Questions about living in New York City - Help please!

[Jon Lai]

Hey guys, looking for some help here.

First off I'm going to admit I didn't go through this thread past the first 10 posts, due to the extensive length :D Please excuse any repeated questions.

I'm potentially going to be staying in NYC for 4 months working in mid-town Manhattan and have quite a bit of questions regarding my stay. I've lived in Markham for the majority of my life, so I'm kind of nervous as to how this will be like. I've been to NYC twice, but living there is another thing. I'd like to hear all your related experiences :)

1) Where to live - Suggestions on where to live and where to look for a non-sketchy place that's a good bang for the buck. Nothing too fancy but would like to keep a good standard of living if possible. How far does money go in terms of short term leases? I have checked out prices on Craigslist and they seem to be all over the place, even for comparable quality places, so I'm sure I'm missing something. I prefer my own room, although I'm not opposed to sharing common facilities, it would be nice to have a place all to myself within reasonable cost, considering I'll be there more or less alone.
2) Money - how far does it go compared to in the GTA? If I can live on $100 a week in Toronto, what should I expect to spend for comparable quality standard of living in NYC? Any tips on being RFD in NYC? Are there any places similar to Wal-Marts or dollar stores even remotely close to the city, reachable by subway?
3) Chinese communities - can someone comment on NYC's Chinatown, and the Chinese population outside of that. I come from Markham, so I expect to be disappointed, but how disappointed should I be?
4) Security - any tips on what I should and should not do during my stay, places to avoid past Xpm, etc.

Thanks.

[Laflare]

Places are double from downtown toronto..so expect 4k a month for something ud pay 2k for in Toronto downtown. Food is expensive but there is a dollar store near union square..cheapest option in manhatten. No walmarts in manhattan but there's a few kmarts. midtown is good but I'd avoid east of 2nd ave unless your in east village. Best areas to live are west village, gramercy, east village , union square area, and Chelsea Then obviously soho, noho and nolita but prices are insane there. Cheapest midtown area is in Kips bay but it looks sketchy though it really isn't. You could get a place in Brooklyn, Willaimsburg is really nice and safe.

Chinatown is small compared to toronto but wouldnt even want to be there much.

[Nyte]

First, if your company provides housing assistance (as in they will find a place for you), just take it. Trying to find a place there short term as a non American is hell.

Laflare posted the neighborhoods you can look in if you decide to do it on your own. One place I would recommend is Stuyvesant Town, it's about a 30 min trip to midtown. Manhattan itself is very safe, as far as I could tell. Once you're outside of that, it'll vary a lot; not that uncommon to walk around and find cars with bullet holes in them in the Bronx for example. The few times I was walking around in Brooklyn at night, it felt really shady and unsafe, on the other hand, I saw a cop drive by every 30 seconds or so.

Chinese communities, there's the Chinatown downtown. I suppose that could be a good cheap place to get food if you're used to that kind of environment. There's also Flushing, which is about an hour train ride away.

In terms of money, I don't really know how things are in Markham specifically, but the twice as much sound about right. I'm assuming you're going there because you have a good high paying job, so enjoy yourself and don't try to cheap out on everything, even though it may feel expensive at first. In terms of food, I actually found it much better to just eat out due to the lack of a properly stocked kitchen and lack of good quality ingredients at a decent price.

Other random things:
Get yourself a metrocard, it's dirt cheap compared to the TTC and gets you just about everywhere.
The expected tip is around 18 - 20%.
$250/night will get you a pretty crappy hotel room.
Make sure you ride a taxi at some point, some of those guys are really crazy (very skilled, but still crazy).

[Corleone187]

If it's your work then they will pay for it for sure and even give you extra spending money so no worries.

I never knew a job that would never pay for your place if they tell you to go somewhere...but there maybe some I don't know if they want to give you a hard time

Food is dirt cheap. Like 25 cents for a pizza or even free
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/nyregion/in-manhattan-pizza-war-price-of-slice-keeps-dropping.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

[dragon_drift]

Avoid Harlem, Bronx, Corona, Jamaica and mid-eastern Brooklyn and you'll be fine.

There's a Chinatown in Manhattan, Flushing, Queens; Sunset Park and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

Note: Demographics wise, plenty of Cantonese followed by increasing Fujianese population, other Mainlanders and Taiwanese (mostly in Flushing).

My favorite is the Flushing Chinatown as it's more modern and clean. Many Cantonese, Taiwanese and Koreans reside here. It's like our version of Markham IMO.

Sunset Park Chinatown is along 8th avenue and it's dirty and shady at night. Cantonese and Fujianese here. Hong Kong celebritiy Jin is from here.

Bensonhurst is where all the Cantonese moved to and an emerging Chinatown, but smaller than the other Chinatowns mentioned. It's like our version of Agincourt, Scarborough.

I recommend checking out Manhattan and Flushing Chinatowns. The other ones you can skip as you're not missing much. Get a metro pass as driving is not feasible in New York City.

I think food is pretty cheap in Queens and Brooklyn, but obviously Manhattan will be expensive as it's the place to be.

[Jon Lai]

I get housing stipend but no corporate housing, so gotta look for one myself. If anyone has any experience here, it'd be great, as it's kind of sketchy looking for a place over the internet so far away. My friend's suggesting Upper East Side but I'm still looking. Anyone here have an apartment you can rent out to me for 4 months? :D I know there's a lot of rich people here with tons of real estate on hand, lol.

Thanks for all the comments about the Chinatowns, I'm likely staying in Manhattan most of the time so I guess I'd probably be visiting that one the most. Any go-to places that you guys have in the area?

The "free" pizza thing definitely looks interesting! Would not have expected such to exist in NYC. Any more tips? I'm not trying to be cheap or anything, but it'd be nice to be RFD even when I'm down there, haha.

Any interesting things to do inside Manhattan other than the obvious? I've been there a few times before so I've been to most of the sights already, and will unlikely be revisiting most of them again. Thanks.

[brunes]

The "free" pizza thing definitely looks interesting! Would not have expected such to exist in NYC. Any more tips? I'm not trying to be cheap or anything, but it'd be nice to be RFD even when I'm down there, haha.


If you have not yet then I would start hanging out in the Fatwallet.com or Slickdeals.com forums. They both have local deals sections for NYC.

[wilsonlam97]

If you have not yet then I would start hanging out in the Fatwallet.com or Slickdeals.com forums. They both have local deals sections for NYC.

& abandon us Canadians? ;(

[Nyte]

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention, think about how you're doing your laundry as most places won't have machines. There are laundromats everywhere, but then either you need to stick around to watch your stuff (can be quite time consuming) or you pay them to do it for you (gets quite expensive).

[Phils]

For 6 months about 11 years ago I had a studio apartment on 51st and 3rd avenue. Needless to say, that's a great location. My company paid $2,500 a month at that time.
BTW, the building had a 24hr doorman which is kind of mandatory and washing machines and dryers in the basement.

As a tourist, I stayed Secaucus NJ, and the NJ Transit bus ride into Port Authority was 20 minutes. That could be a much more economical alternative.

[0xffff]

Other random things:
Get yourself a metrocard, it's dirt cheap compared to the TTC and gets you just about everywhere.
The expected tip is around 18 - 20%.
$250/night will get you a pretty crappy hotel room.
Make sure you ride a taxi at some point, some of those guys are really crazy (very skilled, but still crazy).

1) NYC Metro is almost the same price as TTC ($2.50 / ride vs $3.00 / ride), not sure how you're making that comparison.
2) If you know how to find hotel deals, you can pay a lot less than $250 / night for a good hotel. I got a room in a 4 star hotel for $160 / night when I was there a month ago. Expert dealfinders have posted results south of $150 for an equivalent starred hotel during the same time period.
3) Just as the average rent is double in price, the average craziness per taxi driver is doubled. It's really crazy there. However, it's important to note that taxis are half the price compared to Toronto, so that's a huge bonus.

[Drew87]

1) NYC Metro is almost the same price as TTC ($2.50 / ride vs $3.00 / ride), not sure how you're making that comparison.
2) If you know how to find hotel deals, you can pay a lot less than $250 / night for a good hotel. I got a room in a 4 star hotel for $160 / night when I was there a month ago. Expert dealfinders have posted results south of $150 for an equivalent starred hotel during the same time period.
3) Just as the average rent is double in price, the average craziness per taxi driver is doubled. It's really crazy there. However, it's important to note that taxis are half the price compared to Toronto, so that's a huge bonus.

I was just in New York - I had the Metro card and I was charged 2.25 a swipe.... Just saying.

[Jon Lai]

For 6 months about 11 years ago I had a studio apartment on 51st and 3rd avenue. Needless to say, that's a great location. My company paid $2,500 a month at that time.
BTW, the building had a 24hr doorman which is kind of mandatory and washing machines and dryers in the basement.

As a tourist, I stayed Secaucus NJ, and the NJ Transit bus ride into Port Authority was 20 minutes. That could be a much more economical alternative.

Cool, how did you find the place? I suppose the internet wasn't as developed as it is now :P

I'm a bit uncomfortable putting money into a place before seeing it in person. I've done it before for school, but it's really not the same when it's NYC. I hear there's a lot of housing scams going on.

My plan is to try to be as economical as possible within Manhattan. I've considered other parts of town but from other's experiences I hear the train ride sucks during rush hour, and I'd probably be willing to spend a bit more per month if it helps save time travelling everyday.

Come on, some of you here must own real estate in NYC that you can lease out to me for 4 months :) It'd be great if I could somehow find a landlord that's dealt with Canadian renters before.

[Nyte]

1) NYC Metro is almost the same price as TTC ($2.50 / ride vs $3.00 / ride), not sure how you're making that comparison.
2) If you know how to find hotel deals, you can pay a lot less than $250 / night for a good hotel. I got a room in a 4 star hotel for $160 / night when I was there a month ago. Expert dealfinders have posted results south of $150 for an equivalent starred hotel during the same time period.
3) Just as the average rent is double in price, the average craziness per taxi driver is doubled. It's really crazy there. However, it's important to note that taxis are half the price compared to Toronto, so that's a huge bonus.

1) Hmm.. you're right, it's fairly even now after all the rate hikes. I was referring to the unlimited card, which used to be $76/mo ($104 now); it worked out to $1.90/ride assuming you ONLY use it to get to and from work and don't go anywhere on weekends. The TTC version is now $126 (or $104 student). My point about it actually being able to get you everywhere still holds though (at least within Manhattan).

2) That may be true, but keep in mind that if he needs to get a hotel in a hurry (kicked out of a place, housing plan didn't actually work out, whatever), there isn't time to shop around for deals.

[0xffff]

1) Hmm.. you're right, it's fairly even now after all the rate hikes. I was referring to the unlimited card, which used to be $76/mo ($104 now); it worked out to $1.90/ride assuming you ONLY use it to get to and from work and don't go anywhere on weekends. The TTC version is now $126 (or $104 student). My point about it actually being able to get you everywhere still holds though (at least within Manhattan).

2) That may be true, but keep in mind that if he needs to get a hotel in a hurry (kicked out of a place, housing plan didn't actually work out, whatever), there isn't time to shop around for deals.

1) Absolutely. While the price is the nearly the same, the metro system is NYC is far more extensive and developed than here. Granted, it can be a pain in the ***** to find out how to hop around from station to station to get on the train you want from the closest station you're near, it doesn't take too long (a few days). However, the "hey, this train is now an express to Harlem, but we're not going to tell you that until you're seated and the doors are closing" is an issue, something I never managed to figure out.

2) No shopping around really.. priceline. And if there is a desperate need for a room to sleep in, you can find shared places almost anywhere in the city with airbnb. You're looking at $100 per day for a decent room in manhattan. Less if you're willing to stay in brooklyn.

[Phils]

Cool, how did you find the place? I suppose the internet wasn't as developed as it is now :P

I'm a bit uncomfortable putting money into a place before seeing it in person. I've done it before for school, but it's really not the same when it's NYC. I hear there's a lot of housing scams going on.

My plan is to try to be as economical as possible within Manhattan. I've considered other parts of town but from other's experiences I hear the train ride sucks during rush hour, and I'd probably be willing to spend a bit more per month if it helps save time travelling everyday.

Come on, some of you here must own real estate in NYC that you can lease out to me for 4 months :) It'd be great if I could somehow find a landlord that's dealt with Canadian renters before.

I didn't have to find the place. My company did it for me. I just posted to give you an idea about costs. I believe thoough that they went through a real estate agent. About a year later, I had another project in NYC and went back to my building and asked whether they had an apartment available. They said they actually had my old apartment available butthe rent was considerably higher. They told me that doing it through the agent was cheaper because she gets a substantial discount.