Monday Links

So I finally looked at the NY Magazine article. Blech. Sure there is stuff sitting on the market in Manhattan…but yes, as someone pointed out, the maintenance, common fees, taxes, whatever are probably outrageous on many of those Manhattan options…the door on the Harlem house was sad-looking giving one the idea there’s a lot of money that needs to be dumped into this house…the funniest/cutest thing was the little blurb on the tiny studio (175 sq feet) which wasn’t part of the article but was a link on the page. Would make a great crashpad/pied-a-terre but there is no apparent closet on the drawing. Can they “legally” NOT have a closet for the CofO?

BTW, have a look at the old men pictured in the NY Magazine article…there’re all codgers already! Geesh, THEY’re supposed to an advertisement for something?! I hope the editor included them completely tongue-in-cheek. No?

I do kind of like that roof deck with the lawn though! That would be a “Wow” until you look at the monthly common charge which is probably a different kind of “wow”.

It was disingenuous for the dingbat who put that diagram together not to 1) admit the house in Brooklyn may be at a much-too-high asking price so is not representative and 2) that all those apartments pictured have huge monthly fees/taxes that really, really add up. Not to include the them made the whole thing ridiculous…but you know the gullible public…hhh…very few people know how to read AND/or process anything with any nuance these days.

BrooklynGreene, I always enjoy your posts.

Yes, for example, I like the idea that the husband can drive (us) to an art opening in Chelsea. He drops me off in front and then parks the car. Then we can go home in the car and always find parking in Fort Greene. Okay, I know, not terribly “green” but it beats taking a cab or hiking long avenue blocks in Manhattan to the C train.

Keeping a car in Manhattan can be a complete headache if you don’t have a garage space.

I’ve met a lot of new-comers to Fort Greene (both younger not-so-younger people) who say that once they moved here, the love it and wouldn’t move back to Manhattan.

I can vouche for that. I spead more time in Manhattan these days than I do in Brooklyn but I live in Brooklyn and I want to keep it that way. I would go nuts living in Manhattan again.

New York mag, like the Observer and to a lesser extent the New Yorker, can’t understand what makes Manhattan and Brooklyn truly different. Last night I went to the Delancy Lounge, a truly ugh place, then the Red Lion, a truly wonderful place. While walking between them I passed through the heart of the LES: soot and filth-covered tenements with chic fusion and cocktail restaurants on the ground floor, with well-dressed international seeming people sitting inside.

These are the type of people who work as interns and writers at NY mag, and who say, “Huh?” when I talk about Brownstoner, and who say, “Park Slope maybe is like hoboken?” when I tell them where I live.

I may be a total loser but the scale of my life is not on an opera-attending, museum-opening going, dining out all the time level. And it never will be. People who aspire for that, I admire them from afar. But I don’t want to live among them.

South and Spara,

I thought I was pretty clear that there are trade-offs to any decision as to where to live. That means, plenty of good reasons to live in Manhattan as well as Brooklyn. I just found the NYM spread particularly snarky (sorry, Ditmas) and glib.