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Monday, April 28th

New Car-Free Group on Facebook
If you're a Facebook sort of guy or gal, there's a new group there dedicated to car-free and car-lite living...to quote:

This is a group for all those that consciously make decisions in their life, whether large or small, to reduce their use of the private automobile.

This is for all those who are sick of being trapped in sprawling suburbs with underfunded and inadequate public transportation systems.

This is for those who are tired with cars and all their associated costs including registration, insurance, gas(petrol), services, parking, tickets and the actual car, just so they can function in society.

This is for those who are sick of sitting in traffic, period!

This is for those who would like a more healthy, sustainable, and environmentally-friendly lifestyle.

This is for those who like to reverse the social, economic and environmental damage caused by a car dominated culture.

If you're reading this, you're pretty likely to be interested in this group, so click on over to Car-Free by Choice! on Facebook and join in!

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 04.28.08 @ 17:58PST

Old Ways, New Ways....
Just received this note from Nancy Schneider of Florida, going over the things she's been able to do to lessen her footprint on the Earth, and how well some of them have been working:

Just like a Catholic giving something up for Lent that's painful, I decided to give up one of my most painful self-indulgent non-green habits --- driving between 75 and 90 on I-95. Yes, you read that right, 75-90 mph. I live in South Florida, remember?

The test would be one tank of gas where I would torturously (is that a word) drive 60-65 mph. That is the best I could do on my first try. A "lead foot", which is what my mother calls it , is something I have always had.

In 1977 I received my driver's license. It was shortly thereafter that the speed limit was lowered to 55 mph and you had to wait in line for gas and only could do so on certain days. There were even times when you just couldn't even get any gas. Well that was short lived, but we all did what we had to do.

So now back to 2008 with only faint memories of that time, I read in the newspaper that it takes 20% more fuel to travel at 65 mph than at 55 mph and 25% more when driving at 75 mph vs. 65 mph. So that means saving 20-25% by slowing down.

On my first tank I drove 60 to 65 and would treat myself to 70 if I could draft a truck. One trucker actually slowed down to 25 mph on I-95 when I continued to stay behind him. I changed lanes.

For that tankful, I managed to drive 57 more miles which changed my average from about 21-22 mpg to just over 26. I saved about two gallons or about $7. That seemed worth it, especially since I hate stopping for gas.

Now I am actually the one in the slow lane doing 55. I watch everyone whiz by. Then I think to myself, "Am I the only one trying to maximize my mileage?" Apparently. I am trying 55 mph for my second tank.

Yesterday I was discussing with a friend this experiment and what it would take in this country to make real changes. During World War II Americans saved resources, turned out lights, reused, cooperated, shared and anything else that was needed. One campaign encouraged ride sharing. The ad said, "Ride alone, ride with Hitler." Made me think, "Ride over 55, ride with Bin Laden." Not quite as catchy.

So I changed my lightbulbs, xeriscaped my yard, put in a low-flow showerhead, compost, eat organic, use canvas bags when going to the grocery store, put my thermostat up to 78 in the Summer, ride my bike to short errands and now I drive 55.

Amazingly I don't feel inconvenienced or any other negative feeling. As a matter of fact, I feel really good and positive about all of this--and I am saving money.

Nancy will soon be releasing the Auto-Free Vacations website, though it's still under construction. Keep your eye on this space, where we will announce its debut!

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 04.28.08 @ 12:13PST

Entreprenuerial Activity by Immigrants in US Surges
The Kaufman Foundation reports:

The rate of entrepreneurial activity among women dropped sharply in 2007 while the activity rate among men and immigrants surged, according to a national assessment of entrepreneurial activity by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

According to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, the only annual study to measure business startup activity for the entire United States adult population at the individual owner level, 495,000 new businesses per month were started in 2007 with 0.30 percent of the adult population (or 300 out of 100,000 adults) involved in the startup process. This entrepreneurial activity rate is a slight increase over the 2006 rate of 0.29 percent.

Several surprising findings from the Kauffman Index are:

Immigrants far outpaced native-born Americans in entrepreneurial activity, increasing from 0.37 percent in 2006 to 0.46 percent in 2007. Immigrants are now substantially more likely to start businesses than are native-born Americans, which remained constant at 0.27 percent.

Men are now twice as likely as women to start a business each month, a larger differential than in any previous year of the KIEA study. For men, the entrepreneurial activity rate increased from 0.35 percent in 2006 to 0.41 percent in 2007. The rate decreased from 0.23 percent to 0.20 percent for women.

The entrepreneurial activity rate among Latinos increased from 0.33 percent in 2006 to 0.40 percent in 2007, the largest increase for any major ethnic or racial group."

To read the entire report, see Entrepreneurship.

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 04.28.08 @ 10:59PST

Urban Hardware
On my first few days in Brooklyn I¡¯ve had the opportunity to visit a variety of Hardware stores ranging from the small independent to ACE to Home Depot. Since I gave Home Depot, particularly the Manhattan store some exposure recently, I thought it might be a good idea to point out that countless (well you may be able to count them if you try hard) small hardware stores. The small hardware store I use in Pittsburgh, Mueller¡¯s on East Ohio Street is the kind where most everything is behind the counter and you ask for it. Mueller¡¯s has most of what can be found at Home Depot at competitive prices. When in San Francisco I found Cliff¡¯s, a small hardware store on Castro Street, to have everything and more Home Depot did in a smaller space, and while sometimes the prices were a little higher, sometimes they were better.

The hardware stores I visited in Brooklyn aren¡¯t exactly decorated as well as Cliff¡¯s, but they do seem to have most of what you can find at Home Depot and more. I don¡¯t want to single out Home Depot here to complain about, when the weakest link here was the Atlantic Avenue Target store. Many of the items I purchased were out of stock, including curtain rods which I finally purchased at a small hardware store on Flatbush Avenue.

To the credit of Home Depot, I had already been to ACE, a few small hardware stores and Target before heading to Home Depot for appropriately sized shelving boards for layering CDs. Unlike Target, I had to transfer and then walk under a highway in a not so pedestrian-friendly area to reach Home Depot. While no one in the store could seem to tell me where the small Aspen boards I wanted were, they did have them in stock. (I also asked where I could find home security devices and a well-meaning employee directed me to the tools section).

Of all the hardware stores in New York, San Francisco and Pittsburgh I was aware of, I still find Cliff¡¯s to be the best. The small hardware stores here seemed to have most everything you could need, but they are not as well arranged or as attractive as Cliff¡¯s (or even Mueller¡¯s). The employees there were generally more helpful, however and the number of hardware stores still lining the streets of Brooklyn is remarkable in itself.

Home Depot needs to improve their specialty items and cater items to localities. Two things I know Home Depot does not have but should are plaster washers (these are little disks that you put on the end of a drywall screw to pull in sagging plaster). The Building Mill in Pittsburgh used to have them, most recently I ordered them from Charles Street Supply in Boston. Next are two wood products--picture railing and the simple molding for holding in casement windows. On numerous occasions I have gone to Home Depot assuming they would have basic things that they didn't carry. I think Lowe's is slightly better at this.

The smaller hardware stores like Cliff¡¯s specialize in having these and other items you can¡¯t find at Home Depot, like lamp parts and ceiling medallions. None of the small stores I went into today would cut plexi-glass (Cliff¡¯s and Mueller¡¯s do). I did see ceiling Medallions in the window at a store on Fifth. For the record, the small hardware stores around me seem to have most of what I will need and it¡¯s basically on the rare occasion I¡¯ll need a lumber item that I¡¯d head to Home Depot. The lumber item I did need is one that could easily be carried by these smaller stores, and it¡¯s something that could help them compete with the big chains like Home Depot and Lowes that are moving into urban markets like New York.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 04.28.08 @ 08:14PST

Tuesday, April 22nd

Earth Day L.A.
Well, thank you, Mayor Tony V.!

I didn't believe they would do it, but the city closed Wilshire Boulevard for several blocks by the Wilshire/Western Metro Station today--all day--for an Earth Day street party. Wilshire is the busiest street in Los Angeles, hence in the nation, and today was a Tuesday, a work day--and Earth Day.

The people loved it! I had forgotten my camera, so the snaps are from a crappy cellphone cam, but take a look:

Things are changing when this can happen in LA. Happy Earth Day!

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 04.22.08 @ 17:25PST

The End of "Drive Until You Qualify"
These days houses with long commutes are facing foreclosure's at record rates
WATCH VIDEO

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 04.22.08 @ 03:00PST

Monday, April 21st

The Value of the Spontaneous Sidewalk Sale
When you think you need more space, it may be that you need to get rid of stuff. There are four common ways to do this. The first is ebay, the second craigslist, the third a yard sale and finally, take it to Goodwill. In my recent experience ebay was the first to come to mind. This seems to work great for items like CDs and DVDs and some other smalls, but often things go unsold or the shipping exceeds your estimates and you end up paying to get rid of some stuff. I am sure some more frequent ebay users have worked thru these kinks. The second way is craigslist, which I like many others have had a good experience with. There's usually a buyer for most anything, the problem is connecting by phone and actually scheduling a time to meet. Then there's the issue of people you don't know coming in your house to look at stuff. Another way is to take it to Goodwill. You don't receive money, but you can request a receipt for a tax write-off.

There's another way that doesn't always enter the modern psyche used to computer methods of disposing of unwanted items. That is the sidewalk sale. First, I should say that our neighborhood also has a flea market that anyone can use to sell their stuff. It hadn't opened for the year yet, however so the idea of just taking stuff outside and putting it on the sidewalk came to mind. This is a pretty high-traffic street, so just the stuff itself brought in some customers, a few signs helped as did some craigslist posts and emails to neighborhood email groups. By the end of our second day, most of the stuff was gone and we'd met some new people.

When it was over, some things were then listed on craigslist, some went to Goodwill and others were discarded in what I call the San Francisco way, put them on the sidewalk with a "free" sign. Oh, and anything metal was gathered up and taken to the Warhola scrap yard (yes, this Warhola is related to Andy). That may be the easiest and most profitable way--you can immediately dispose of stuff and get paid, except they won't take anything that's not metal.

One observation is there is so much stuff in the world now that much of it doesn't have much value. Most of what we buy depreciates dramatically when we take it out of the store. Perhaps this will change when we run out of cheap labor or oil prices necessitate manufacturing closer to home, but for now stuff is everywhere and abundant. So think next time before you make an impulse buy. Consider buying second-hand furniture or other goods at yard sales. Think about buying items like antiques that might actually be worth more in a few years when its time to get rid of them. You'll also be saving a tree or two. Think about how much stuff you actually need. If you aren't able to kick the impulse purchase habit, consider having a sidewalk sale now and then. You'll make some new friends and liven up the street, if only for a few hours.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 04.21.08 @ 14:53PST

Comprehensive Waste Management Program for Los Angeles
The City of Los Angeles has been conducting "stakeholder meetings" for several months now to help develop its Solid Waste Integrated Resources Plan (SWIRP) in an effort to approach its zero-waste goal as outlined in its Zero Waste Plan website:

The goal of SWIRP is to develop a master plan that will detail the policies, programs, infrastructure, regulations, incentives, new green jobs, technological innovation, and financial strategies necessary to:

1. Lead the way for Los Angeles to become a zero waste city
   • Prevent the generation of waste at the source
   • Work with manufacturers to be responsible for their products at the end of the useful life of the product.
   • Reduce the generation of waste at the source
   • Increase recycling and resource recovery
   • Design and implement programs to meet the greenhouse gas reduction targets outlined in the Mayor’s Climate Action Plan
   • Convert the entire Bureau of Sanitation fleet of collection trucks to clean renewable alternative fuel vehicles
   • Meet the goals set for Los Angeles to become a zero waste city by the Mayor and Council’s adopted Recovering Energy, Natural Resources and Economic Benefit from Waste for Los Angeles (RENEW LA) Plan
2. Develop environmentally responsible treatment and disposal methods for residual (post-processing) waste
   • Reduce reliance on landfills and end urban landfilling
   • Evaluate alternative technologies to convert waste to renewable energy, electricity, fuels and products
   • Evaluate rail-haul options
   • Evaluate long-term disposal options for residual waste.

It looks like an intelligent, sensitive plan that will probably have genuinely-beneficial real-world results, and goes far beyond the greenwash one gets from the corporate sector.

To read more, see the FAQ (PDF).

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 04.21.08 @ 06:13PST

Saturday, April 19th

Pope Touches on Environmental Topics
In this week's address to the U.N. the Pope touched on environmental issues. I link to the full text follows.

"Indeed, questions of security, development goals, reduction of local and global inequalities, protection of the environment, of resources and of the climate, require all international leaders to act jointly and to show a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the law, and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the planet. I am thinking especially of those countries in Africa and other parts of the world which remain on the margins of authentic integral development, and are therefore at risk of experiencing only the negative effects of globalization. In the context of international relations, it is necessary to recognize the higher role played by rules and structures that are intrinsically ordered to promote the common good, and therefore to safeguard human freedom. These regulations do not limit freedom. On the contrary, they promote it when they prohibit behavior and actions which work against the common good, curb its effective exercise and hence compromise the dignity of every human person. In the name of freedom, there has to be a correlation between rights and duties, by which every person is called to assume responsibility for his or her choices, made as a consequence of entering into relations with others. Here our thoughts turn also to the way the results of scientific research and technological advances have sometimes been applied. Notwithstanding the enormous benefits that humanity can gain, some instances of this represent a clear violation of the order of creation, to the point where not only is the sacred character of life contradicted, but the human person and the family are robbed of their natural identity. Likewise, international action to preserve the environment and to protect various forms of life on earth must not only guarantee a rational use of technology and science, but must also rediscover the authentic image of creation. This never requires a choice to be made between science and ethics: rather it is a question of adopting a scientific method that is truly respectful of ethical imperatives."

LINK

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 04.19.08 @ 02:47PST

Thursday, April 17th

Empty Highways and Shop Whistles
Driving across town last evening, the highways seemed to be empty. At one point I felt mine was the only car on the Fort Duquesne Bridge, on the lower deck anyway. This wasn't 2 a.m., but around 7 p.m. Sure, most folks were home from work, but at any given time I'm used to considerably more cars. On the Parkway East I didn't have the usual trouble crossing three lanes to get to the Oakland exit. For sure, this is in the short run just an odd occurence, but it could be an odd occurence bolstered by the rising price of gasoline. Yesterday was the day, after-all, that oil reached a record $115-a-barrel mark. I imagined a few years or decades into the future when the strange feeling of empty highways could be more commonplace.

I grew up in a town called Altoona, which knew its share of streetcars, let alone passenger trains that kept the place alive with smoke, factories and shop whistles. Undoubtedly there was a time when the lack of the smoke and sounds brought an eerie sense. There were also likely to have been little signs along the way, not unlike the chance emty highways of yesterday.

It was Tuesday after-all that I took Amtrak from Pittsburgh to Altoona. The price of filling the tank seemed to equal or exceed the $34 price of a ticket (which could have been less had I purchased in time to take advantage of my AAA discount). Passengers who had met the train from the Capitol Limited originating in Chicago was without a vacant seat. This too could be a harbinger of things to come. If not, it gave me a chance to complete three New Yorker articles, one about the struggle of newspapers.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 04.17.08 @ 04:24PST

Friday, April 11th

Why did the chicken cross the road? Because it was suicidal.
Something odd happens when I talk to people about the idea of carfree cities. Rarely if ever does anyone object to the idea in general. Most people promptly see the beauty of it, and respond with warm sympathy to the possibilities that emerge when cars are removed and life returns. The objections, universally, are practical ones. They perceive it as an impossible dream, suggesting that people have short memories and little sense of history. After all, some of the major changes in cities wrought by cars have occurred just in the past generation--today's adults walked to school and played on sidewalks if not in the streets, while today's children consider the streets dangerous and unpleasant forbidden zones.

MORE

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 04.11.08 @ 17:30PST

Sunday, April 6th

New New York Photos
Photos have been added to the New York galleries and to the examples of commercial uses in residential buildings.

New York City
Commercial uses in residential buildings

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 04.06.08 @ 18:08PST

Thursday, April 3rd

Bangkok Condo Parking Ban Eagerly Awaited
Apparently, everyone in Bangkok is enthusiastic about a proposed regulation banning parking lots for condos within 500 meters of a light rail or bus rapid transit route in that city. The Bangkok Municipal Administration will also ask office buildings along the routes to reduce the size of their parking lots. Traffic, of course, has become an unendurable bane in Bangkok recently, so it's no surprise that the city is trying to reduce inducements to private driving.

What is interesting is that everyone seems to agree, even developers who must sell the condos! To quote: "Atip Bijanonda, deputy managing director of Stock Exchange of Thailand-listed developer Supalai Plc said the parking lot ban would benefit the real estate industry...developers would have more saleable space which would lead to declines in costs and in unit prices, he said."

Another telling quote from the administration: "Beside the parking lot ban, to be fair in terms of public utilities taxation, Mr Panich will propose that the BMA collect higher public utility taxes from residents living in central city areas where public utilities are better developed, particularly neighbourhoods along the electric train and BRT routes where business profitability is higher than in suburban areas."

Going carfree is good for business as well as life--and it's good to see that it's becoming so obvious!

To read the entire article, see the Bangkok Post.

Richard Risemberg (rrisemberg@newcolonist.com), on 04.03.08 @ 04:16PST

Wednesday, April 2nd

Is That A Man's Watch?
I felt like I was watching a Seinfeld episode the other day. As I was sitting in a subway car I overheard three women discussing whether the watch one was wearing was a men’s or women’s watch. “If it was a women’s watch, the face wouldn’t be so big,” one said. The other moved her glasses from her face to perch them atop her head, looked at the watch and said something like, “the face isn’t that big, its medium sized. Some women’s watches have bigger faces.” Then one said “if it’s a man’s watch, why is the wristband so small.”

On an unrelated note, on the recent neighborhood tour of New York, we got off the subway in an area called DUMBO. That seemed a strange name, but just learned it stands for Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 04.02.08 @ 04:21PST

Tuesday, April 1st

How the H1B Crisis Can Help Cleveland
If you've been following the news on H1B Visas recently, you know they're in short supply. Cleveland Attorney Richard Herman wrote advising us of a way rust belt cities can take build upon the shortage. It makes sense.

Due to the enormous demand, the annual cap of 65,000 regular H1Bs will be exhausted quickly, making the application process a lottery for U.S. employers. (Last year, U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service received over 115,000 applications on the first day of filing).

High-Tech Employers, like Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, etc. are saying that the H1B Visa cap is undermining their ability to grow new technologies and jobs in the U.S.

Herman says shrinking Rustbelt cities like Cleveland are talking about lobbying for "High Skill Immigration Zones" so that U.S. employers can locate in the zone, "in-source" jobs into the zone, and help revitalize dying regions struggling to transition to a knowledge-based economy.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership (Cleveland's Chamber of Commerce) recently issued its 2008-2011 Strategic Plan which states that it will seek:

"to increase both overseas and in-country immigration into the region as a tool for attracting skilled talent and entrepreneurs to the region, including federal advocacy for expansion of the H1B visa program and other policies that support this goal...."

and

"to attract international talent and investment to region. Where needed, the Greater Cleveland Partnership will incorporate supportive advocacy into its government affairs agenda. This will include federal advocacy to raise the cap on H1B immigration visas and possible collaboration with cities like Detroit and Pittsburgh on federal advocacy to create immigration zones in the Midwest."

Likewise at a recent meeting outside Detroit of top executives of Chambers of Commerce in Rustbelt Cities (convened by Brookings' Great Lakes Economic Initiative), "high skill immigration" was one of the top 5 priorites expressed by the attendees in terms of key economic development needs for the Great Lakes region.

A coalition of rustbelt leadership may be developing in order to articulate a regional strategy on high-skill immigration law reform.

The key component of the "High Skill Immigration Zone" is to grant economically distressed regions a powerful tool to recruit high-tech companies--- by lifting cap & quota restrictions on high-end immigrant talent interested in working in the zone.

Last summer, Microsoft opened up an R&D facility in Vancouver because Canadian immigration law encouraged the in-sourcing of high-end immigrant talent to fuel innovation and job-creation. Microsoft expressed regret in opening this facility in Vancouver, saying that it wished to create those jobs in the U.S., but that U.S. immigration restrictions made this impossible.

This is an opportunity for the Rustbelt and similarly distressed regions of the country to leverage high-skill immigration benefits for local economic development.

While coastal cities are overcrowded, rust belt cities have suffered from years of job and population losses. Cleveland needs jobs and immigrants. These zones seem like a good way to accomplish three goals, getting immigrants to locate in rust-belt cities, spurring job growth in rust-belt cities and increasing the number of available H1B visas.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 04.01.08 @ 10:28PST

New York's Neighborhoods: Is It Affordable To Live In New York?
Like many visitors to the big apple, for the most part in my thirty or so visits I had only been to Manhattan. Yes, there were exceptions. I had crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, ridden the Roosevelt Island Tramway, ridden the Staten Island Ferry (when the fare was still 25 cents) and changed trains in Jamaica, Queens.

This past weekend I went to New York without setting “foot?in Manhattan. Well, that’s not entirely true either. On the way in the GPS sent us through the Holland Tunnel and onto Canal Street in Chinatown. I had assumed we would cross Staten Island and on into Brooklyn. We also changed subway trains beneath Penn Station.

New York neighborhoods were for the most part new to me. I was introduced to Park Slope, Astoria, Jersey City (ok, so it’s not in the city), Roosevelt Island, Ridgewood and some other areas in Brooklyn.

I looked at apartments in many of these areas, and for the most part the rent ranges between $1600 and $2200. That may be a shock to some. The two properties I have here in Pittsburgh average rents of about $550. If you looked in more sought after neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, like Shadyside, or newer buildings like the Cork Factory or Heinz Lofts, it would be easy to find rents in the New York range. Of course rents in comparable buildings in New York would fetch more.

The question, however, and one that I’ve been asking myself a lot lately is whether it is affordable to live in New York. The short answer is yes. The longer answer is yes, but your apartment will be smaller and you’ll end up paying extra to store the stuff you can’t take with you until you finally conclude you don’t need it.

Ridgewood was one that is on the more affordable side of New York neighborhoods. Rents there range from just under $1,000 to $1500. It would appear to be safe as well and there’s little sign of decay in the buildings. The storefronts are all occupied and the streets are filled with people of almost every ethnicity and race imaginable.

Finding the neighborhood by mistake, in Dunkin Donuts I asked the woman at the counter where the subway was. She didn’t know, she’d just arrived in the country. The fact that I didn’t know caused her to ask if I had just arrived in the country. She then pointed to an apparent regular and long time resident who was more than happy to answer my questions. (that brings me to another misnomer—that New Yorkers are not friendly. I find them to be quite the opposite, they are just busy.)

Astoria is somewhat like Ridgewood, except more expensive and closer to Manhattan. Again the streets around 30th Ave. and 30th Street are filled with people from every country and walk of life. The Athens Caf?seemed to be the heart of it all, and the folks sunbathing in the outdoor area seemed like they had probably been there people watching, eating, smoking and chatting from the early morning. Across the street was one of the largest corner green grocers I have ever seen, and a small restaurant gave us two delicious falafel and drinks for the bargain price of $8.

Park Slope is a brownstone neighborhood around Prospect Park that seems to be approaching Manhattan levels of gentrification. It’s apparent that bloggers love to hate Park Slope and its people. If you can afford it, the neighborhood has lots of restaurants and coffee shops, a movie theater and one of the best urban parks in the country. Nearby Red Hook has an Ikea and Costco and soon Park Slope will have a Whole Foods. The rents for a one bedroom are mostly at or above the $2000 mark, but moving to the west side of the park or into South Park Slope can bring the price down.

The fourth area of significant exploration was Jersey City. An artist I was talking to at a show in Pittsburgh who had grown up in Manhattan commented when I asked about Jersey City that she didn’t do Jersey, but I had to see for myself. The unit I looked at was quite wonderful, far less expensive and larger than most of what I’d seen in Brooklyn or Astoria. The neighborhood was on the nicer side, but there wasn’t much in the way of retail around, especially by New York neighborhood standards. Walking to Journal Square to catch the PATH train took about twenty minutes and while there was more retail on the way, the entire trip into Manhattan took almost an hour. Still it is an affordable option to living in (or very near) New York. Looking at for sale units, they are also unexpectedly affordable.

In short, in New York housing is expensive, but food can be less expensive and you don’t need a car (although you have to account for the $80 monthly subway pass). New York is expensive if you expect to move there and live in the same size unit. But as the artist in Pittsburgh also commented, in New York you don’t need a big apartment because you live in the city, not in your apartment.

Eric Miller (editor@newcolonist.com), on 04.01.08 @ 04:09PST