New York Nesties
MrsKocal
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Moving to NYC? Read this First!
Hi Nesties!
Welcome to the Big Apple! Whether you are definitely moving here, or just thinking about it, we are sure there are lots of questions on your mind.
We've compiled answers to our most-asked questions about moving to NYC - everything from how to choose a neighborhood to how we do our grocery shopping - and posted them below.
If you don't find the answers that you are looking for, feel free to post on our board and ask. And when you do move here, we would love to have you as an active participant on our board - we have the best GTGs on the Nest!
We are happy to have you in our city, and we hope that we can help make the move a little easier.
Welcome to NY!
Re: Moving to NYC? Read this First!
I will start with giving a shout out for my neighborhood, Bayside, Queens.
Queens has lots of areas that are more like the suburbs (but it also has areas that are more city-like - look along the subway lines if that's what you are looking for). In Queens, it's possible to have a house, a backyard, a basement, walk-in closets.... :-)
Bayside is along the LIRR, so you can be in Manhattan in 25 minutes (to Penn Station). You will likely still need a car, though - there are areas in Bayside that are very walkable, but you can do more if you have a car to get around. The schools are great, it's the best school district in NYC (District 26). It's very safe and there is lots to do (Bell Boulevard has awesome restaurants and lots of shopping).
And as far as grocery shopping - I live in Queens and have a car, and I STILL have Fresh Direct deliver to my house! It's the best thing EVER!
welcome to NYC! the first thing to know is that new yorkers are BUSY, NOT RUDE! trust me when i say that in times of trouble, ny'ers definitely stop to help.
i have lived in queens and brooklyn, and so i can speak a little bit to the benefits of each borough, as they are vastly different from one another.
of the two, queens is much more suburban feeling. it was a GREAT place to transition into moving to a big city (i come from rural-ish pennsylvania originally), and it's also a great place to get a lot of bang for your buck, housing wise. in queens, you can expect things like yard space, and sometimes even driveways. we lived in middle village, near juniper park, and it was a very family-oriented neighborhood, but still within reasonable distance of the subway, as well as the queens center mall, and all the other big shops and such on queens blvd. you definitely need a car if you live in queens (unless you live in astoria, queens is pretty spread out).
after 3 years in queens, brooklyn is where i live and work now, and where my husband and i have chosen to buy a home. there are many great neighborhoods, and each definitely has its own personality, so you definitely have to do your own exploring to see which one is the right fit for you. some that i enjoy are fort greene, cobble hill, boerum hill, carroll gardens, park slope, and prospect heights. all of these are known for their wide selections of restaurants, as well as for being safe (and ethnically diverse) places to live.
in brooklyn, you do NOT need a car. (i sold mine after living in brooklyn for a year, and don't miss it one bit!) you can get anything delivered. seriously, anything. in most stores, you can even go to the grocery, do all your shopping, and just take home the meats and dairy products, and have them deliver the rest to your door later that day! that said, if you ever get a chance......get thee to fairway, in the red hook neighborhood. it's a hike to get there, but well worth the journey. it's a great market, with an open-air cafe that has waterfront space and views of the statue of liberty.
i know that it can be hard to find doctors when you move to a new place, and so i'd like to recommend mine. i am VERY persnickety with doctors, and i have a wide array of medical conditions, so i can safely say that these are people who know what they're doing:
primary care: stephen dillon is the best. doctor. ever. i have recommended him to all my friends, who are now all regular patients, and will also tell you he is the best guy around. a true class act with actual concern for his patients, and the know-how to back it up. 314 w14th st in manhattan (212) 620-0144
derm: javier zelaya (2 locations, so here's his website instead) www.skinworksny.com
pain management: herschel kotkes. this man is sent directly from god, or who/whatever you believe in. http://nyspinemd.com/
dentist: jim sarji will get your teeth gleaming clean. 206 7th ave in brooklyn(718) 788-8009
gyn (no OB work): carla savetsky (nurse practitioner) is holistic and caring. 148 madison ave, suite 200, in manhattan. (212) 252-0111
and last but not least, if you need a good haircut at a decent price, creative on 9th street in brooklyn has never done me wrong. they did our hair for a friend's wedding, and it held up all day, and their cuts always get me compliments. i see either sanela or arielle. (718) 788-8796
Emerald Nuts Midnight Run (4m) 1/1/12
Coogan's Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks Run (5k) 3/4/12
Colon Cancer Challenge (15k) 4/1/12
Purple Stride NYC (5k) 4/21/12
Run to Combat Autism (5k) 4/29/12
RnR Philadelphia (Half Marathon) 9/16/12
Welcome! There are so many things that can seem overwhelming at first when you move to the city, and over time you will find fantastic ways to adapt to things that at first seem insurmountable.
I have to ditto the Fresh Direct, it's AMAZING. I happen to live near a great grocery store so I do a mix of both, but I love Fresh Direct for the heavy/bulky items that are hard to carry. I've also gotten a lot of fresh produce from them and it's always been excellent quality. If you go to a traditional grocery store just expect it to be smaller, a bit more expensive than you might be used to, and it won't have the huge selection of generic brand goods. That said, you will find everything you need, plus all kinds of great foods that aren't often available in suburban stores. I have a bunch of RUME bags http://www.rumebags.com/shop/RuMe?gclid=COCa5rrFx6cCFQY65QodQB33Eg that I keep in my purses (seriously, I have one on me at all times) and I use them for shopping of all kinds to cut down on the overuse of plastic bags. The RUME ones are great in particular because I can carry them on my shoulder and they hold a ton of stuff.
I was stunned, to put it lightly, by how much less space, particularly in terms of closets, you get for your money here. That said, it's not hard to adapt. You learn to get rid of what you don't need, and you find that The Container Store and IKEA will save your life in terms of storage solutions. You can take a free ferry from near South Street Seaport to the IKEA in Brooklyn. For real, probably 75% of the furniture/storage organization in my apartment comes from IKEA.
You can get ANYTHING delivered. For real. This includes tp, floss, groceries, breakfast, clothing....if you want it, you can have it brought to you. Menupages is a good start for checking out local dining, but I prefer yelp or chowhound for more reliable info about restaurants.
You will figure out the subways faster than you think. There are mini-versions of subway maps (although I admit I can't remember where I got mine, but it folds in half to the size of a business card) and they are really helpful when you need to see which lines are near you, and where they go. If you have a droid you can download NYCMate, it's a subway map but also keeps you informed of service alerts/changes in the schedule etc. I'm sure there is a comparable iphone app.
No matter where you end up living you will find that you can get most everything you need within a few blocks. You should be able to get to at least one deli/corner store, a liquer store, a grocery, and a huge variety of restaurants in almost every neighborhood in Manhattan. This holds true for many places in the other boroughs, but the further out you go the more residential it will become.
Movies are expensive, but you can go to the AMC/Lowes theatres before noon any day of the week for half-price tickets, even on brand new releases.
It is HOT and humid in the summer. If you don't have AC built in, make sure you get a good window one for at least your bedroom. Any store you buy this from will deliver it, probably for a small fee.
There is a great farmer's market in Union Square on Saturday and Wednesdays, even in the winter.
You can get to the beach with public transport! There are a few options, but my favorite is Long Beach because it feels like California to me. You can take the LIRR from Penn Station straight out to Long Beach station, and it's a 5 minute walk straight to the beach. Your round-trip train ticket includes admission to the beach. There are some cute restaurants that are easily walkable around the train station, and since it takes less than an hour to get there it's a perfect summer day trip!
There are so many things, I may post again as I think of other stuff!
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