Moving to Morningside

Today I signed a lease for a new apartment in Morningside Heights. I'm very excited about the move from Washington Heights. Although the new apartment is 50% more expensive and about 2/3 the size (making the price per square foot about 2.25 times as much), a true New Yorker will not forget the importance of location. We can deal with heaters that don't work, omnipresent roaches, noisy neighbors, and dilapidated fire escapes, but we need to be where the action is. Goodness, we live in Manhattan! If I wanted cheap rent, I would live in Queens. Queens, people! (n.b.: Here's a short interesting read on the term bridge and tunnel.)

So allow me, please, to sing the praises of Morningside Heights:

• Subway-accessible to work (10 minute ride on the 1 train)
• Park-accessible: The neighborhood is nestled between Riverside Park, Central Park, and Morningside Park.
• Food: Abundant places to buy groceries, from the common Met and corner delis, to the expansive and very reasonable Fairway, to the new and glitzy Westside Market.
• Eating out: Many great choices in this college neighborhood. I'd have to start by mentioning Toast. But there's also the Italian flavored Max SoHa's and Sezz Midi, casual dining as well as fast Asian cuisine, a nearby Cuban restaurant, Dinosaur Barbecue, Greek food, "Central Perk"-style Max's Cafe, even an Ethiopian restaurant and a couple Starbucks to boot. For coffee, however, I'm partial to the Hungarian Coffee Shop iover by the cathedral. (Don't drink the Hungarian coffee; it's terrible. Go with the Viennese coffee.)
• Exercising: The new apartment is only a ten-minute walk from Columbia's campus where I work out.
• Friends: Many of my good friends in the city live nearby, including Ezer & Jan and soon-to-be-born Simone, Justin & Wen, Mauricio, Mavis, Dustin. And Clay is moving with me. William and Katherine used to live a short walk down 122nd.
• Cultural institutions: Morningside Heights has perhaps more than any other plot its size in Manhattan. (That's right, I just made that statistic up.) But within just a square mile or so are Columbia University, Teachers' College, Barnard College, Manhattan School of Music, Union Theological Seminary, Jewish Theological Seminary, Riverside Church, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. This is no lightweight neighborhood. Lincoln Center is just another 10-minute subway ride away.
• Bookstores galore. You can find anything from Barnes & Noble to a corner used book shop. One of my favorite is Labyrinth Books which combines the best of all.
• Airport: Many people have a love-hate relationship with many things. However, nearly all New Yorkers simplify the relationship to just hate when it comes to airports. There's the wretched LaGuardia where it's surprising if the security line is shorter than 30 minutes and a shock if your flight leaves on time. There's Newark which costs an arm and a leg to get to. And then there's JFK. I think JFK is somewhere near the Hamptons. I can get to Philadelphia faster than I can get to JFK. But those are the airports we're stuck with, so as long as I have to go to LaGuardia, at least I'll be living near the M60 bus which takes me directly there.
• Church: My church meets at Union Theological Seminary, less than five minutes away. This will make it easier to have people over for lunch afterward.

Wow--I knew I liked the neighborhood, but compiling this list makes me even more excited about living there! The only thing it lacks is a Trader Joe's. I'll follow this post with some pictures I took of the neighborhood.