Can I be bi-coastal if I'm not rich?
July 21, 2012 7:26 AM Subscribe
I live in Los Angeles with my girlfriend. We both work in TV. I want to move to New York City and she's game, but she recently got into her department's union which provides highly coveted health/pension benefits and needs to maintain an address in LA in addition to fulfilling her union days every year. We are not rich. Can we be bi-coastal?
I'm 25 and my girlfriend is 30. I've wanted to live in New York my entire life, but for a variety of reasons have avoided it until now. I've been in LA for 3.5 years (I met her the day I moved here in a series of awesome coincidences and we've been together since) and I'm ready for a change. My girlfriend has lived here her whole life and seems game for the adventure.
I'm asking this question from a financial stand point, so I've included WAY too much information below:
Our salaries vary from year to year because of the nature of our jobs, but we each make between 50-60k/year. I have no debt, she has some credit card debt that will be gone in the next year and a $250 student loan payment that she will have, basically forever.
Because of the union issue, we're assuming that we're going to keep our apartment in LA but I, at least, would spend most of my time in New York. The apartment costs $1100/month (we split it) with another $100 (high estimate) for internet/utilities. Our lease is up and we are month-to-month, so we are open to giving it up and renting an even cheaper place (studios in our neighborhood can be had for $700-900) but in a perfect world we would keep it because it's really awesome.
Our apartment comes with a secure parking space. I own my car and pay about $65/month in insurance, and she sold her car recently because she was going to be out of town for a job and wanted to save up for something nicer. We've been sharing the car pretty successfully since March, and obviously if we make this move would continue to do so. We also pay $36/month in renter's insurance.
We both work freelance. She works on a very popular network show about 5 months out of the year that takes care of her union days. 2 of those months are spent traveling, the rest are in LA. She spends the rest of her time working on a mix of union stuff and lower paid projects that she thinks are cool. She has a couple of connections in New York that she thinks could lead to work.
I've worked in New York before and also have former coworkers who have relocated. I'm confident I could find work, but keeping the LA apartment also gives me a safety net in case I run out of money and have to come back to do a job. I rarely (knock on wood) have trouble finding work in LA, and often have to turn down a couple of jobs for every job I take.
I did a 6 week job in New York last year and lived in Astoria, which I loved except for a few mornings when the train wasn't running and I couldn't find a cab to take me over the bridge and I was late to set, something which is never, ever acceptable. These incidents caused me enough stress to have me pretty set on living in (on?) Manhattan so that the worst case scenario is an expensive cab ride to work. We are willing to consider having roommates. We are also willing to reconsider Astoria or parts of Brooklyn because I imagine the sticker shock on a Manhattan apartment is going to be significant. We will continue to split ALL housing/car/utility costs down the middle.
There is also the matter of the pets: we have two cats (hers) and a small dog (mine). We have trustworthy friends and family that would be willing to care for them for a month or so while we got settled in New York, but eventually they would be coming out to join us, probably via cross country road trip because the cats are old.
Finally, partially because her credit is horrible but mostly because shit happens even in relationships as awesome as ours, I want to put the New York lease in my name. It sucks to think about, but the reality is her ties to LA are deep (work/family) and my ties to LA are mostly her now that my adventure in the city seems to have run its course, and if the point came where our relationship ended I am almost positive she would move back to LA. This also means our New York apartment cannot cost more than the LA apartment ($1100).
Anyway.
My plan is to work through next spring to save money, and then find a (relatively) cheap summer sublet while I look for work and finally begin my New York City adventure. Depending on what's going on with her work, my girlfriend may or may not join me at that time.
So here are my questions:
1. Is this a completely stupid idea? Primarily from a financial standpoint, other viewpoints are welcome.
2. How much money should I save, not including money for the new apartment or one time moving expenses. I moved to LA with three thousand dollars in the bank (including those expenses) and quickly dug myself into a hole of credit card debt. I'm not interested in repeating that experience, and I'm willing to postpone this move until I have adequate savings.
3. Is there anything else I'm missing? I remember my taxes being complicated last year because I worked in New York, but I don't remember why. Also, I imagine collecting unemployment will become difficult or impossible once I'm working in two states. What else?
4. Any non-rich bi-coastal folks who have experiences to share?
I'm 25 and my girlfriend is 30. I've wanted to live in New York my entire life, but for a variety of reasons have avoided it until now. I've been in LA for 3.5 years (I met her the day I moved here in a series of awesome coincidences and we've been together since) and I'm ready for a change. My girlfriend has lived here her whole life and seems game for the adventure.
I'm asking this question from a financial stand point, so I've included WAY too much information below:
Our salaries vary from year to year because of the nature of our jobs, but we each make between 50-60k/year. I have no debt, she has some credit card debt that will be gone in the next year and a $250 student loan payment that she will have, basically forever.
Because of the union issue, we're assuming that we're going to keep our apartment in LA but I, at least, would spend most of my time in New York. The apartment costs $1100/month (we split it) with another $100 (high estimate) for internet/utilities. Our lease is up and we are month-to-month, so we are open to giving it up and renting an even cheaper place (studios in our neighborhood can be had for $700-900) but in a perfect world we would keep it because it's really awesome.
Our apartment comes with a secure parking space. I own my car and pay about $65/month in insurance, and she sold her car recently because she was going to be out of town for a job and wanted to save up for something nicer. We've been sharing the car pretty successfully since March, and obviously if we make this move would continue to do so. We also pay $36/month in renter's insurance.
We both work freelance. She works on a very popular network show about 5 months out of the year that takes care of her union days. 2 of those months are spent traveling, the rest are in LA. She spends the rest of her time working on a mix of union stuff and lower paid projects that she thinks are cool. She has a couple of connections in New York that she thinks could lead to work.
I've worked in New York before and also have former coworkers who have relocated. I'm confident I could find work, but keeping the LA apartment also gives me a safety net in case I run out of money and have to come back to do a job. I rarely (knock on wood) have trouble finding work in LA, and often have to turn down a couple of jobs for every job I take.
I did a 6 week job in New York last year and lived in Astoria, which I loved except for a few mornings when the train wasn't running and I couldn't find a cab to take me over the bridge and I was late to set, something which is never, ever acceptable. These incidents caused me enough stress to have me pretty set on living in (on?) Manhattan so that the worst case scenario is an expensive cab ride to work. We are willing to consider having roommates. We are also willing to reconsider Astoria or parts of Brooklyn because I imagine the sticker shock on a Manhattan apartment is going to be significant. We will continue to split ALL housing/car/utility costs down the middle.
There is also the matter of the pets: we have two cats (hers) and a small dog (mine). We have trustworthy friends and family that would be willing to care for them for a month or so while we got settled in New York, but eventually they would be coming out to join us, probably via cross country road trip because the cats are old.
Finally, partially because her credit is horrible but mostly because shit happens even in relationships as awesome as ours, I want to put the New York lease in my name. It sucks to think about, but the reality is her ties to LA are deep (work/family) and my ties to LA are mostly her now that my adventure in the city seems to have run its course, and if the point came where our relationship ended I am almost positive she would move back to LA. This also means our New York apartment cannot cost more than the LA apartment ($1100).
Anyway.
My plan is to work through next spring to save money, and then find a (relatively) cheap summer sublet while I look for work and finally begin my New York City adventure. Depending on what's going on with her work, my girlfriend may or may not join me at that time.
So here are my questions:
1. Is this a completely stupid idea? Primarily from a financial standpoint, other viewpoints are welcome.
2. How much money should I save, not including money for the new apartment or one time moving expenses. I moved to LA with three thousand dollars in the bank (including those expenses) and quickly dug myself into a hole of credit card debt. I'm not interested in repeating that experience, and I'm willing to postpone this move until I have adequate savings.
3. Is there anything else I'm missing? I remember my taxes being complicated last year because I worked in New York, but I don't remember why. Also, I imagine collecting unemployment will become difficult or impossible once I'm working in two states. What else?
4. Any non-rich bi-coastal folks who have experiences to share?
Something to think about is finding trusted subletters for your places when you're not there. That should help with the cost.
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:44 AM on July 21, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:44 AM on July 21, 2012 [3 favorites]
Keep in mind Washington Heights and Inwood if you do move to NYC. You get a lot more for your money than in comparably priced parts of Brooklyn, and there are yuppie amenities for sure. The trains definitely run and there are lots of (livery) cabs on the street at all hours. Most of the neighborhood is equidistant between the 1 and A trains, which are on 2 historically distinct and still somewhat separate networks, so if one is running strangely, say on a weekend, you can just take the other one, as it will be up. Audubon Ave. (all along its length) and 10th Ave. (Inwood portion) should still be cheaper and a 1BR for $1200 is not inconceivable if you sublet first and really hunt for it.
181st St. is an even 35 minutes to W. 4th on the A.
I recommend subletting for a year while you look for an apt. that is really what you want.
posted by skbw at 8:10 AM on July 21, 2012 [3 favorites]
181st St. is an even 35 minutes to W. 4th on the A.
I recommend subletting for a year while you look for an apt. that is really what you want.
posted by skbw at 8:10 AM on July 21, 2012 [3 favorites]
I lived bi-coastally on an income of 25K or less for about five years. It's actually not that difficult, you just have to have money available for contingencies that you might not have thought of. I know nothing about cost of living in LA or NYC, I mostly did this between Vermont and Seattle. Here is my advice
- pets will not want to be bi-coastal and will want a place to live, in my experience, so making sure you have an ongoing plan for having them be taken care of when you are not living where their primary home is, and whether this is okay with you.
- health insurance and other insurance usually requires you to be in one location and may have stipulations about what happens if you are not there [out of network doctors and that sort of thing] so it's worth putting some time in to make sure the options you are choosing for those things are the ones you want and especially running some scenarios [eg. we have insurance in LA, we need to go to a doctor in NY, what is the process? is it covered?]
- you will have to pick a place where your primary residence is for the purposes of taxes. Sounds like your gf's will be the LA location and yours will be the NY location? That will be fine, but you need to be aware that residency is actually a legal thing in some cases, so be prepared to have a stock answer and also have a mailing address for that as well, this can be a PO box or whatever but you'll want to have a plan for getting your mail when you are not in the area. I had a PO box on each side of the country. They could forward my mail back and forth.
- support network. If you are subletting or whatever the place you are not in figure out if you have people in the area who can deal with small scale stuff [minor repairs, accepting a package] and larger scale stuff [something goes bad with subletters]. Will you be leaving stuff in both places? How will you keep that secure when you are not there?
The biggest deal for me was that when I lived bi-coastally, getting back and forth between places [I often drove, was totally fun!] became my main vacation. I didn't mind this but it did mean that my small amount of discretionary income went to stuff like maintaining two phone lines [back in the day...] and the like. It's definitely a thing you can do. It does sound a little like form your description each of you has a coast that you're preferential towards so it may be that you're more in a situation like "I live in NY, my GF lives in LA, we split time between our two places" which is a slightly different situation. But it's absolutely doable. Have fun.
posted by jessamyn at 8:18 AM on July 21, 2012 [3 favorites]
- pets will not want to be bi-coastal and will want a place to live, in my experience, so making sure you have an ongoing plan for having them be taken care of when you are not living where their primary home is, and whether this is okay with you.
- health insurance and other insurance usually requires you to be in one location and may have stipulations about what happens if you are not there [out of network doctors and that sort of thing] so it's worth putting some time in to make sure the options you are choosing for those things are the ones you want and especially running some scenarios [eg. we have insurance in LA, we need to go to a doctor in NY, what is the process? is it covered?]
- you will have to pick a place where your primary residence is for the purposes of taxes. Sounds like your gf's will be the LA location and yours will be the NY location? That will be fine, but you need to be aware that residency is actually a legal thing in some cases, so be prepared to have a stock answer and also have a mailing address for that as well, this can be a PO box or whatever but you'll want to have a plan for getting your mail when you are not in the area. I had a PO box on each side of the country. They could forward my mail back and forth.
- support network. If you are subletting or whatever the place you are not in figure out if you have people in the area who can deal with small scale stuff [minor repairs, accepting a package] and larger scale stuff [something goes bad with subletters]. Will you be leaving stuff in both places? How will you keep that secure when you are not there?
The biggest deal for me was that when I lived bi-coastally, getting back and forth between places [I often drove, was totally fun!] became my main vacation. I didn't mind this but it did mean that my small amount of discretionary income went to stuff like maintaining two phone lines [back in the day...] and the like. It's definitely a thing you can do. It does sound a little like form your description each of you has a coast that you're preferential towards so it may be that you're more in a situation like "I live in NY, my GF lives in LA, we split time between our two places" which is a slightly different situation. But it's absolutely doable. Have fun.
posted by jessamyn at 8:18 AM on July 21, 2012 [3 favorites]
Just a note on trains if you do wind up moving to NYC: you could try to live near someplace where a bunch of train lines are running, or at least more than one, so that if one isn't working you're not out of luck. You could try Long Island City or Jackson Heights in Queens, or Brooklyn around Atlantic Avenue, etc. Jackson Heights in particular has a lot of trains (E,F,M,R,7) and is probably in your price range.
posted by mlle valentine at 9:13 AM on July 21, 2012
posted by mlle valentine at 9:13 AM on July 21, 2012
I should add that there is also a bus from JH that goes into Midtown.
posted by mlle valentine at 9:14 AM on July 21, 2012
posted by mlle valentine at 9:14 AM on July 21, 2012
My husband is union crew in LA and we have been considering moving our family headquarters to a different place (not NY). A big catch for us is the IATSE quarterly hour requirement. Are you aware that it just went up? I don't have the numbers in front of me but we're definitely dealing with the fact that if we do this my husband will be spending many, many weeks of the year away from the family. FOr us this is probably a dealbreaker.
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:28 AM on July 21, 2012
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:28 AM on July 21, 2012
I'm living bi-coastally, have been doing so for the past 1.5 years (Atlanta and L.A.). I have a full-time job with benefits, my partner is, like you, a freelancer working in the music business. It has been tough, to be totally honest. While the new job on the east coast came with a pay bump, it has been eaten up by doubling our costs: 2 apartments rather than one, 2 cars rather than one. I'm going to make this fairly long, because there were a lot of things I wish I would have known last year!
Some things I haven't anticipated were the fact that our insurance expenditures (renter's insurance and car insurance) have had to be broken into separate policies held by separate offices in separate states and the cost has more than tripled - possibly even quadrupled. This is mostly because together we got to take advantage of multiple-member discounts, and my partner got discounts because of me and my driving record.
Our not-insubstantial fixed costs like high speed internet have doubled as well, and both of us have a lot more management responsibilities because all of the bills are separate (believe me, I've tried to have it otherwise).
It has added a new level of annoying things to manage for both of us, because even though we try to help each other and we try to have all of our bills sent to L.A., many of the Southern companies won't send things anywhere other than the service address.
The primary financial strain has come in the form of travel costs. We agreed when I moved that we would see each other at least twice a month. That hasn't happened, mostly because of cost. It is really expensive to travel even though we are going to and from two of the busiest airports in the world, and LAX is a pain in the rear to travel out of at the best of times. We've had to accept seeing each other less than we want.
One of the things we've done is accepted that the more infrequent residence will be significantly less like "home". Because of a number of reasons (family, preference, work flexibility, etc.) I mostly travel back to L.A. meaning the Atlanta residence is empty more often. I use airbnb to fill the space while I'm gone and have had astonishing success (note: ensure this is allowed on your lease and covered by your renter's insurance). This helps a lot with our budget. But the frequency of my travels means that plants and pets are not really feasible. I still buy plants (and get the airbnb people to water them, yay!) but they die with depressing frequency. Our pets and most of our stuff is in L.A. I miss it. It means that when I have a yen to, say, knit something, I need to buy needles and yarn.
Other factors: it has harder for me to make friends in Atlanta, because whenever I have a long weekend or extra time, I'm usually flying back to L.A. for a few days. People relentlessly ask when my partner is going to move out to Atlanta, or when I will be quitting my job to move back to L.A. People just don't understand why we are willing to do this (though I work in a more conservative field, you may not experience this - my partner in L.A. doesn't). It is lonely to come home at the end of a long day to an empty apartment. My work hours are not particularly compatible with my partners; I start work at 8 and am done around 4 (eastern), just around when his work day is starting (pacific). We have to put a lot of energy into making sure we spend time together each day. Often I'll go to sleep with my computer on the bed so he can wake me up on skype when he gets home to say goodnight.
Still, it is workable and is working: I expect to stay here for several more years, at the end of which we plan to live together again. And I'm here because I LOVE my job (and treat this as an adventure). I am passionate about the work I'm doing and generally wake up excited to go to work every single day. And that is why I'm still doing it.
posted by arnicae at 9:31 AM on July 21, 2012
Some things I haven't anticipated were the fact that our insurance expenditures (renter's insurance and car insurance) have had to be broken into separate policies held by separate offices in separate states and the cost has more than tripled - possibly even quadrupled. This is mostly because together we got to take advantage of multiple-member discounts, and my partner got discounts because of me and my driving record.
Our not-insubstantial fixed costs like high speed internet have doubled as well, and both of us have a lot more management responsibilities because all of the bills are separate (believe me, I've tried to have it otherwise).
It has added a new level of annoying things to manage for both of us, because even though we try to help each other and we try to have all of our bills sent to L.A., many of the Southern companies won't send things anywhere other than the service address.
The primary financial strain has come in the form of travel costs. We agreed when I moved that we would see each other at least twice a month. That hasn't happened, mostly because of cost. It is really expensive to travel even though we are going to and from two of the busiest airports in the world, and LAX is a pain in the rear to travel out of at the best of times. We've had to accept seeing each other less than we want.
One of the things we've done is accepted that the more infrequent residence will be significantly less like "home". Because of a number of reasons (family, preference, work flexibility, etc.) I mostly travel back to L.A. meaning the Atlanta residence is empty more often. I use airbnb to fill the space while I'm gone and have had astonishing success (note: ensure this is allowed on your lease and covered by your renter's insurance). This helps a lot with our budget. But the frequency of my travels means that plants and pets are not really feasible. I still buy plants (and get the airbnb people to water them, yay!) but they die with depressing frequency. Our pets and most of our stuff is in L.A. I miss it. It means that when I have a yen to, say, knit something, I need to buy needles and yarn.
Other factors: it has harder for me to make friends in Atlanta, because whenever I have a long weekend or extra time, I'm usually flying back to L.A. for a few days. People relentlessly ask when my partner is going to move out to Atlanta, or when I will be quitting my job to move back to L.A. People just don't understand why we are willing to do this (though I work in a more conservative field, you may not experience this - my partner in L.A. doesn't). It is lonely to come home at the end of a long day to an empty apartment. My work hours are not particularly compatible with my partners; I start work at 8 and am done around 4 (eastern), just around when his work day is starting (pacific). We have to put a lot of energy into making sure we spend time together each day. Often I'll go to sleep with my computer on the bed so he can wake me up on skype when he gets home to say goodnight.
Still, it is workable and is working: I expect to stay here for several more years, at the end of which we plan to live together again. And I'm here because I LOVE my job (and treat this as an adventure). I am passionate about the work I'm doing and generally wake up excited to go to work every single day. And that is why I'm still doing it.
posted by arnicae at 9:31 AM on July 21, 2012
I am baffled as to why you are not both moving to New York and renting a room in a shared apartment in LA. That would give your girlfriend somewhere to crash the three months a year she needs to be physically in LA to maintain her union coverage. It also wouldn't cost $12,000 a year.
posted by DarlingBri at 10:34 AM on July 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by DarlingBri at 10:34 AM on July 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
Which union did she get into? There's a strong chance that she could get into the East Coast equivalent, unless said equivalent is IATSE Local 52 (props, set decorators/dressers, and I think grips and electrics). 52 is notoriously hard to break into.
As someone who works in TV in New York, I think it would be pretty hard to be truly bicoastal. Most TV jobs here are long jobs (compared to features or commercials or what have you). You're typically hired between June and August, depending on exactly what you do, and you work straight through until the following spring. If it's a series that only goes thirteen episodes, things vary a little more than that, but you're still looking at a solid 6+ months of regular Monday through Friday work.
And then, after the job is over, you're typically either looking for your next job (though some people take time off here and there as needed) or you've been re-upped to come back to that same series after a hiatus of six weeks or so.
It's possible to hop from little short job to little short job (exterior shoots for a series that doesn't actually shoot in New York, for example), but it's not economically feasible in the long term. Your girlfriend could potentially spend gaps in employment in Los Angeles, but if it had to be a hard three months it seems that it would make it difficult to find future work or return season after season to the same show. Especially starting out in a new city with few connections in the business. It also seems like if you dipped back into LA work, you'd get sucked into the equivalent 6+ month TV production cycle.
This would be slightly different if you did very specific specialist jobs, for example it seems to me that makeup and hair people are a little more free-floating, and I've known script supervisors who are effectively bicoastal because of connections with specific directors and production teams.
Set P.A.'s tend to work on a more freelance-y basis, and I've known some who do well bouncing back and forth between here and another city. That said, the fact that she just got into a union implies that she wouldn't want to make a living as a set P. A.
In terms of where to live within NYC, this is going to depend heavily on what exactly each of you does. If you work in production, it doesn't really matter because your office could be anywhere from midtown Manhattan to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to an abandoned warehouse in Queens.
If you're part of the shooting crew, there seem to be three approaches: live somewhere near where the big soundstages tend to be, live wherever and just deal, or live out in the burbs and drive everywhere.
I would not recommend the latter until you've gotten here and settled into a rhythm, if only because moving to New York but actually living out in the Jersey suburbs will make you hate New York.
If you want to live convenient to the big stages, you want to be in Astoria or Long Island City in Queens, or Greenpoint or Clinton Hill in Brooklyn. I wouldn't recommend living "deeper" in Queens (Jackson Heights or Elmhurst for example) at first, just because you shouldn't have to, financially, it'll make life in general more difficult, and it's not really an easy entry level Welcome To New York way of life. In terms of Brooklyn, anywhere from Williamsburg/Bushwick down to Fort Greene would be great. Then again, I live five minutes from one of the main stages and have never managed to swing a job there, so it's somewhat moot unless you end up staffed on a long-running series and can plan your life around the fact that you'll be commuting to Kaufmann-Astoria every day for years.
Re your train emergency: you'll want to have the number of a reliable car service in your phone. I think Olympic is the go-to in Astoria, but there will be others depending on where you live. Your first order of business your first day on your first job is to track down, through word of mouth or via yelp or something, what the best car service covering your neighborhood will be. Ideally you'll have two or three just in case.
You will absolutely not be able to find an apartment large enough for two cats and a dog for $1100. Either get that out of your head right now or plan to spend more on rent or plan to not have the animals here. Frankly, finding anything decent for that price in a neighborhood you won't hate is going to be very difficult. You need to decide whether the two of you are in this together. You're not going to be able to have your own private apartment where your girlfriend can visit indefinitely but not pay rent.
That said, your girlfriend doesn't need to be on the lease in order to live with you in a one bedroom apartment you both pay rent on. It should be easy to find a one bedroom in an acceptable neighborhood where your animals will have space for $1500-2000.
If your girlfriend thinks she's going to flit back and fort and visit you rent free a couple months out of the year while she lives her LA life? Yeah, sorry, your relationship is already on the way to being over.
posted by Sara C. at 11:28 AM on July 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
As someone who works in TV in New York, I think it would be pretty hard to be truly bicoastal. Most TV jobs here are long jobs (compared to features or commercials or what have you). You're typically hired between June and August, depending on exactly what you do, and you work straight through until the following spring. If it's a series that only goes thirteen episodes, things vary a little more than that, but you're still looking at a solid 6+ months of regular Monday through Friday work.
And then, after the job is over, you're typically either looking for your next job (though some people take time off here and there as needed) or you've been re-upped to come back to that same series after a hiatus of six weeks or so.
It's possible to hop from little short job to little short job (exterior shoots for a series that doesn't actually shoot in New York, for example), but it's not economically feasible in the long term. Your girlfriend could potentially spend gaps in employment in Los Angeles, but if it had to be a hard three months it seems that it would make it difficult to find future work or return season after season to the same show. Especially starting out in a new city with few connections in the business. It also seems like if you dipped back into LA work, you'd get sucked into the equivalent 6+ month TV production cycle.
This would be slightly different if you did very specific specialist jobs, for example it seems to me that makeup and hair people are a little more free-floating, and I've known script supervisors who are effectively bicoastal because of connections with specific directors and production teams.
Set P.A.'s tend to work on a more freelance-y basis, and I've known some who do well bouncing back and forth between here and another city. That said, the fact that she just got into a union implies that she wouldn't want to make a living as a set P. A.
In terms of where to live within NYC, this is going to depend heavily on what exactly each of you does. If you work in production, it doesn't really matter because your office could be anywhere from midtown Manhattan to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to an abandoned warehouse in Queens.
If you're part of the shooting crew, there seem to be three approaches: live somewhere near where the big soundstages tend to be, live wherever and just deal, or live out in the burbs and drive everywhere.
I would not recommend the latter until you've gotten here and settled into a rhythm, if only because moving to New York but actually living out in the Jersey suburbs will make you hate New York.
If you want to live convenient to the big stages, you want to be in Astoria or Long Island City in Queens, or Greenpoint or Clinton Hill in Brooklyn. I wouldn't recommend living "deeper" in Queens (Jackson Heights or Elmhurst for example) at first, just because you shouldn't have to, financially, it'll make life in general more difficult, and it's not really an easy entry level Welcome To New York way of life. In terms of Brooklyn, anywhere from Williamsburg/Bushwick down to Fort Greene would be great. Then again, I live five minutes from one of the main stages and have never managed to swing a job there, so it's somewhat moot unless you end up staffed on a long-running series and can plan your life around the fact that you'll be commuting to Kaufmann-Astoria every day for years.
Re your train emergency: you'll want to have the number of a reliable car service in your phone. I think Olympic is the go-to in Astoria, but there will be others depending on where you live. Your first order of business your first day on your first job is to track down, through word of mouth or via yelp or something, what the best car service covering your neighborhood will be. Ideally you'll have two or three just in case.
You will absolutely not be able to find an apartment large enough for two cats and a dog for $1100. Either get that out of your head right now or plan to spend more on rent or plan to not have the animals here. Frankly, finding anything decent for that price in a neighborhood you won't hate is going to be very difficult. You need to decide whether the two of you are in this together. You're not going to be able to have your own private apartment where your girlfriend can visit indefinitely but not pay rent.
That said, your girlfriend doesn't need to be on the lease in order to live with you in a one bedroom apartment you both pay rent on. It should be easy to find a one bedroom in an acceptable neighborhood where your animals will have space for $1500-2000.
If your girlfriend thinks she's going to flit back and fort and visit you rent free a couple months out of the year while she lives her LA life? Yeah, sorry, your relationship is already on the way to being over.
posted by Sara C. at 11:28 AM on July 21, 2012 [2 favorites]
Are you also factoring plane tickets /airport cabs into your budget? That seems like it could add up to a few thousand dollars annually pretty fast.
posted by manicure12 at 7:25 PM on August 3, 2012
posted by manicure12 at 7:25 PM on August 3, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
Fwiw I've been bi-continental since last August this way. Yes, there are times when I've spent more than I'd wanted to just to be in a location in the timing I'd wanted but overall, the year looks to be shaping up fine if all goes well in the Fall.
posted by infini at 7:40 AM on July 21, 2012