Being There

I’m head­ing to New York (by way of Florida) tomor­row to search for an apart­ment. The thought of it fills me with fear, verg­ing on ter­ror. The vacancy rate is less that 1%, and com­pe­ti­tion is fierce. Find­ing the right hous­ing with right mix of vari­ables is pretty per­plex­ing. There’s cost, of course, and then there’s prox­im­ity to work and ameni­ties, safety, space, and char­ac­ter of the area. Throw in bro­kers, scams, slums, and sub­lets and you’ve got a real mess. Let’s hope my expe­ri­ence is a lit­tle bet­ter than Henry Miller’s.

I’ve thought long and hard about apart­ments. Given a cer­tain price ceil­ing, the most impor­tant thing about a place to live, for me, is peo­ple. Just a lit­tle more hor­ri­ble, and then some real adventure.

UPDATE: found one!