The Hunt, Part I (Chef's Kitchen)...

The hunt is officially on... The hunt for an apartment in Manhattan is considered to be one of the most challenging experiences a New Yorker must endure, and I will testify that there is a lot of truth to that. I have been looking at the ads for the past two months, but it wasn't until this week that I started making the phone calls, and treading the pavement to go out and see what there is available.

My budget is a max of $1,600 (which is paltry by NYC standards, given that the average studio in Manhattan is more than 2k a month), and I am pretty adamant about living as close to the center of it all as possible. That means that I want to be below Central Park (59 St) and prefferably between Third and Ninth Avenues. Of course, nearly all of what is available that I can afford is outside of those parameters, but apartments do pop up. I want to be as close to the center of it for the simple reason that you can walk to nearly everything from the middle of Manhattan. Uptown, Downtown, anywhere... I want to be able to walk out of my front door with my camera and wander around my 'hood (or others close by), and take pictures like I did in the Loop in Chicago. Thats important to me. Of course, finding a place in the center means I must be willing to compromise... A LOT... Especially on space.

So after looking at literally hundreds (if not thousands) of ads on Craigslist, and elsewhere, I have come to the conclusion that everything they say about a place is a bold faced lie, including the price sometimes. The photo above was pulled from a Craigslist ad which was headlined "$1600 GREAT STUDIO-GREAT PRICE-GREAT LOCATION-CHEFS KITCHEN-MUST SEE NOW!!!" Upon clicking on the ad, there are two pics. One featuring the corner of a room (no visible windows) and the other this lovely chef's kitchen. Now I don't really know any chefs, but I would guess that there isn't a chef on the planet that would see this pic and think "Hmmm, I could really do some fancy cookin' in this kitchen!"

Of course this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the claims made on rental ads. The use of adjectives is criminal, and in any other industry, it would be considered completely unacceptable. Back in the days of yore, grocer's sold the "Jumbo Gallon" A gallon is a gallon, and there is no jumbo about it. Well, in apartment ads, jumbo could mean that the apartment is 150 square feet. Ample closets can be a closet that is two feet wide, just as a walk-in closet only means that you could stand in the empty closet and close the door. Of course, it they were forced to tell the truth about places, they would never be able extort the rent out of them. People see a half dozen apartments, and out of frustration take what ever they can get, and put up with the results.

Well, as I noted earlier... I fully began my search for my home this week, and at this point I have seen seven places. One place (a second floor back of the building unit) was about 175 sq ft for $1,625 in Hell's Kitchen (48th btwn 8th and 9th). The kitchen looked very much like the one in the photo, only with even less counter space. The unit looked to be in an old hotel, and the kitchen looked to be in what was once the closet. The main room was about 10x12 with a cheezy closet added in the corner. The only good thing about the place was that it had a normal bathroom. Again, it must have been a hotel.

Stay tuned as this saga is to be continued...