apartment at Columbia

[gusl]

I've been offered an apartment at Columbia, at 540 W 122nd St.

It's a furnished 2BR apartment, and I will have a housemate (a PhD student in bioengineering). Remarkably, Internet and utilities are not included, and we will need to put them in the name of a current tenant! (Makes me wonder if it is actually campus housing!)

It seems to be 100m from Amsterdam Ave, and about 150m from Broadway... which hopefully means that there's no reason to worry about street noise.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wirehead_/]

do you know what floor it's on? and whether windows face the street or the air vent? that's what makes more of a difference for street noise.

paying for internet and utilities is pretty common. it's not campus housing in the sense of "a dorm", i think Columbia just owns a bunch of apartment buildings nearby.

*edit: but utilities probably just means electricity and gas, heat is probably included in rent (central radiators), and i doubt you have to pay stuff like water and trash pickup.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Apparently I got the dark, quiet room. Perfect!

I got room #66A, so maybe this means 6th floor. If so, I might start using elevators, which I've never done when living at my own place.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Does anybody pay for trash pickup??
Does that explain the smell in some parts of Manhattan?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wirehead_/]

tenants never do. i believe it is one of the things that building owners have to pay. it is not optional.

as for the smell, maybe it was just a trash pickup day? it can get pretty bad when everything's piled out on the curb, especially in warmer weather.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wirehead_/]

if there is an elevator! still, stairs are good exercise.

66 could mean anything though..

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

What's the tallest building without an elevator you've seen?

For me, it was my first dorm in Amsterdam, which had 5.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wirehead_/]

fifth and sixth floor walkups are not uncommon here (in fact i'm moving into a 5th floor walkup, and i have a friend who just recently moved into one on the 6th floor -- and come to think of it, they're not on the top floor of their building). i've heard of higher ones (eighth, ninth floor) but at that point most buildings have elevators.