New City Living: The Apartment

By Lev Novak

Welcome to your new city.

If you’re moving somewhere for work, for college, or to escape the wrath of a meth-dealing collective, you’re going to want to find a way to make your new apartment as welcoming as a spot. Well, not for the last one- there you’re going to want a safe-house or something, but for the first two, you’ll be doing a different sort of apartment hunting. So, what should you do?

1: Do Your Homework

Let’s say you’re trying to move to New York. Especially if you live in a different city, looking for housing in a second city can be tremendously difficult, and it can be easy and a time saver to make assumptions. You’ve heard of New York, after all: you know you can’t afford Manhattan, that Williamsburg is for hipsters, and that Queens is too far away. So now what?

First, go back. You didn’t do your homework there- you made assumptions instead. Rather than subscribing to assumptions of your new city, look deeper. You can’t afford Times Square- nor would you want to- but maybe gentrified northern Manhattan would be your style. Maybe- just maybe- you can find a spot in the hip wasteland of 1st ave. Maybe Astoria in Queens is more your speed- it’s the new Brooklyn, as people say, and the square footage there is infinitely better than a Williamsburg loft. Whatever you end up deciding, you can’t afford to make assumptions. Do your homework instead on the specifics of the area.

2. Lock In Essentials

For me, this means minimizing risk. Since you’re moving to a new city, you’re more likely to screw up. Maybe it turns out all your friends live in the opposite part of town. Maybe the apartment you got is perfect- but chances are it isn’t.

So, what do you do when you know so little? Simple. Lock in the essentials.

Is it safe? Is there nothing actively wrong with the apartment? Is it not hard to travel to or from? That’s good enough. Anything else is just bonus points for your apartment. When you don’t know the city, where you’ll be or what you’ll be happiest doing, getting the essentials down is the most important thing. Your life will be flexible- the essentials aren’t.

3. Be Able To Host

You’re moving to a new city. And that’s exciting! It’s going to be great…but it’s going to start out lonely.

So, what do you do? Leaving to visit yourself is nice in small doses, but too much of it turns into running from your city. So what do you do?

Simple: host.

Hosting combines two important things in one. First, it gives you a friend from home to alleviate boredom and home-sickness, and second, it gives you a partner in crime to explore the city with. By the end of the visit you’ll feel better in the short term (you just had a great time) and the long-term (you just found a burger place and a bar you love.) Hosting someone also lets you take ownership of your apartment in your own head. You’re not a visitor or a tourist here now: you’re a host. You’re a citizen now.

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