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I've lived in NY all my life, in both Manhattan and the Bronx. I also used to go to Staten Island weekly. Here are some notes: * The Bronx: I lived in Woodlaw
by dsacco 12y ago
I've lived in NY all my life, in both Manhattan and the Bronx. I also used to go to Staten Island weekly. Here are some notes:
* The Bronx:
I lived in Woodlawn. I think it's very interesting that it's one of the most affordable areas to live considering it was recently reported as one of the safest places in the Bronx.
It also has fair demographic diversity, is extremely close to public transportation (buses run through the area and it's all within walking distance of Metro-North, 30 minutes from Grand Central). I lived in a three bedroom apartment with all utilities for $2400 a month.
Really, great place to live. If anyone is considering a place in NYC with easy access to Manhattan that is safe and affordable, look into Woodlawn.
To contrast this, Riverdale is also a nice area, but it's technically not as safe (parts of it are wealthy, but most of it is not). The safest areas are the colleges (Manhattan College and CUNY Lehman are both in Riverdale and their campuses are the hubs of that area). Transportation access is about the same.
* Staten Island
Amazingly cheap, but at the same time, you can't get to any of the wealthy areas of the island without going through a slum. It's literally a stereotypical case of the wealthy living on the top of a giant hill overlooking the working class/poor who live at the bottom/outskirts of the island.
That said, the neighborhoods at the top of Staten Island, the most expensive area, were filled with mansions and were absolutely magnificent to drive through. Naturally, this was close to the large liberal arts college there, Wagner.
- cauterized 12y agoMost NYers would not consider "buses and metro north" to be decent transit options. In that case you might as well just move to westchester proper.
- rmxt 12y agoFrom Woodlawn you can take buses to 3 different subway trunk lines, with access to both the East Side and West Side, in addition to an Express Bus to Midtown East and the Metro-North to Grand Central. Those are pretty decent transit options. Unless you're fortunate enough to live in the closer-in areas of Queens or Brooklyn, or Manhattan itself, those also the only options for "most NYers". Aside from 24-hour subway access to the city, living within the city limits, as opposed to Westchester, also gives you the perk of being able to hail a yellow cab and get home for a reasonable rate instead of doing the livery cab thing. See here for a map showing that ~20% (eyeballed) of Brooklyn by area is likely in the same boat as the people in Woodlawn. http://iquantny.tumblr.com/post/100729370274/found-the-brooklyn-residence-thats-farthest-from http://iquantny.tumblr.com/post/100729370274/found-the-brook... That being said, I'm not quite sure that I believe that their definition of Woodlawn is completely accurate, nor do I believe that it's the cheapest neighborhood in the Bronx. If the 3D-bars on the map are to be believed, it looks like Woodlawn (the area immediately to the east of the green park (Van Cortlandt) in the north center of the Bronx) and Wakefield (east of Woodlawn) are lumped together. Adding to personal experience, this map [1] suggests a pretty big wealth disparity between Woodlawn and Wakefield, with a difference of ~$20k in median household income. The border between the two is generally taken to be the Bronx River Parkway/Metro-North, and the 3D-map bars in the submission seem to gloss over that border. I would venture to say that Wakefield has a bit lower rent than Woodlawn, and that Wakefield is perhaps the cheapest neighborhood in the Bronx, but not Woodlawn. [1] http://project.wnyc.org/median-income-nation/?#13/40.8894/-73.8693 http://project.wnyc.org/median-income-nation/?#13/40.8894/-7...
- dsacco 12y agoFair point. I live in Westchester now, and most of Westchester is not within reasonable walking distance of Metro North for a daily, morning commute. All of Woodlawn is.