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A New York Sun writer and long-time Staten Island booster explores why people are willing to pay such high prices for living spaces in Manhattan. You can read the full article by clicking on the headline above. I have provided the floorplans above. They are not from the Sun article. Here are a few highlights from the article:
"There's a point where a shorter commute to work just isn't worth the high cost of living in the city. Manhattan has become a nice place to visit, but I'm glad I don't live there anymore."
"I can't understand these purchases. When I think of all my sleepless nights due to parties in the upstairs apartment, the piano in the next apartment placed right next to my bedroom wall, the garbage truck pickups at 3 a.m., and patrons noisily exiting their favorite bar at closing time, I can only imagine how bad it is now that smokers are forced to spend much more time chatting outside."
"If I were a Wall Streeter, I could walk to the free ferry for a lovely ride, wave to the Statue of Liberty, then walk to a home where I could actually own and keep a car (condo owners have their own parking spaces). If I had millions to spend, I could buy a mansion on Staten Island instead of a measly two-bedroom in TriBeCa."
"The average rental rate for a studio in Manhattan is now $2,000 a month, and it's probably a good barometer of the great economy we're in that so many can afford such ridiculous prices. I was born in the borough, but by the time I left I had sworn never to live in an apartment in Manhattan again — and it wasn't because of the high rents."
"There has always been snobbery from Manhattanites about the "bridge and tunnel crowd" — those living in the other boroughs. As a young, single woman, I was living in a project, but at least it was in Manhattan, so I risked less disdain from the preppy crowd as long as I described it as living on the Upper East Side. What a sap I was, buying into that shallowness!"
Quotes "Snobbery Parts Fools From Money" by Alicia Colon, New York Sun writer
Ms. Colon is not a recent arrival. She's been here since '78 and used to write OP-Ed for the Advance. We miss her. She bought a Victorian in Stapleton dirt cheap and frequently writes about her love affair with the Island for the Sun.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction, I've edited the article.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more and came to the same conclusion myself about 5 years ago when we bought a beautiful three bedroom home in Sunnyside for a the same price (or perhaps even less) than we would have paid for a tiny two bedroom co-op in my then Brooklyn neighborhood. But I must comment the other side of the coin here: Staten Island is not always so "user friendly"- I was told we bought a house in a very sought after school zone and indeed research showed great scores and high praise for the school. Yet when I called for a tour of the school as a prospective parent my request was met with a dumb founded silence-4 phone calls later I finally persuaded the school to give me a tour. I was given a tour by a parent volunteer but was not allowed in any classrooms! My old "snobby" neighborhood welcomes parents and schedules school tours on a weekly basis!
ReplyDeleteIt had definitely been a trade off...