Housing

Pedro and I got our housing assignment from Columbia yesterday! We were assigned to 434 West 120th Street, #2H. Our rent is $1,445 a month (a little under $100 less than what we're paying now for a 1-bedroom in Cambridge), utilities not included. The single move-in date offered is August 13.

I guess we're moving to Morningside Heights!

We are a one-bedroom on the second floor of what looks to be a ten-story building named the Poinciana. I love buildings with proper names -- think the Dakota at 72nd and Central Park West -- that almost seem like they don't need to have an address or cross street when you talk about them in conversation because everyone knows exactly where they are. I'm already getting a mental image of us getting into a cab and telling the driver: "Please take us to the Poinciana." But who am I kidding? We won't be taking cabs in New York on a grad student budget!

Here is a Google Maps satellite image of the building and its environs, with our unit highlighted by the red circle:


Although the building sits at the intersection of W120th and Amsterdam (which, I understand, is a major truck route), our unit is actually set further in and has a view of the "courtyard," which means that we won't get much sun light but that we (hopefully) also won't get much of the truck traffic noise either. The building looks like it's about a 3-minute walk from Fayerweather Hall where the history department is housed, and is around the corner from a number of useful stores like a pharmacy, pizza shop, stationer, and cafe. It's also a block away from Morningside Park, which, when I was living in Morningside Heights in summer of 2003 and working for the Parks Department, I was always told was a dodgy place. Yelp reviewers agree that the park continues to be a questionable hangout after dark, but that during the day it is quite nice. Alas, upon browsing the Parks department website, it's clear that there are no tennis courts. The closest subway station appears to be at W116th and Broadway, where the 1 makes a stop. We'll get to see plenty of Columbia's campus because we'll have to cut through the campus for the most efficient path to the subway.

The Google Maps street-view of the building's front shows what appears to be a doorman/security guard in front. We'll have to make friends with him; I hope he likes chocolate-covered macaroons.


Last but not least, the apartment itself:


We were lucky to have gotten floorplan, although Columbia's housing office didn't send any pictures. The place is probably just a smidgen smaller than our current apartment; the bedroom is narrower but longer. The living room is just about the same size, with a nice nook to the left of the closet that would make for a nice home office for Pedro. The lack of storage is going pose a real challenge (where will we put our giant stockpot or the food processor or the KitchenAid mixer?), as is the kitchenette. I'm not sure why there is a random wall separating the kitchen from the living room, which kind of limits the space and mobility that we'll have in the kitchen. When I was first planning to move to Cambridge in 2006, I had spoken with one of my favorite professors at Amherst (who happens to live in this rambling New England farmhouse with a kitchen the size of a New York deli) about my disappointment in the apartment's rather squalid kitchen. I can still remember her response: "There is a special pride that comes of preparing a good meal in a small kitchen." It looks like I'm going to have a lot of that special pride next year.

We're pretty much locked into this apartment, because Columbia doesn't guarantee housing again if you turn down their initial offer. Now that we have a moving date in mind, we can start to plan the rest of the summer around landing in New York on August 13. I have to give Columbia credit for being as accommodating as they were with our demands (on our application, Pedro and I listed "one-bedroom" as the only option we were willing to work with) and for making the process relatively simple and painless. Although the housing assignment lacked transparency, I can understand that, when one office is in charge of doling out 7,000+ units of housing, you don't really want a back-and-forth with every single tenant.

It's becoming more and more real with each passing day that we're moving to New York and that I'm starting grad school this fall. Getting the housing assignment is one more step in that direction. Hooray!