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First let me begin by saying, I find NYC a disgusting place to live.
My first apartment is off of a big Avenue where there are hundreds of cars passing by each hour. The room gets extremely dusty 2 days after cleaning, and worst of all, there are bedbugs/cockroaches that live in the walls that are impossible to exterminate without evacuating the entire building. I wasted hundreds of dollars cleaning/throwing away bedbug infested clothes/furnitures, not to mention the itchy bug bites that took weeks to subside.
Needless to say, I had to move to another apartment, on a quieter street. The noise level was much more tolerable, and the first couple of months were quite pleasant. Then it all started going downhill as winter rolled around. First, the heater are steam-based, which means it makes a very unpleasant hissing sound whenever it is circulating, coupled with loud clacking noises under the floor and the smell of rusty metal.
Not long ago there was a pretty heavy thunderstorm at 2AM in the morning on a Tuesday, all of a sudden I woke up from my sleep with the bed dripping wet. I turned the lights on and discovered the ceiling is leaking water (I am not even on the top floor). Apparently there was a crack on the outside layer of the wall, causing the rain to flow into the walls and across my bedroom. I had to spend the rest of the night in my common room while leaving several buckets in my bedroom to catch the rain.
A few weeks ago I started to discover mice droppings in my kitchen. I am a pretty neat person and I generally don't leave food around, so I suspect they are coming from other parts of the building. I bought some sticky traps and left them in the kitchen. Yesterday evening I came back and heard a squeaking noise. Well, you can guess the rest. Disposing a live mouse is something I never thought I'd do after moving to the biggest city in a first world country.
It has been 2 years since I started work in NYC, I am still not sure if I will ever be able to get accustomed to the city life.
Edit:
FYI I am not living in some dump apartment either, my rent for the first apartment was $1350, and the second one $2000. I can get a huge 2 bedroom apt for like $900 back when I was living in Indiana.
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I would get an apartment in Greenpoint or Williamsbourgh, takes like 20 min by train to get to the city and it's much cheaper. Plus night live in Willamsbourgh is just amazing.
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On December 03 2011 01:18 SixSongs wrote:
I would get an apartment in Greenpoint or Williamsbourgh, takes like 20 min by train to get to the city and it's much cheaper. Plus night live in Willamsbourgh is just amazing.
How often does the train run? My gf is living with me and she works extremely late. We are both in finance.
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On December 03 2011 01:18 SixSongs wrote:
I would get an apartment in Greenpoint or Williamsbourgh, takes like 20 min by train to get to the city and it's much cheaper. Plus night live in Willamsbourgh is just amazing.
do you enjoy being surrounded by hipsters
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I lived in Beijing for 6 years before moving to the U.S. It is much cleaner in terms of pests compared to NYC. Although I suppose the air quality got a lot worse since I moved.
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If you live in a city period, you should expect mice tbh. Learned this from living in Philly for a few years. ~_~
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On December 03 2011 01:23 atmuh wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2011 01:18 SixSongs wrote:
I would get an apartment in Greenpoint or Williamsbourgh, takes like 20 min by train to get to the city and it's much cheaper. Plus night live in Willamsbourgh is just amazing. do you enjoy being surrounded by hipsters
I'm sure it's better than urine-soaked hobos or loud a-holes.
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Any advice on how to clean up mice caught in sticky traps? I tossed it into a trashbag, tied it up, and threw it into the garbage bin outside... Somehow I don't feel there is any sanitary/humane way of doing this.
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I throw them out. However, I think the humane way is to remove the mouse from the trap, then release it. I don't intend to do that.
Also, $1350/month for an apartment in Manhattan is a kind of a dump. Hell, $1350 is a dump in nicer areas of Brooklyn. $2000 should be a reasonable apartment though. You can't really compare the prices to Indiana, it's apples to oranges.
If you're interested in Brooklyn, I would look at a few different areas. I could never live in Williamsburg, because I'm not a hipster, and they're annoying as hell. However, prices aren't that much better because Brooklyns the cool place to live now.
Lastly, the subways run 24 hours a day. So you can come/go from Brooklyn at any time. Obviosly they're a less frequent at 3am than they are at rush hour, but they still run.
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On December 03 2011 01:47 mrhobbers wrote:
I throw them out. However, I think the humane way is to remove the mouse from the trap, then release it. I don't intend to do that.
Also, $1350/month for an apartment in Manhattan is a kind of a dump. Hell, $1350 is a dump in nicer areas of Brooklyn. $2000 should be a reasonable apartment though. You can't really compare the prices to Indiana, it's apples to oranges.
If you're interested in Brooklyn, I would look at a few different areas. I could never live in Williamsburg, because I'm not a hipster, and they're annoying as hell. However, prices aren't that much better because Brooklyns the cool place to live now.
Lastly, the subways run 24 hours a day. So you can come/go from Brooklyn at any time. Obviosly they're a less frequent at 3am than they are at rush hour, but they still run.
I wasn't expecting much from the $1350 one, I guess I will have to fork out 3k to get one within Manhattan that's reasonably comfortable/problem free. Moving out of Manhattan is probably not an option for me at this point due to our work schedules.
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That's what rent control and other price ceilings will get you. Poorly managed, run down apartments. Firms aren't able to make enough total revenue to provide good service. Its not your landlords fault, the problem is artificial interaction with the economy.
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On December 03 2011 01:31 Rob28 wrote:Show nested quote +On December 03 2011 01:23 atmuh wrote:On December 03 2011 01:18 SixSongs wrote:
I would get an apartment in Greenpoint or Williamsbourgh, takes like 20 min by train to get to the city and it's much cheaper. Plus night live in Willamsbourgh is just amazing. do you enjoy being surrounded by hipsters I'm sure it's better than urine-soaked hobos or loud a-holes.
its close
i hate the city too btw ive lived in new york all my life and cant wait to get out of here
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I think if you really want the city-feel but none of the city hassle live in Brooklyn or Queens or even maybe New Jersey (across the Holland/Lincoln). Commuting to the city takes me about ~20 minutes from Brooklyn and the place I live now is a brand new (built in 2006) for 2 bedroom condo for $4000 a month (I pay about half). I have never seen a rodent/cockroach. Neighborhood is not the best but I still feel safe walking around outside after midnight.
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On December 03 2011 02:38 zJayy962 wrote:
I think if you really want the city-feel but none of the city hassle live in Brooklyn or Queens or even maybe New Jersey (across the Holland/Lincoln). Commuting to the city takes me about ~20 minutes from Brooklyn and the place I live now is a brand new (built in 2006) for 2 bedroom condo for $4000 a month (I pay about half). I have never seen a rodent/cockroach. Neighborhood is not the best but I still feel safe walking around outside after midnight.
4k/month is pushing the budget. Maybe in a couple more years. I don't really want the city feel, it's just a necessity for me because of the long hours. New buildings are nice, but almost impossible to find in Manhattan.
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my gf had an extremely shitty one that she was paying 700/mo for that was crawling with ants
her new one is 1800/mo in Chelsea and it's really fuckin nice.
where are you in the city?
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One thing you will want to avoid is pre-war buildings if you don't want to deal with mice/insects. Pretty much EVERY pre-war building will have some kind of pest problem.
Only new buildings will have non-hot water based heating systems. This is the cheapest way to heat apts in NYC because you don't have to pay for the heat if you are renting (landlords are cheap).
City life is just like this...lotta crap but that's what happens when you shove millions of people into a tiny space.
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On December 03 2011 04:52 Alejandrisha wrote:
my gf had an extremely shitty one that she was paying 700/mo for that was crawling with ants
her new one is 1800/mo in Chelsea and it's really fuckin nice.
where are you in the city?
I'm on the upper east, the lower I go, the more expensive/smaller it gets...
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On December 03 2011 01:31 Glacierz wrote:
Any advice on how to clean up mice caught in sticky traps? I tossed it into a trashbag, tied it up, and threw it into the garbage bin outside... Somehow I don't feel there is any sanitary/humane way of doing this.
Is there any reason why you need to use sticky traps? In my experience this type works best + Show Spoiler + but with a little piece of chocolate instead of cheese (even bad quality chocolate). It works magic. Peanut butter can also work well. This trap breaks their neck instantly and if the problem gets really bad and you know where they enter your apartment for optimal positioning you can catch multiple mice per night with one trap. Just don't be afraid to remove them from the trap while they are still warm and limp.
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Those are some ridiculous prices. I pay 550/month and I have a nice apartment, very little noise, clean and about 10 minute walk from the university I go to. Hell, I live for 800-900$ a month, apartment cost included.
The owner actually got rid of 2 apartments that had colleges students in the last month because of noise complaints (they weren't even ridiculously bad, but he takes it seriously). It's been pretty quiet since. Any problem and the guy comes fix it in a week max and is quicker if it's serious.
The only defaults so far are that the heating system does a lot of noise (water heating) but I've gotten used to that. Otherwise, my floor creaks a lot in my bedroom and I wake up the person living under me pretty much every night despite trying not to. That wouldn't really bother me if she wasn't a little insane. I think she assumes I do it on purpose and has started to knock on her ceiling at 8am a few mornings in a row.
One mildly annoying neighbor for 550/month or bugs and a leaking ceiling for 2000$ a month... hmm. Yeah, I am never going to live in a metropolis. I lived in Longueuil (right next to Montreal) and paid the same price as I do now for an apartment that was half as big that had lousy tenants and bug problems (maggot-like things that come because of humidity; never was able to get rid of them). I had to call my landlord dozens of times to get my toilet fixed. Same when I had a wasp nest in my fucking window ( I know, I know, I could've gotten rid of it myself... I'm terrified of wasps though) and I had to keep my window closed for most of the summer in dizzying heat. It took me 1 hour of walking + metro to get to university as well.
I'm happy that I'm not a city guy. Life costs a lot less when you don't want to live in places like NYC. Plus, even if it was cheaper, I really hate noise anyway.
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On December 03 2011 09:35 Kurr wrote:
Those are some ridiculous prices. I pay 550/month and I have a nice apartment, very little noise, clean and about 10 minute walk from the university I go to. Hell, I live for 800-900$ a month, apartment cost included.
The owner actually got rid of 2 apartments that had colleges students in the last month because of noise complaints (they weren't even ridiculously bad, but he takes it seriously). It's been pretty quiet since. Any problem and the guy comes fix it in a week max and is quicker if it's serious.
The only defaults so far are that the heating system does a lot of noise (water heating) but I've gotten used to that. Otherwise, my floor creaks a lot in my bedroom and I wake up the person living under me pretty much every night despite trying not to. That wouldn't really bother me if she wasn't a little insane. I think she assumes I do it on purpose and has started to knock on her ceiling at 8am a few mornings in a row.
One mildly annoying neighbor for 550/month or bugs and a leaking ceiling for 2000$ a month... hmm. Yeah, I am never going to live in a metropolis. I lived in Longueuil (right next to Montreal) and paid the same price as I do now for an apartment that was half as big that had lousy tenants and bug problems (maggot-like things that come because of humidity; never was able to get rid of them). I had to call my landlord dozens of times to get my toilet fixed. Same when I had a wasp nest in my fucking window ( I know, I know, I could've gotten rid of it myself... I'm terrified of wasps though) and I had to keep my window closed for most of the summer in dizzying heat. It took me 1 hour of walking + metro to get to university as well.
I'm happy that I'm not a city guy. Life costs a lot less when you don't want to live in places like NYC. Plus, even if it was cheaper, I really hate noise anyway.
Thing is, the jobs are in the cities. Thankfully toronto is not quite as bad as nyc but it's still stupid expensive (finding something nice below ~1400/mo for a 0bdrm is a challenge). Vancouver isn't much better I'm told. I guess there's always the prairies..
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EPT
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