Phone Photo Ops - My World from Jersey

A friend of mine, who lives on trendy Thompson Street down in the Village, refers to Jersey as the armpit of the northeast. However, the armpit was looking pretty good to me this weekend while I helped my best friend move from the South Bronx apartment she shared with Candice for two years into the new Union City condo where she and her fiance will begin their lives together.

Note: No Sunday City Walk in lieu of two days of packing and heavy lifting in a fourth floor Bronx pre-war walk-up.

They have a condo with a master walk-in closet, two bathrooms and laundry on each floor in a newly constructed building, featuring 2-bedroom and 3-bedroom rentals starting around $2000 per month. To put that price in perspective for anyone not subject to the criminal operation that is New York City real estate, another friend of mine pays $7500/month for a one-bedroom on Bleecker Street in the West Village.

View of Manhattan from the roof deck of Tokii's Jersey condo.


Don't sleep on Jersey; the closet space alone is worth the 20-minute commute to midtown on the jitney or the ferry. Below are the first of Tokii and Nate's clothes to be hung in their first home.


Other new-construction rates in Union City and Weehawken run in the range of $1500 for a one-bedroom to $4000 for a 3-bedroom, which are fantastic considering that I pay $1000 for a tiny studio in Harlem, and the commute to midtown from Jersey is almost as easy. And it's incredible to realize that my acclimation to New York from the South has me believing that these are great deals!

“In Washington, the first thing people tell you is what their job is. In Los Angeles you learn their star sign. In Houston you're told how rich they are. And in New York they tell you what their rent is.”
- Simon Hoggart