A Young Woman's Eye-Opening First N.Y.C. Apartment

Nineteen-year old Queens, N.Y. resident Maria Gonzalez had been dreaming about living in The Big Apple for two years When she spotted an ad for an affordable apartment on the Upper East Side, she set up an appointment immediately, taking a subway from Queens.

She wanted to avoid tipping the super, if that was at all possible. "The Beginner's Guide to Living in New York City"-the guidebook she'd been carrying around with her until its pages were dog-eared-warned there'd be no way around this "custom". The book's author-a dyed-in-the-wool Manhattanite--claimed that a month's rent was de rigueur.

Maria was looking for work as a copywriter in the city, while working low-paying temp jobs, so money was tight. Hoping against hope, she'd simply walked into the super's basement office and placed a check-her life's savings-on the card table the super used as his desk. The super had produced the lease, and she'd signed, her heart beating fast. And that was that.

This was Maria's second apartment. When she graduated from high school, Maria rented a "stop-gap" apartment-an upper floor in a Rego Park high rise in a Queens suburb. It would do-until something in Manhattan opened up. She had no complaints about the Queens apartment for the twelve months she lived there. The neighborhood was quiet and the residents polite, especially to someone who grew up in a household with six rambunctious siblings. Even the building's amenities seemed considerate: she was sometimes lulled to sleep by the soft whooshing sound the elevator doors made as they glided open and closed.

In Queens, she did her food shopping in a Ma and Pa Jewish deli. She was on a first name basis with Misha and Guta from Poland, who reminded her of bobbing dolls, since they were always shaking their heads at her. "Eat more; you're too thin!" the husband and wife team would take turns wailing. Soon she was eating pickled herring and egg salad by the quart.