Where to live in NYC for young people
I am very likely moving to NYC soon and am at a place now to where I have to seriously start apartment hunting and finding a place to stay. Depending on how it all goes, I might even have to look for a roommate.
What I am looking for are the areas of the city where more of the younger crowd straight out of college or a few years removed from college gathers. Been living in suburban hell in my current city to save some cash, it is just a walk through boredom and dryness with people being married by the age of 25.
I was looking for areas that fit more of the bill and it seems like Williamsburg and Lower East Side of Manhattan come up a lot. Was thinking about what other places would fit the bill here and what I can expect for the typical rent to be.
Streeteasy.com
Room with me brah
yeah LES, East Village, West Village, SoHo, Williamsburg, Harlem is up and coming I hear too
I like East Village (Alphabet city). You could probably find a really cool place on Avenue B or C. Rent might be slightly lower due to the walk to the subway vs the walk from 1st ave. I lived in that area for years though and thought the walk through Tompkins was great. I will always love that area. Dream is to have an art gallery in the East Village.
Thank you!
Unfortunately I am not sure if I will be able to afford SoHo because I am not going to be making six figures. I know the Meatpacking District gets a reputation for having the best nightlife in the city but can any other parts of the city compete against it?
Meatpacking is fun. Sucks that Cielo is closing. There are fancy clubs there and stuff, but I’m not sure if I would label it as the ‘best’ or think about other parts of the city that ‘stack up’.
Because NYC nightlife is very organic sometimes. You could go to a dive bar and meet up with a group and hit up a club then land at some random penthouse party.
I like East Village / LES nightlife. I’ve been to some really cool parties in LES featuring art showings and just smoking joints all night in the gallery with the owners talking about perspectives.
Other nights yeah crazy drunk coke fest and then someone has shrooms and more 420, then you land in some large techno party with a DJ in Brooklyn at 6am and walk out super beat into the daylight, drenched in sweat from dancing for hours - at 10am to hail a taxi with a chick that gave you the molly .... you never know...
What do you mean by Alphabet city? Lot of Google people or? Sorry for the dumb question.
From 14th St to Houston on the East Side there are 4 avenues, Avenue A, B, C, and D. That specific submarket is called "Alphabet City" because the avenues are single letters instead of numbers (Fifth Avenue, Tenth Avenue, etc) or names (Park, Madison, etc).
NoHo/East Village is the most under rated for Manhattan if you wanna pull ass yet don't wanna be a generic Murray Hill post-frat hardo! (Coming from someone who was once one of these).
NoHo?
How expensive is Murray Hill btw? Its been at the top of my list in NYC too since I click well with that kind of a crowd.
lol you click well with the 'Murray Hill crowd' - hahaha what does this mean?!?
Agree - NoHo is extremely under rated.
hells kitcehn bare bones studios run about 1800-2000K/month
Looking into this.
how popular is it amongst analysts/associates in IB/S&T? also looking into this
im not sure but it worked great for me 1700/month, tiny but im never home much to begin with, great location, right in the theater district, lots of good restaurants.
do yourself a favor and live walking distance to work. everybody goes everywhere for nightlife...so no matter where you live, you'll be traveling when you go out a majority of the time.
just minimize your commute time...everything else will work itself out.
Work is going to be in the Hells Kitchen area though.
Nomura?
i know guys who worked at MorganStanley (48th and Broadway...which is hells kitchen/times square) who lived in the area (Columbus Circle/Hells Kitchen) and had very active social lives. Key thing to remember...if you have a long commute (30-45mins)...you're not going to want to go out after you get home. However, if your commute is a 10 minute walk....then going back out is not a big deal.
a 30 minute commute (both ways) wastes an hour of your life EVERY DAY. This is the biggest waste..and in NYC...its totally avoidable. Time is your most valuable commodity. Don't waste it.
^^ and then yeah lots of 1 room apartments in hells kitchen. id check street easy and hotpads, i found mine on those. and tbh hells kitchen location is pretty solid, walking distance to everyhting midtown and braodway shows and easy to get to central park.
I am not on a banker salary though so not sure how I will be able to afford an apartment over $1600 in rent.
Unless you take the opportunity to read the paper, listen to a podcast, take some time to chill and relax on the way in and out of work... sometimes a 30 minute commute is rather nice, gives you a chance to gather your thoughts.
The one thing not to do unless you find the apt of your dreams is have a commute which involves switching lines. Try to stay on the same train line. The rush and hassle of having to get onto another train makes it extremely difficult to time out your commute with any consistency
i prefer to read in the comfort of my own home, at my leisure....rather than being forced because of a long commute
Will you pretty much have to be in Manhattan to really enjoy NYC and its party vibe?
How does a borough like Queens compare?
Not at all. First, what kind of party vibe are you looking for? If it's $500/bottle clubs, then you want to be in Manhattan for that, but you don't have to live there. The subway runs 24/7 and getting a taxi/Uber/Lyft is easy - save yourself a few hundred bucks a month by living in BK or QN or uptown MN and spend it on whatever "party" you want. But for anything else, there is no real reason to be going out in Manhattan.
Also depends where you work. Are you near Grand Central? You can have a shorter commute from Long Island City or Astoria than from the West Village. If you're in FiDi, the same thing applies to most of Brooklyn versus the Upper West Side. Go on google maps and figure out what's in the 30 minute radius of your office; my guess is you can find some places that are half the cost of others. Don't worry about nightlife; no one "commutes" to nightlife so it's worth it to live 15 minutes further away from where you want to go out, you're not going back and forth from there 6 times a week
I am just looking more to be in an area where people fresh out of college tend to move to and has that vibe of being more of a younger (20s and such) type of party crowd. Too broke for $500 bottle clubs.
I live in Hell's Kitchen.
Pros: If you work in Midtown, which is quite possible given all the firms there, then the place is ideal for a short walking commute. I ride a bike and it takes me 12 minutes from door to cube. Lots of great restaurants and very centrally located.
Cons: If you live closer to 42nd Street like I do, there are a ton of bums and lots of crime. Robberies and random assaults are not uncommon. It's also noisy. Lots of buses, police, and traffic making noise throughout much of the day and night. If you live in an older building with no sound proof windows, this may be an issue.
Despite all that, I would recommend it. Like others mentioned previously, you can't put a price on having a short commute. The subway can be infuriating and it costs a considerable amount of money. Walking is not only cheaper but good for your health.
As far as having a social life - it's New York! You can have a great life anywhere in the city. Chances are you'll have to travel whenever you go out because there are so many different places all over the city.
Finally, forget about the douchey VIP clubs in the Meatpacking District or anywhere else for that matter. A place that's full of people shelling out $500 for a bottle of liquor is not a place you want to go. It's ironic how it's called "VIP" because almost everyone that's in there is not important at all.
If you want a more authentic VIP experience and make friends doing it, consider becoming a Junior Associate at MoMa or The Met. Their parties are world famous.
Can the Junior Associate thing be thing part time or does it have to be done full time? I am looking for something to go with my full time job.
The programs, including the Junior Associates, are made mainly for young professionals that already have full time jobs.
They have events, parties, previews and other things all throughout the year and you're encouraged (although not obligated) to go to as many or as little as you want. It's best to shop around though because some can be pretty pricey (+$1,000/year) and may or may not have the type of events you're looking for.
Personally, I'm planning on joining the Whitney Contemporaries because they have a lot of happy hours and their party is as lot of fun. Other groups of young professionals are associated with the Central Park Conservatory, NY City Ballet, Metropolitan Opera, The Frick Museum, and Guggenheim. Not to mention some of the outreach programs associated with the United Way, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and others.
You don't have to be into art or ballet or anything like that. Frankly, I've heard that most people in these things aren't into art at all, they're just in it to meet people and have a good time.
Noho, Bowery, East Village(southwest pocket.. think lower numbers) is unquestionably the place if you have reasonable hours and want to pull and not be basic(ie murray hill). Nolita good too. I'd recommend roommates- cheaper and more fun
Thank you for the heads up and suggestions!
key is proximity to the subway...10-15 min walk should be the max...otherwise the cold winter and hot summer are gonna be brutal...try to avoid the outer edges of manhattan...the closer to the center...the better
What are the best bars in the area?
If $1600 is your monthly max rent, you'll need a roommate.
If you work in Manhattan, live in Manhattan. As other posters here say, living close to work, ideally within walking distance, is a huge advantage. However, Hells Kitchen isn't great if you're on a tight budget: the cheap places there are sh*tholes. Suggest you focus on the UWS looking for cool roommates, no more than 2 flights of stairs to walk up, and willing to compromise on personal square footage to be in a decent building. A good/great view makes up for other deficiencies. Network to find roommates just as you would looking for a job.
Currently networking to find roommates, not the easiest thing to do for me.
Jonesboro, Arkansas
So life lesson, do not live on the LES. This place is so run-down and overall real sketchy looking. Might change in a year but so far, not the safest. Hell's Kitchen seems to be the best looking neighborhood in the borough unless I missed a place.
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