Hi Lynn,
I just now saw your query. I currently live in Brooklyn and work in Manhattan. I’ve lived in NYC for over 23 years now. I’ve lived on the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Midtown, Lower East Side and finally Brooklyn. I work in Tribeca, which is on the Lower West Side, about 10 blocks North of the World Trade Center site.
My answer for #1 would change slightly according to 3 factors: what year you’re talking about, whether the woman has any roommates (and if so, how many) and where she works. If you’re talking about the woman working in midtown, the Upper West Side -- anywhere from 72nd Street to 110th Street between Central Park West and Riverside Drive is good. I lived on 81st St between Columbus Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue about a block from the American Museum of Natural History in a studio apartment; on 113th Street just off Amsterdam Avenue (across from the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine – I can still hear those bells ringing -- and just south of the Columbia University campus) in a 2 bedroom apartment; on 102nd Street between Broadway and West End Avenue in a 3 bedroom apartment that I shared with 4 others.
Nowadays, most of the young professionals I know have moved to Brooklyn because Manhattan has become ridiculously expensive. If you are aggressive, have time to search and are a bit lucky, you can find good deals in Manhattan, but most affordable housing in Manhattan is inconvenient to subways, etc. The young people I know in Manhattan now have either well-to-do relatives or were lucky to find a decent, affordable space (usually by knowing someone who knows someone). You can always have your character inherit a lease from an older relative.
I know several people on the Upper West Side, Upper East Side (from 72nd Street to 96th Street between York or First Avenue and Lexington Avenue – from Park to Fifth Avenues would generally be too expensive), the Chelsea area (West side from 14th Street to 23rd Street between Sixth Avenue and Tenth Avenue), the East Village (East side from Houston Street to 14th Street between Fourth Avenue and Avenue C) and the Lower East Side (bounded by Houston Street to the North, Canal Street and East Broadway to the South, Bowery to the West and Avenue C to the East).
The most exciting and fun Neighborhoods in Manhattan to live in (in terms of neighborhood character, places to eat, shop and hang-out, and nightlife) would probably be the West Village, Greenwich Village, the East Village, SoHo, Little Italy, the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side (mostly because of the Museums and Central Park).
The answer to # 2 can vary wildly. Brooklyn is huge. I live in Carroll Gardens about a mile and a half south of the Brooklyn Bridge near the East River. It takes me an average of between 30 to 45 minutes to get to work in Tribeca (but I have a fairly long walk to the subway). If I were going to midtown, it would add approximately 15 to 20 minutes to the commute. A taxi to my office would take me about 15 minutes in no traffic up to 45 minutes or more in bad traffic. Getting to midtown by car would be horrible in heavy traffic. I have a friend who lives in Brooklyn Heights and it takes her 15 to 30 minutes to get to midtown because she lives right by a subway stop that the express train stops at. Her subway stop is only one stop into Brooklyn. My subway station is five stops into Brooklyn. I have a friend who lives way out in Brooklyn, almost in Long Island, who gets to midtown in about an hour and 15 minutes by subway (express train). If you live along one of the commuter train lines like the Long Island Railroad or MetroNorth you can get to midtown within an hour from fairly far away.
Brooklyn and Queens have several neighborhoods that are predominantly one nationality or another. When I first moved to my apartment, the area was definitely an Italian neighborhood, but the yuppies have been buying out the old-timers. In addition to what Liz listed, Greenpoint has a large Polish community; Borough Park has a large Orthodox Jewish community; Cobble Hill near Atlantic Avenue has a large Middle Eastern community; and Bedford-Stuyvesant has a large African-American community.
Amy
