. This is why many people jump on the M66 and M72 cross-town buses and head over to the west side to do their shopping at Fairway and Trader Joe’s. Cross-town buses run regularly to this neighborhood, so it is easy (if crowded and occasionally time-consuming) to make the run.

Kips Bay is a small Manhattan neighborhood. It runs from 23rd Street (north of the Flatiron District) to 34th Street (the southern tip of midtown Manhattan), with the East River and Park Avenue South providing its other boundaries. It is primarily a sea of modern, character-less high rise apartment towers, but some of the city's finest residential post-war buildings are also located here.

No-fee rental apartments are plentiful, with many condo and co-op owners hosting open houses each week. Rents are comparable to other New York neighborhoods (around $3,500 for a one-bedroom), but the quality is definitely higher. Renters can expect amenities such as half-bathrooms, dishwashers, and other ‘fine living’ extras. And the further east to head, the better the rents may be. On side streets, you may be able to find a studio for as little as $2,100 per month.

With so many residents, the area is awash in everything you need for day-to-day living. Unlike some neighborhoods, Kips Bay has lots of tailors, dry cleaners, shoe repair shops, and supermarkets, in addition to tons of bars and restaurants. There’s also a spiffy Kips Bay multiplex which helps made the area ‘self-sufficient.’

Have the need for speed when it comes to commuting? You’re in trouble in Kips Bay. Although construction of a subway along 2nd Avenue is underway, the neighborhood is accessible exclusively via bus or taxi. And whether you’re on a city bus or in your private car, the traffic is snarled during rush hour, as Long Island commuters travel through Kips Bay on their way to the Midtown Tunnel (34th Street) and Queensboro Bridge (59th Street).

If you want to get a really good feel for the Garment District, a noisy, crowded, and practically unlivable neighborhood in midtown Manhttan, rent the HBO document Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags. It talks about the area’s history as a center for clothing manufacturing and shows in stark detail the hard urban personality of the area.

The Garment District is a commercial, not a residential neighborhood, and the businesses here are industrial. That means lots of deliveries and lots of fume-spewing trucks making runs at all hours of the day and night. It’s a smallish area, running from 34th Street to 42nd Street (south to north) and Fifth Avenue to Ninth Avenue (east to west)

The area has seen some development, with a few luxury high-rises dotting the skyline. But for the most part, apartments are rundown...and surprisingly not more affordable than far more upscale neighborhoods. Studios run about $2,400 and one-bedrooms about $3,500.

Purchasing an apartment can be a wise investment as values are going up in this area. And the average price of an apartment is under $500,000, as compared with the multi-million dollar average price tag in areas such as the Upper West Side and Gramercy.

Perhaps in an effort to shake its association with the sweatshop history associated with the area, politicos and business development groups have begun referring to the Garment District as the Fashion District. But don’t be fooled. Although the designer creations that will be seen in red carpet runway shows in Paris and Milan, the manufacturers that produce the mass-market version of those fashions are threadbare and gritty, just like Garment District.

For a lot of people moving to NYC, the cold cruel streets and urban environment can leave them longing for the green, green grass of home. But residents who live near Central Park get the best of both worlds. This expansive and brilliantly landscaped green haven provides year-round pleasures both natural (trees, ponds, flower gardens) and man made (theatre performances, musical events, art installations)

You’ll find some of Manhattan’s most desirable and famous properties on Central Park West, such as the Dakota at West 72nd Street. The Dakota is home to a wide range of A-list celebrities, and if you like star-gazing, this area is for you. Money isn’t enough at the Dakota, however. The board is notoriously persnickety and has refused prospective tenants including Billy Joel, Cher, and Antonio Bandaras.

Money IS enough a few blocks down the street and if you’ve got the big money to invest in living there, you should! At 15 Central Park West, for example, owners who originally paid about $2,500, can now command $4,500 per square foot. For park views, be prepared to pay closer to $6,000 per square foot.

If you want to live near the park and are willing to reside further uptown, the blocks above 96th Street are far more affordable, with studios available for as little as $1500. This uptown area isn’t as swanky, but it’s still close to the park and a great place to live.

One of the best things about living on Central Park West or on any of the more affordable side streets that run its length from 59th Street to 110th Street is the ease of commuting. The IND subway has local and express stops along full length of the park, and the ultra-reliable IRT subway is just a few blocks away on Broadway, so you always have options should one train line or another have a problem. You can zoom from CPW to midtown in about 10 minutes and reach the lower tip of Manhattan in about 20.

It’s also easy to get to the eastside. Crosstown buses can be found about every 10 blocks. Schedules vary depending on the time of day, but you seldom have to wait more than 10 minutes.