Originally created 12/24/2001
I had only 25 minutes.
After I got all the basic information from my friend Chen (he will be my guarantor for my apartment application), I had to run to the building to have a final check and decide which apartment I really want to rent. Then, I can submit application to their main office this afternoon. However, only the superintendent can show me the available apartments. He is only at the building from 12 to 1 pm. And now, it is 12:35 pm.
I didn't want to wait until the next day. I just had to move out of that New Jersey apartment as soon as possible. I could no longer stand to live with that witch…
Since New York's subway is so unreliable and messy, I really didn't want to take it to Greenwich Village and change to F to Lower East Side. It might easily take more than half an hour. So I chose to walk, one thing that I have been very good at.
From my friend’s office at TriBeCa, I took Watts Street east. Immediately, I crossed Canal Street, leaving TriBeCa behind and entered SoHo.
TriBeCa had become one of the most expensive neighborhood in the past few years. With so many celebrities moving in (including the late JFK Jr.), an one-bedroom loft in this area can price as high as one million. Robert DeNiro invested Nobu has been one of the most popular restaurants in New York and it is right at the center of TriBeCa. Walking past by these apartment buildings, I sort of feel they are characterless. A million dollars condo would definitely be overpriced .
However, due to its proximity to the World Trade Center, business in this area has been hard hit after the attack. Even rental prices starts to decline now. But it is still very unaffordable for most people, anyway.
Taking West Broadway and turning right at Spring Street, I was right in the center of SoHo. Once a favorite spot for artists and galleries, today’s SoHo is full of very expensive boutiques, mega-stores, and swamped by endless shoppers almost everyday of a week. However, the east-west streets are usually quieter than north-south avenues. Even Spring Street is right at the center of things, it was relatively unjammed at this lunch hour. I crossed Broadway, and then Lafayette, two of the busiest avenues in SoHo. There are so many fancy restaurants and coffee shops along the street, but I just had no time to stop to take a good look at their menus.
In fact, I have never been a big fan of SoHo. It is too commercialized, let alone I don’t really earn enough money to be a resident here.
After living in such a bad residence in Flushing for 9 months, I eventually had chance to move to a sublet one-bedroom in Elmhurst. Both are in Queens and I always needed to spend a lot of time to commute to work in Brooklyn and Manhattan. After my friend returned from Taiwan in late October, I had to move again. Forced to take my friend H’s place in a small apartment in Rutherford, New Jersey, I had started a daily routine with an even longer commute (usually 4 hours a day). Adding to that my new ‘roommate’ is so unpleasant to be with (fortunately H didn’t live with her).
My original plan to buy my own apartment has become the most tragic event of this century in my life (yes, personally, it hurt me much more than the 9-11). An inefficient real estate agent, two cowardly lawyers of mine, a extremely arrogant and malicious managing company who owns many apartment buildings, an easily manipulated seller, and a profoundly evil and greedy lawyer (representing the seller) from China all seemed to conspire to make my life miserable. Now the buying application was rejected and I have to hire a litigation lawyer to get my deposit back from the vicious lawyer. That deposit is a very, very huge amount of money, saved from last year’s salary, scholarship, and by staying in such a rundown and disgusting residence in Flushing.
So I don’t have much left in my bank account now. Worse yet, I don't have much left for me to trust other people. And with newly developed distaste upon the greed and arrogance of New Yorkers, my transition to Atlanta next April became a welcomed relief of my life. Since I will not have my own condo in New York, I don’t have to come back to New York after my fellowship in Atlanta ends.
So next four months would be my last days in this city.
Looking back what I have gone through in my life, this actually might only be the third worst thing in my life. But when I look back how much I loved New York and how eager I wanted to move to New York merely two years ago. It is heartbreaking to see it have to come to this bitter end.
Only four months left, for me, in this city I used call my No. 1 favorite in the world.
But I don't want to give up and I don’t want to give in. I want to make my remains of days in New York better than ever. I have to get over all the misfortunes collapsed on me by the evil denizens of this city and try to enjoy the good things only this city can offer.
So I have to move into Manhattan.
I turned north at Mulberry Street and officially entered Nolita. Nolita has become a popular heaven for some small designer’s shops and boutiques. This neighborhood looks understated but not rundown. I took a right turn at Prince Street.
South of Houston Street, you no longer find any east-west street named in numbers. Many street in SoHo have quite poetic names, spring, price, mercer…while the building I planned to move in is on a street with a famous name – Clinton.
Prince Street terminates at Bowery Street, a street described as "seedy core of New York lowlife" in Simone de Beauvoir’s "L’Amerique au jour le jour 1947." But that was in the 40's and now it is a different century. Crossing Bowery, I entered the neighborhood of Lower East Side.
If I move into the Clinton Street apartment, this will be my neighborhood.
Walking along Stanton Street, I found there are more restaurants and café along than I imagined. I know this area has gone through some real gentrification in the past couple of years, but the gentrification seems still going on everyday, even at this uncertain time.
I reached Clinton Street and turned left. It was 12:57 pm. Fortunately, the superintendent was standing next to the entrance, chatting with a staff at a café next door. So there is a café just downstairs.
I peeked outside the window of apartment 501, the only available unit facing the front. I saw the leaves falling, and drifting with winds, in this unusually warm November afternoon.
So I made an easy decision. And now, I am a Manhattanite.
It took only 25 minutes for me to arriving at my new neighborhood, even though it has taken
me 14 months to make that decision.
I had only 25 minutes.
After I got all the basic information from my friend Chen (he will be my guarantor for my apartment application), I had to run to the building to have a final check and decide which apartment I really want to rent. Then, I can submit application to their main office this afternoon. However, only the superintendent can show me the available apartments. He is only at the building from 12 to 1 pm. And now, it is 12:35 pm.
I didn't want to wait until the next day. I just had to move out of that New Jersey apartment as soon as possible. I could no longer stand to live with that witch…
Since New York's subway is so unreliable and messy, I really didn't want to take it to Greenwich Village and change to F to Lower East Side. It might easily take more than half an hour. So I chose to walk, one thing that I have been very good at.
From my friend’s office at TriBeCa, I took Watts Street east. Immediately, I crossed Canal Street, leaving TriBeCa behind and entered SoHo.
TriBeCa had become one of the most expensive neighborhood in the past few years. With so many celebrities moving in (including the late JFK Jr.), an one-bedroom loft in this area can price as high as one million. Robert DeNiro invested Nobu has been one of the most popular restaurants in New York and it is right at the center of TriBeCa. Walking past by these apartment buildings, I sort of feel they are characterless. A million dollars condo would definitely be overpriced .
However, due to its proximity to the World Trade Center, business in this area has been hard hit after the attack. Even rental prices starts to decline now. But it is still very unaffordable for most people, anyway.
Taking West Broadway and turning right at Spring Street, I was right in the center of SoHo. Once a favorite spot for artists and galleries, today’s SoHo is full of very expensive boutiques, mega-stores, and swamped by endless shoppers almost everyday of a week. However, the east-west streets are usually quieter than north-south avenues. Even Spring Street is right at the center of things, it was relatively unjammed at this lunch hour. I crossed Broadway, and then Lafayette, two of the busiest avenues in SoHo. There are so many fancy restaurants and coffee shops along the street, but I just had no time to stop to take a good look at their menus.
In fact, I have never been a big fan of SoHo. It is too commercialized, let alone I don’t really earn enough money to be a resident here.
After living in such a bad residence in Flushing for 9 months, I eventually had chance to move to a sublet one-bedroom in Elmhurst. Both are in Queens and I always needed to spend a lot of time to commute to work in Brooklyn and Manhattan. After my friend returned from Taiwan in late October, I had to move again. Forced to take my friend H’s place in a small apartment in Rutherford, New Jersey, I had started a daily routine with an even longer commute (usually 4 hours a day). Adding to that my new ‘roommate’ is so unpleasant to be with (fortunately H didn’t live with her).
My original plan to buy my own apartment has become the most tragic event of this century in my life (yes, personally, it hurt me much more than the 9-11). An inefficient real estate agent, two cowardly lawyers of mine, a extremely arrogant and malicious managing company who owns many apartment buildings, an easily manipulated seller, and a profoundly evil and greedy lawyer (representing the seller) from China all seemed to conspire to make my life miserable. Now the buying application was rejected and I have to hire a litigation lawyer to get my deposit back from the vicious lawyer. That deposit is a very, very huge amount of money, saved from last year’s salary, scholarship, and by staying in such a rundown and disgusting residence in Flushing.
So I don’t have much left in my bank account now. Worse yet, I don't have much left for me to trust other people. And with newly developed distaste upon the greed and arrogance of New Yorkers, my transition to Atlanta next April became a welcomed relief of my life. Since I will not have my own condo in New York, I don’t have to come back to New York after my fellowship in Atlanta ends.
So next four months would be my last days in this city.
Looking back what I have gone through in my life, this actually might only be the third worst thing in my life. But when I look back how much I loved New York and how eager I wanted to move to New York merely two years ago. It is heartbreaking to see it have to come to this bitter end.
Only four months left, for me, in this city I used call my No. 1 favorite in the world.
But I don't want to give up and I don’t want to give in. I want to make my remains of days in New York better than ever. I have to get over all the misfortunes collapsed on me by the evil denizens of this city and try to enjoy the good things only this city can offer.
So I have to move into Manhattan.
I turned north at Mulberry Street and officially entered Nolita. Nolita has become a popular heaven for some small designer’s shops and boutiques. This neighborhood looks understated but not rundown. I took a right turn at Prince Street.
South of Houston Street, you no longer find any east-west street named in numbers. Many street in SoHo have quite poetic names, spring, price, mercer…while the building I planned to move in is on a street with a famous name – Clinton.
Prince Street terminates at Bowery Street, a street described as "seedy core of New York lowlife" in Simone de Beauvoir’s "L’Amerique au jour le jour 1947." But that was in the 40's and now it is a different century. Crossing Bowery, I entered the neighborhood of Lower East Side.
If I move into the Clinton Street apartment, this will be my neighborhood.
Walking along Stanton Street, I found there are more restaurants and café along than I imagined. I know this area has gone through some real gentrification in the past couple of years, but the gentrification seems still going on everyday, even at this uncertain time.
I reached Clinton Street and turned left. It was 12:57 pm. Fortunately, the superintendent was standing next to the entrance, chatting with a staff at a café next door. So there is a café just downstairs.
I peeked outside the window of apartment 501, the only available unit facing the front. I saw the leaves falling, and drifting with winds, in this unusually warm November afternoon.
So I made an easy decision. And now, I am a Manhattanite.
It took only 25 minutes for me to arriving at my new neighborhood, even though it has taken
me 14 months to make that decision.
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