We’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about where we want to live. Our lease is up in June and we’re definitely not staying in our current place, for a number of reasons. NYC has an infinite number of neighborhoods, so we’re spending a lot of time checking them all out. Through all of this, we’re having trouble figuring out what it is we exactly want out of a living arrangement.
The neighborhood we’re in right now, Park Slope, is pretty friggin’ awesome. A ton of shops, restaurants, and bars all within a 5 minute walk and easy access to the subway. Beautiful brownstone buildings, tree-lined streets, and nowhere near the insanity of Manhattan. So why leave Park Slope, you’re probably asking? For starters, most of the rentals here are in brownstones, which are managed by individual landlords rather than companies. That’s not worked so well for us this time, and we’re very wary of getting into a similar situation with a new place. It feels odd saying that we’d prefer a massive company with no face to a landlord you know, but if we told you everything we’ve gone through, you’d understand why we might want to retreat to the safety of a big-box building. We’re also interested in moving a bit closer to our offices — our commutes are about 50 minutes each way and that takes a toll, although from what I can tell it’s not very long by NYC standards. We’re still newbies in that way, I suppose, and hanging on to our memories of 10 minute DC commutes in our cars 
.
So, while we may still end up staying in Park Slope, just in a different arrangement, we’re checking out a few other neighborhoods. One is Williamsburg, another area in Brooklyn, just further north. It’s less expensive, the commute would be shorter, and most of the apartment buildings there are brand new. The biggest problem is that the neighborhood seems a bit sterile to me, and while Mike may be the right age demographic, I’m certainly not. We’re also looking at a few ‘hoods in Manhattan, namely Midtown, Upper East Side and the Gramercy/Murray Hill area. Midtown doesn’t have a heck of a lot going on outside of business hours, but we’d be able to ditch the subway all together and we’d have easy access to the rest of the city. Upper East Side is either for really rich people or just-out-of-college kids, but pretty inexpensive (by NYC standards) and likely walkable to work. The Gramercy/Murray Hill area might be our best bet if we go to Manhattan — walkable to work and easy access to the fun parts of the city, but it’s a bit pricey. Biggest problem is we just don’t love Manhattan — it’s loud, anxious, hyper and there are maybe 7 trees on the whole island (not counting that big park in the middle)!
So, any suggestions? Anything else we should think about, other than moving back to DC? The decision is made so much harder here by the insane number of options. Some of the places we’ve seen have indoor golf facilities — I think that will be the decision-maker for Mike .
We’ve had a relatively low-key week, which has been lovely. We did venture out last night to see the Rockettes for my birthday. They were a lot of fun. Those ladies have some serious legs! Next weekend we head to NC for Rick’s wedding and then we have a week or two at home before the craziness of holiday travel. We’ll be in DC 24-28, so if anyone is staying in town and would like to get together, let us know!
Oh, one more thing. We were in the WaPo wedding section this weekend. You can view the web version here or check out page E12 of the Sunday print edition. Yep, we’re famous. Oh, and we did NOT go “snorking” on our honeymoon, lord only knows what that actually is….
I’ll leave you with my new favorite video. You’ll never be able to get it out of your head. Hope everyone is having a great holiday season!