moving to brooklyn, need advice!
Hi all – I apologize if this is a dumb post but I’m looking for some help. My job is transferring me to NYC, and I think I may want to live in Brooklyn. I’ve spent time a brief amount of time in Brooklyn, and it seemed really cool and I hear great things about…
Hi all – I apologize if this is a dumb post but I’m looking for some help. My job is transferring me to NYC, and I think I may want to live in Brooklyn.
I’ve spent time a brief amount of time in Brooklyn, and it seemed really cool and I hear great things about it. I know that your $ goes further there also. I’m young (32) and single, but have a decent friend base in NYC (primarily in Manhattan). I’m wondering which neighborhoods of Brooklyn would be best for me. I’d probably start off renting and then look to purchase once I got settled. I would be working in both midtown Manhattan and the Soho area, and I’m not going to have a car, so my biggest concern would be an area that had good subway access and where a commute wouldn’t take forever. I like to eat out a lot so proximity to good restaurants/take out would be nice as well. I love to go out but my preference would be to live in a nicer residential area that has access to better ‘going-out’ parts of town then to live in those parts of town themselves. I have heard Fort Greene, Cobble Hill, Park Slope, and Brooklyn Heights are good areas but I’m not sure what are the pros and cons of each – you can only gather so much from general descriptions, so I thought I’d throw it out there for current Brooklyn residents. I’m a bit of a yuppie (I’ll admit) though not snobby 🙂 basically I’m not really into the uber-hipster scene. I just want a place that is nice and has access to other great areas of NYC. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated – thanks for your time! Also if there are specific management companies to recommend/avoid I’d love to know that as well. Brownstoner seems to be an awesome blog and hopefully I can be a part of your online community once the move takes place.
When i moved out to brooklyn i used this new york moving company. http://www.movers-moving-companies.com/New_York_NY/moving_company_New_York.htm They were really helpful with the big stuff. I dont know if you had a mover or not, but yeah it was tough.
Well… what can you afford? that may have a lot to do with where you end up living.
Pacific Heights? Are you sure you want to move to Brooklyn? No views of the bay from the homes here (unless you’re interested in looking out at Sheepshead Bay).
Convenient subway access depends entirely on where you are going. Figure out what subway line you need to get to work, then narrow down your neighborhood search based on that.
OP, when are you moving? I have a 1b+office for rent hopefully by 3/1 in Park Slope (minor fixup stage now). I think Park Slope is akin to Noe Valley (lived in the Haight for 18 yrs before moving here). My place is nr 5th Av, which is restaurant row, and 2 blks from Union St stop.
Most of us here are fans of brownstone neighborhoods (as am I), but given your list of wants I think you really ought to consider Williamsburg (or the part of Greenpoint just north of McCarren Park). Fantastic restaurants and you can be in the Village in ten minutes if you’re near the first or second L train stops. And decent commute both to Midtown and Soho. W’burg does have a lot of hipsters, but I don’t think a yuppie would feel totally out of place. 😉
Gold St. won”t be as close to transportation, I think. I used to live in the downtown/BH area- its the most convenient and you are close to Boerum Hill, downtown, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens. Lots of transportation options, lot of great shops and restaurants. Belltel is right next to the Jay St. station and several local stops on other lines, Bklyn Hgts is close to every major line and that area, shold yo need car service, is the best place. Park Slope, as someone said is not as convenient, transportation wise.
And welcome to Brooklyn!
Do not move to Brooklyn Gold (277 Gold St)! They just got their Certificate of Occupancy last week and had people signing leases from November that were just able to move in. Here are some of their angry residents on a blog.
http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=665613&sid=63d8176ca6fca46aedc5ff404a12f891
Maybe I’m a bit of a pussy but if you expect to spend evenings going back to Manhattan, Brooklyn Heights is the only hood that seems practical to come home after work and then go out again. Everywhere else is a bit of a schlep.