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As a newcomer to the city, the first obstacle you will probably be facing is finding a place to live. Sound simple? Well, if you don’t mind living in a box, then yes (though even here you’ll have some stiff competition from more seasoned hobos for prime box real estate). Alternately, if you own a fortune 500 company, you likely aren’t worrying to much about finding a reasonable place to live. For the rest of you, you’ll probably want to plan a little more carefully, so to help you find your dream apartment, or at least something big enough to fit your bed in, I’ll walk you through some steps that I think will make the transition a little easier.

STEP 1: SUBLET - Good neighborhood/bad neighborhood can be confusing enough, and you’re not even down to street level yet, so if you’re new to the city, why take a chance? There are dozens, maybe hundreds of sublets throughout the five boroughs available every single day, often at reduced rates. Take a look on Craigslist and pick one out to try for a few months.

STEP 2: ASK THE NATIVES - Your best source for information is going to be other people, preferably friends, but you can pump information from the people at work, in bars, at coffee shops, or really anywhere. Contrary to popular belief, many New Yorkers are friendly and more than willing to tell you all about the places they live. The more you find out before having to make any long term decisions, the better.

STEP 3: SLEEP AROUND - You heard right. now that you’ve got your sublet, get the hell out and sleep somewhere else once in a while. Stay with friends, lovers, accomodating strangers, anyplace but home. It’s important to leave your neighborhood and find out what its like living somewhere else for a day. If you feel comfortable enough, go ahead and walk around a few choice areas that are of interest to see if you feel at home there. Not all neighborhoods are necessarily what you’d expect, and you may be surprised at what you learn.

STEP 4: GO FOR A TEST DRIVE - Now that you’ve got some basic New York knowhow under your belt, it’s time to actually start seeing apartments. By now, you should have a general idea of what you want in an apartment and a neighborhood, and if you don’t, you’re not doing yourself any favors by rushing. At this point, it may be a good idea to visit some places that you think you can afford, just for practice. This way, you can establish more thoroughly what you’re looking for and how much it will cost you.

STEP 5: EYE OF THE TIGER: You’ve got all the information you’re going to need. It’s time to play for all the marbles. Keep looking at apartments, only this time, be ready to pounce. You’ll find that apartments come and go in a matter of days in this city, even less if they are particularly desireable, so you should be comfortable enough with your needs and limitations at this stage to make a decision on the spot. If you see something you want be prepared to snatch it up, and conversely, don’t be afraid to walk away if a place just doesn’t seem up to spec.

Now naturally, all this will take some time. If you don’t have that kind of time, or want to try and find something right away, you might want to consider finding an agent instead. Finding a qualified agent may seem even more difficult than finding a reasonable rent in Manhattan, but my friend and former employer, Niki Scevak, has built an impressive website, Homethinkin.com, that can help you if this is the path you want to take. One way or another, I wish all of my readers the best of luck finding their new digs, and hope that this advice has been helpful! Keep on watching for more lessons on Becoming a New Yorker!

Hi all, I’ve decided to slightly widen the scope of this blog by introducing a new, related section dealing with the most fundamental part of New York culture: Becoming a New Yorker!

As I myself moved here only recently, I feel that there is a lot newcomers can learn from my successes and my mistakes, so I’ll occasionally be complimenting my regular weekly adventures with advice for the city’s brave new arrivals. While I’m no guru myself, I think that my fresh perspective could really shed some light on the concerns and doubts that are only natural to those coming to this strange new world for the first time, so watch out for these nuggets of wisdom. Who knows, maybe a few of you seasoned veterans will learn a few things too!

EVENT ON MARCH 9, 2007

That’s right, another week, another taste of New York culture. Next thing on the list is Point Break Live! a live performance based on the wonderfully ridiculous movie of the same name. The movie featured such Hollywood hotshots as Keanu Reeves, Gary Busey, and Patrick Swayze, but this time the star of the show is a volunteer from the audience! How great is that?

THE EVENT

For my second cultural experience, I wanted to go with something slightly more traditional, like a museum, but my night at the museum turned out to be anything but traditional. While I was checking out possible exhibits and hours online, hoping to maybe even find one with some kind of break on pricing, I stumbled upon something unexpected: a party. As it turns out, the Guggenheim hosts a major party on the First Friday of every month that features an abundance of music and booze to go along with their fine collections of art.

Don’t get too excited though, there is a catch. Rather than paying the regular $18 admission fee, they hit you up for $25 at the door, plus the cost of “drink tickets.” Three bucks gets you a ticket, two tickets will get you a plastic cup full of beer or wine. All in all, this got pretty expensive over the course of the evening.

In addition to the steep pricing, the space got crowded quickly, and there was a long line to get in. Despite arriving twenty minutes early, it took me about an hour to get in the door, check my coat and buy my first drink.

THE SCENE

Inside, the scene was a lot like a very well lit dance club, minus the dancing. Since no one was allowed up to the exhibits with drinks in hand, most people simply stayed downstairs on the entry level, which consequently became uncomfortably crowded. Music was provided by two supposedly big name DJ’s, but no one was really paying attention, and it didn’t seem to add much to the experience. Honestly, I can’t say much to recommend this party over any other bar or club that you could get into cheaper and with less hassle, so if it’s the party scene you’re interested in, you might as well skip First Friday and go elsewhere.

If, on the other hand, you’re interested in getting a little exposure to the arts with your revelry, you can simply slug back your drink and head upstairs to the galleries. Once you get up the ramp and onto the spiraling landing where the exhibits are on display, the crowd thins out considerably, and you can take your time viewing the various pieces at leisure.

THE ART

The exhibitions currently being shown contain a variety of paintings by Spanish artists from “El Greco to Picasso,” as the gallery proudly proclaims on its walls. These pieces were separated out not by artist but by their subject matter, including still life, portraits, landscapes, and many others. In this way, I was able to see highly accurate representations of, say, a person sitting at a table, side by side with the jumbled images of a Picasso piece on the same subject. My personal favorite among these was “Peasants at a Table” by Velazquez, which I starred at for quite a while, spinning up stories in my head about the people in the painting. Dali’s “Madonna of Port Lligat,” along with much of his other work were also favorites of mine.

Religion, nobility, and death were all fairly prominent themes from these Spanish artists, whose pieces were displayed in the spiraling main gallery, but branching out to the side I found another smaller space with an exhibit called “Family Pictures.” These were picture and portraits, mostly of children, showing families or family members. Many of them were rife with implied violence and gender distortion, however, giving the entire experience an unsettling feel. One piece in this gallery wasn’t a picture at all, but a series of video clips depicting what I can only describe as some kind of overly exaggerated caricature of kissing. While strange and perhaps even a little disturbing, this bizarre gallery held my attention for quite a while before I decided to wrap up my visit and head home.

FINAL THOUGHTS

While I had originally set out to find a deal on museum admissions, I ended up dropping quite a bit of cash instead. The art was enjoyable, and the experience may have even been slightly enhanced by the few drinks I’d had before heading up, but on the whole, the party wasn’t that great. If I had to do it again, I would probably skip the party altogether and go during regular viewing hours. Wandering through the entire museum (or at least everything that was accessible at the time) took me a little under two hours, but that would have certainly been elongated had I been able to take advantage of the complimentary audio tours which they have during the day. All told, it was a fairly full, if somewhat pricey evening, but the scene was simply not what I was hoping for.

Keep an eye on my upcoming events