Those Skyscrapers Make Serious Wind Tunnels for the Winter Winds

Hi.
Not really writing much these days.
Tired, and losing the battle with cockroaches, winter germs, apartment hunting in Manhattan and the dust from the building remodel in the hallways.
After Brett painstakingly wrote down all the "scary" parts of Star Wars III so we could fast forward them, Jonah and I watched it together tonight while Brett and Maya were out. I'm depressed about how Annikan switched over to the dark side. It reminds me a little of Wicked, and the theme of "what is evil, anyways?"...kind of a fine line sometimes. The Star Wars political situation reminds me sometimes of our own, and how we all draw these lines in the sand to define ourselves by, but really they don't mean anything. It was confusing, even to the people fighting, and at many points everyone loses sight of what they are fighting for. The truth is most people want to do good, they just define "good" differently.
Anyways, not making sense, really, just trying to give voice to the general melancholy in the air.
We went to Battery Park City today--in the endless search for a place to live our newest thinking is the way south end of the island. Brett could walk to work. Parks, water views, more space. Rents are dropping weekly in New York. We know two homeschool dad friends who have lost their jobs. We know a long time NYC family putting their beautiful apartment up for sale next week--they were planning on retiring there, but they are afraid they can't pay their bills since their costs are so high and commision business sales are down due to the general economy (she is an art dealer, he a financial planner). Another friend is moving since she says with young kids she doesn't take advantage of Manhattan, so why pay all that rent? Everyone, it seems is either on the move or hunkering down to wait it out.
We get all excited about potential investments, then it is tempered by more experienced Manhattanites--"You're excited about a Harlem brownstone that is marked down from a million dollars to 500k? I remember when they were selling them for $1 to anyone willing to live in such drug infested, crime ridden blocks."
Oh. Yeah, that.
And in New York City taxes are based on how many times a building has sold. So, like a Harlem brownstone we are considering to split with another family? Taxes are $4,000 a year. OK, fine, seems OK, that is how much they were in Wilsonville. Go south by 50 blocks to the Upper West Side? Taxes are more along the lines of $300,000 a year. WTF? Who can afford that for their taxes on the same size building? Similarly, a 2 bedroom apartment we looked at to buy in Inwood for $415k (down from $465k a few months ago), the building fees are $700 a month. And that is a selling point--cheaper than most! We have many friends paying triple this amount, just in building fees per month.
New York takes a little longer to feel the pain. But when the Wall Street bonuses go away, and the budgets are cut, the service industries feel it, and well, everyone feels it. There are $1,000 a month reductions in rents in places. Particularly in the financial district and popular banker enclaves like the East Village. It is so strange, I don't know what it is going to feel like. But taking that much off a starting rent off $5,000 still makes it out of grasp...so nothing is jumping out at us yet. Those big tall buildings may advertise as "luxury", but without high ceilings they feel like little caves. Expensive caves, but with the same cheap apartment feeling that is just opressive. Definitely we prefer pre-war buildings with good bones, but many don't have laundry or elevators, total showstoppers for us, with kids...and a lot of the "gut renovations" advertised look like, well, lipstick on a pig.
The commute for Brett from Battery Park City would be interesting--through the World Financial Center building and along the pedestrian bridge--filled with tourists looking at the World Trade Center Site, along the massive construction site and swept along by crowds of Wall Street professionals. The ones that still have jobs. The path for us to get to the nearest subway would be along the same route. It might be OK in the summer, but today in below freezing with wind, dragging two sick kids it was significantly less than fun. Especially when we walked around the wrong side of the World Trade Center and were turned back by a guard who said that route was closed because of the construction, then the sick, coughing kid had a cold-induced coughing fit that nearly resulted in throwing up and the baby's diaper leaked, rendering me urine soaked. Sigh. Not one of our better days.
One of the apartments we looked at had a reduced rent--$2700 down from $2900. The person moving out is paying the difference in rent for the remainder of the year lease period. The management office offers NO possible way to get out of a lease--if you leave early you owe the entire amount of rent not paid yet unless you find someone else to take the apartment to write a new 1 year lease. Is this even legal? Oh, of course, it's New York, the rules are different here.
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On the lighter side, Maya and Jonah are now taking a new rock climbing class and French class--Jonah wants to learn "every language there is" and Maya has been wanting to do climbing classes for years, we just hadn't gotten to it yet. Apparently Jerry Seinfeld's kid had a birthday party at the same gym.
We just finished the 2nd school quarter of the year and homeschooling is going smashingly well. Brett spent most of January in Virginia Beach but is home now for several weeks working on the report phase for this project. He is happy to be finishing that job--it hasn't been his favorite! The days are feeling longer, we have the promise of weather in the 50's this weekend, and despite the dismal apartment hunt we are more settled in our community here than ever--with an upcoming wine tasting party and birthday parties and more things to do in a day than we could possibly consider. We have a cool new Pediatrician (an old, smart guy with physics degrees from Cal-Tech and M.I.T. before med school!) and an intriguing new N.D. who claims he can fix Jonah's chemical sensitivities with his magic potions..will believe that when I see it, but I am hopeful!
Oh, by the way, my phone is missing so I had the service temporarily turned off until I manage to make contact with Tyrone, the elusive House Manager of the theater where I lost it. Don't worry, I haven't joined the Witness Relocation Program.