We spent the evening with a bunch of other New Yorkers in the apartment of friends who have just joined HomeExchange.com. As new people entered our friends' home they generally commented on how large it is. I had misremembered it as a two bedroom home. In fact it has three bedrooms. Any home exchanger walking into this brand new doorman building would anticipate a lovely swap home, and they would be right. Our friends have done a nice job with the decor.
Though it is compact for a three bedrooms at 1200 square feet, the apartment is designed with clever touches that make it seem larger. The galley kitchen is open to the living room but separated by a breakfast bar that serves as the dining area. The open design makes the relatively small living room and kitchen feel larger. The two bathrooms and three bedrooms are also compact (the master bedroom, at 170 square feet, is just a bit larger than the other two bedrooms combined).
Our friends list their home as large enough to accommodate seven people, and they are absolutely right. The apartment is well laid out, looks great is new and sparkling clean and even includes the holy grail of Manhattan apartments: a private clothes washer and dryer (these are forbidden in most buildings which were not designed to include them).
I love my friends and their apartment is perfect for home swaps. But I wish they had not learned about the home exchange concept from me. I am worried about anyone who swaps with them.
Manhattan is the safest large city in the United States. Crime here (per capita) is just a small fraction of that in other cities in the US and much of the world. Things were very different in the 1970's and 1980's when I was a child.
Visiting my friends in East Harlem, just across a nearby bridge from the South Bronx, I experienced an unfamiliar emotion. I was scared. Their neighborhood on a Saturday night brought me back to my youth, when gangs roamed the subway stations and streets looking for people to rob or worse. That long-forgotten New York City still exists, just seven miles from my own home.
In my work as a Rehab Therapist, I still go into neighborhoods like this to meet with patients who cannot travel to our facility. But these areas mostly exist in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Should you even consider a swap in a dicey neighborhood like this? Does a great apartment make the risk worthwhile? Let's consider that next time.
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