Apartment hunting
We arrived to reasonably good weather (for January in New York). It was cold and a light snow was falling as we taxiied to the gate, but it cleared up pretty quickly, and we made our way to the city to meet our broker, who was also a classmate from high school.
We began on the Upper West Side, with a nicely outfitted ground-floor (almost basement) apartment close to the Hudson. With the exception of one horror, most of the apartments we saw were interesting, and certainly liveable. Older buildings ("pre-war" in the New York lexicon) with character, quaint layouts (one of them had a little "maid's bathroom), and progressively getting closer to Central Park. One of the last apartments we saw on the Upper West was really nice - quiet, with huge living room + open kitchen, and an excellent school. More importantly, it was right behind the Museum of Natural History, one block from Central Park.
Crossing over to the Upper East Side, we did see some really nice apartments, including "white-gloved doorman" buildings that fit the New York stereotype of the snooty Upper East Side. One that we really liked had an indoor heated pool, party room for tenants, play room for kids, and high ceilings.
Day two was spent in the Murray Hill / Kips Bay area, and then downtown. Murray Hill / Kips Bay is really active, with lots of interesting dining options, active neighbourhoods, and a vibrancy that we didn't quite see in the Upper East or Upper West. We also have friends staying in that area, and since the school there is very good, we liked what we saw.
The Drunk's Apartment
One really surprising experience was an apartment that was occupied at the time - but the building manager said that the tenants were out. We walked in to a strong odor of cigarette smoke and alcohol - obviously the remanants of a party the previous night. High heeled boots lay strewn on the floor, and dirty dishes and glasses were piled in the sink. We tried hard to ignore all these signs, and concentrate on what the place would look like empty, clean and unfurnished. And then we opened the door to one of the bedrooms, and found one of the residents of the apartments fast asleep in a druken stupor (at 12:30 in the afternoon)!! The manager made apologetic noises and showed us the rest of the apartment. It was actually quite nice, and high on our consideration list, despite this bit of drama - and was referred to as the "Drunk's Apartment" in all subsequent conversations.
The apartments downtown and in Battery Park were quite different - some of them were converted from older office buildings, and therefore had really odd layouts. The neighbourhoods there didn't seem as child-friendly - with narrower streets, shops with garish neon signs in their windows, and a little too rough for our taste.
Reflections on a Broker
While on the subject, I want to reflect on the role of the broker. As I mentioned, the broker we worked with was a classmate from school - so perhaps our experience was special. That said, a good broker can really make a big difference to the search. In our case, he really "got" what we we were looking for, and the lists he sent us in advance of our trip, as well as the apartments he showed us, were all in the ball-park, save a few. They were in the right school districts, had the right configuration, were at the right price points, and were good candidates.
When we hit the ground, he had a sensible itinerary that gave us enough time to see each place, soak in the neighbourhood, and yet see a lot of places in the time that we had. He had made appointments beforehand, made sure we were on time, and except for one apartment where the owner changed his mind between our making the appointment and our showing up, we got to see all the apartments we were scheduled to see. He also gave us good perspective on the pros and cons of each apartment, even going so far as to point out flaws to consider in apartments that we otherwise liked - flaws that we hadn't thought about, but turned out to be deal-breakers when he brought them to our attention. There's no way we could have found a place in 2 1/2 days of searching if it wasn't for this high level of preparation and diligence. So a special hat's off to Lalit (Al) Chhibber of the Corcoran Group for a job well done.
The wild-card wins
At the end of two days of apartment hunting, we thought we had narrowed it down to 3 or 4 choices. One each on the UWS and UES and two in the Murray Hill / Kips Bay area.
On Friday evening we went for dinner with a couple I went to business school with, and Sandhya fell in love with their apartment complex - Waterside Plaza. It is located right on the East River, a few blocks South of the UN, and comprises several buildings. The complex has an indoor, heated, pool; health club, a play area for children, and lots of amenities that none of the other places had. It is some distance from the action in the area (4 blocks, perhaps), but they have a shuttle bus that runs into town every half-hour.
So we've decided to apply - I now have to get the paperwork together and submit the application. This link has some photographs and videos of the place - and while we will have a city view (not a view of the river, unfortunately), we'll still be on the 11th floor, and it should be nice. Having our friends living there will help us settle down quickly. Saravanaa Bhavan, Vatan and Pongal are just 4 blocks away, and unlike the one we have in the Bay Area, this Saravanaa Bhavan serves breakfast 7 days a week!! We've gone from wanting to be four blocks from the Met, to four blocks from Saravanaa Bhavan in one week!
The pain of the move is beginning to set in now. The thought of packing our stuff in Fremont, dismantling all our furniture, moving it to storage, buying or renting furniture in New York, assembling it, unpacking, and then settling down is quite tiring. And then we'll have to do that all over again when we return in a year. Hopefully it'll be worth it - we must make sure that we pack our weekends with all the activities that will make the experience worthwhile.
Flight woes
We had a bit of drama on our way back - we were scheduled to fly US Airways from Newark to Charlotte, NC and then to San Francisco. Our flight out of Newark took ages to get deiced, and then the deicing truck decided to breakdown right in front of the aircraft. By the time they found a tug to move the plane out of the way, we were late enough that we missed our connection. They then tried to route us via St. Louis, Phoenix and then San Francisco, but finally we got through, 7 hours late, through Phoenix. Our bags haven't arrived yet, 12 hours later, and we have our fingers crossed.
One gem was this conversation with a really rude "Special Services" agent who was handling passengers from our flight with missed connections. It turned out his computer system said that the plane left the gate in Newark 1 minute early and so he blamed "Air Traffic Control" for the delay and was refusing to compensate two ladies standing next to me. I chipped in to clarify that the delay was not due to Air Traffic Control, but was due to their (US Airways') deicing truck breaking down.
He glared at me over his glasses: "What do you know about ice?"
"I'm a pilot. I know about ice." I replied.
Several passengers around me also piped up.
He nervously picked up the phone and called someone to clarify what had happened. He obviously got brushed off by whoever was on the phone, because he came back and said "Ice is not in our control. It is natural."
I replied: "The ice didn't cause the delay. Your deicing truck breaking down is what caused the delay."
He refused to budge. "That's not within our control."
I guess he didn't have the authority to do any more - and we all gave up.
Of all businesses that are likely to come to Congress for a bailout, the Airlines probably garner the least sympathy from the public - and these silly attempts to hoodwink the public are the reasons why. When will we get a Passengers' Bill of Rights and delay compensation like the one in the EU?
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