New York City / Brooklyn, New York

ty457u / Living in NYC / Updated 2yr
★★★★

Why did you choose to live in Brooklyn instead of Manhattan?

I've lived in NYC 10 years now. I've lived in both north and south Brooklyn during that time and never seriously considered living in Manhattan.

Among the reasons:

Price. I can get more in BK than in Manhattan.

Location. It's really important to me to be in a neighborhood I enjoy walking around. There are parts of Brooklyn I could get more for my money but I'd never live in because it's not interesting to wander in. The parts of Manhattan that fill this requirement are out of my price range.

Proximity to friends. 90% of my friends live in Brooklyn. Thus so do I.

Density/types of apartments available. I don't want to live in a high rise. I don't want to step out of my building into a crowd of people.

Finally I'm gonna be honest here: I associate Manhattan with work and I don't feel like I have a ton in common with anyone living in either the neighborhoods I like but can't afford or the neighborhoods I don't like and can afford.

Put another way: do I want to share a wall with 5 entitled NYU students, a trust fund DJ, someone who's modeling their life after Sex and the City, or a finance bro? Or do I stay in Brooklyn where my friends are and talk shit on my stoop with my Italian landlord? At the end of the day Brooklyn feels like home. Manhattan is the place I go for work and avoid going to on the weekends if at all possible.

docker_dre / living in Brooklyn / updated 2yr
★★★

Why did you choose to live in Brooklyn instead of Manhattan?

i moved to bushwick for the diy rock and roll scene, then moved to crown heights for the real estate (and to run from bushwick bedbugs).

having lived on the upper west side i can tell you that the difference is community and people. there's a lot more entitlement in the moneyed parts of the city. here everyone generally assumes everyone's in it together, although that has changed during my time here, and i am reasonably sure gentrifier resentment is building. covid and the associated unemployment probably didn't help that.

and there aren't duane reades or banks of america every fifteen feet.

wpids / living in Brooklyn / updated 2yrs
★★★

Questions Before Moving to Brooklyn

Easy. Like others have said, you might need to cycle through some people (a lot of temporary people who are only here 2-3 years, etc.). Usually by year 2 you will have a solid group of friends to do the countless pre-COVID things NYC has to offer. As for neighborhoods:

-Williamsburg/Greenpoint for primarily yuppie stuff (wealthier) with lots of nightlife and shopping (boutiques). Formerly the hipster capital of NYC (back when hipsters existed).
-Bushwick if you like cheaper but definitely less clean and less wealthy but similar to the previous 2 (by similar I mean initially artist/musician gentrification enclaves).
-DUMBO is the SOHO of Brooklyn architecturally. Very wealthy, nightlife leans 30-50 something.
-Fort Greene/Clinton Hill/Brooklyn Heights/Cobble Hill/Boerum Hill/Prospect Heights/Park Slope/Downtown Brooklyn also wealthier, plenty of nightlife and shopping but leans more 30-50 something, really beautiful since it is the old Brooklyn.
-Bed-Stuy/Crown Heights (next to the previous) are less wealthy (much cheaper), plenty of nightlife, also part of old Brooklyn so really beautiful, younger (20-30 somethings), traditionally West Indian and African American.
-Red Hook feels like a village on the outskirts of old Brooklyn. By NY harbor. Beautiful.
-Sunset Park have a crap load of great food and culture from different regions of the world (not as much as a lot of Queens neighborhoods but for BK, they are up there). Nightlife picking up but still not the same as those other neighborhoods, by that I mean nightlife white people are down with but you can always go to old Chinese karaoke spots where they still allow you to smoke cigarettes inside if that's your thing.

Least and most favorite thing is that it is crowded. It's great that it's a 24 hour city and dense like many Asian cities. But with that comes noise (less so with COVID, depending on neighborhood), stress, and the summertime smells of hot garbage.

Total-Figure3365 / Living in Brookylyn / Updated 2yr
★★★

Brooklyn Born and Raised.

If you really are serious about moving here long term the sincerest answer I can give you without knowing more about you is I think you should rent an apartment or sublet a place for a minimum of 6 months, but I'd a full year would be better.

NYC is a very strange place(that's the best way to put it)every borough has its own culture, that rings true especially through Manhattan and Brooklyn. If Brooklyn was an independent city and not a borough of NYC it would be the 4th largest city in the country. Again I don't know anything about you so based off of the info you provided Id have to say North Brooklyn. estimation for a 2 bed 1.5 bath, $3000-$3500 and there's still a big depends on what you "want, need, willing to tolerate/able to adapt to", factor. The backyard is possible, but will add in cost or decrease value.

You're gonna be working remotely from home, so you'll be spending at minimum 40 hours a week at home assuming you sleep 8 hours a night and (not including weekends)that's another 40 so 2/3 of your work week is accounted for already and you're married I'd really consider that the will "want and need" at about 43%-45% and "tolerate/adapt to" at 12% so recommendation: it's extremely important that you find a place that suits the 2 most important goals you need a place where you're capable of getting your work done just about as much as you want and need a the ideal space to live/sleep/relax-co-exist. This is good/bad scenerio type thing. The good part is that the space you occupy will need to be evenly ideal for both of you to work out of evenly ideal for both of you live in. You know yourselves you know each other you'll figure it out easily. The bad part is the timing. This is literally the best advice on finding out if the neighborhood is good or bad especially in NYC. You've picked a place and everything seems good. To absolutely ensure that is the best place for you-- go back on Friday night and Saturday night from 9pm-2am in the summer. Why? Because you'll see your neighborhood at it's worst or best. Just in case I'll elaborate. Your neighborhood will look, sound and smell like 2 different worlds if you saw it once on a Tuesday morning in the winter vs the time mentioned above. If you don't like it at the time mentioned above you should reconsider.THE BAD PART if you plan on moving or visiting within the next few weeks, it would be nearly impossible for you to get a read on the neighborhood it's winter During the COVID-19 Pandemic. I've lived here my entire life and I've never seen it like this.

Finally take into account what you like to do on your free time. If you absolutely must have a car add $500/MTH for parking in to your budget. If a car isn't necessary you'll get where ever you need to go via public transportation or Uber Lyft. If you have any questions feel free to comment or message me. Otherwise, welcome to Brooklyn,NY when get here.

THIS is Why I Moved To Brooklyn! (And Left Manhattan…)