The single place I've lived the longest in my life was a little apartment in "East Williamsburg" (read: Bed-Stuy / Bushwick). I was five stops away from the LE

The single place I've lived the longest in my life was a little apartment in "East Williamsburg" (read: Bed-Stuy / Bushwick). I was five stops away from the LES on the JMZ and the L and my rent barely notched up annually. Back when I worked around Wall Street, it was 30-minutes door-to-door, and if hanging out in Manhattan during the summer I'd sometimes walk home from anywhere below 23rd street. When I first got that apartment in 2001, my rent was $900 and when I finally left after 11 years, my rent was $1,350. I loved that little apartment, the neighborhood - which has barely changed since, and my neighbors. I was truly sad to leave it. I've been trying to convince other friends who moved to NYC to stop complaining about rent and join the common folk in the other boroughs, some of whom never left Manhattan except to head to and from the airport. I can't imagine what NYC looks like from that perspective, but I'm positive it's a lesser view.