# New york, New York!



## Goutetsuu (Aug 25, 2005)

Hi,

i be new to the boards and also traveling to New York next year, tickets booked and paid for.

I'd like to know, are there any inexpensive hotels to stay in New York? Every time i look prices are a bit high for me, i'm just looking for a safe place to stay, not bothered about having grub in the morning.

Friend suggested a hostel, but too nervous for that, different people coming in and out of your room at will, sleeping there when they want. I'd have to sleep with one eye open 24/7.

If anyone has been or currently living in New York, maybe they can lend a hand here? And thanks for any help in advanced

-K


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## phildwyer (Aug 25, 2005)

St. Mark's Hotel, corner of St. Mark's Place (East 8th St) and 3rd Ave.  $100 a night, heart of the East Village, ye cannae whack it.


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## Goutetsuu (Aug 25, 2005)

ahh k i mean't cheap as in around $20-50, is that possible? I don't wanna spend to much on a hotel as i wanna use more of my money for the trip.


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## phildwyer (Aug 25, 2005)

Goutetsuu said:
			
		

> ahh k i mean't cheap as in around $20-50, is that possible? I don't wanna spend to much on a hotel as i wanna use more of my money for the trip.



Then you're talking hostel, I'm afraid.  There's a very goo, very safe one on Amsterdam Ave and West 103rd St, the Upper West Side.  A decent neighborhood, but don't stray east of there after dark, and ignore anyone who whispers "White Horse" as you pass by.


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## Goutetsuu (Aug 25, 2005)

thanks forthe info, i will look i up definately, do you know if you have to room share, or are there hostels that provide you with your own room?

and white horse, whats that about?


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## EatMoreChips (Aug 25, 2005)

There's the worst hotel in the world on 36th Street (I think), near maybe 8th Avenue, that I stayed in once. Cheap, but genuinely awful. Rooms the size of closets, and as soon as I'd checked in and laid down for a rest, they came in and started rewiring the place. Very odd. 

I'll try and remember what it's called...


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## mhendo (Aug 25, 2005)

Goutetsuu said:
			
		

> thanks forthe info, i will look i up definately, do you know if you have to room share, or are there hostels that provide you with your own room?


Some hostels have small private rooms, others don't. Of those that do have such rooms, some hostels reserve them specifically for couples, and prefer not to use them for single travellers. Also, in my experience, the private rooms get snapped up very quickly, especially in a high-demand place like New York.

I haven't stayed at the Amsterdam Ave. place recommended by *phildwyer*, but i've heard good things about it. About 6 years ago, i stayed in the Big Apple Hostel, on 45th St. right off Times Square. It was neat enough, and i thought it was a decent place to stay.

I picked a place on Times Square because it was my first visit to New York, and i'd heard that Times Square was where all the action is. Well, that area is fine for your first visit, i guess, but to me it's definitely the least interesting part of New York City. I much prefer the areas further downtown like Greenwich Village, the East Village, Soho, Tribeca, and Chelsea. The upper east and upper west sides are also nice.

How long are you intending to stay in the city? If you're going to be there for more than a week, you might try to sublet an apartment from the New York Craigslist. It's often a great way to get reasonably-priced accommodation. My wife is in New York right now, and i'm going up to meet her on Tuesday. She found a lovely loft apartment right on Canal Street (one of our favorite parts of town), and it is costing $800 for three weeks. That's $40 a night for a full apartment with kitchen, laundry facilities, TV, internet access, everything. Pretty damn good, if you ask me. Also, if you have an apartment with a kitchen you can save money by not having to eat out every single meal, although it's very easy to dine cheaply in New York.






			
				Goutetsuu said:
			
		

> and white horse, whats that about?


I'm no expert in street speak, but i'm betting that it's heroin. "Horse" has been slang for heroin for a long time. Ever heard the song "Horse With No Name" by the band America? That song's about heroin.


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## mhendo (Aug 25, 2005)

One more thing:

I've heard good things about this hostel, and it's in a great part of town. Chelsea is a lovely neighbourhood, and is a short walk from Greenwich Village, Union Square, and lots of other great stuff. The hostel is also close to the west side subway lines, so getting downtown or uptown from there will be really easy.


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## Goutetsuu (Aug 26, 2005)

thanks mhendo for your tips, never considered an apartment, but will do now. you say times square is alright, but what is good about the other areas you mentioned? i'm looking to be a real tourist there, so i'd like to see all that i can.

i heard there is  an helicopter ride\flight that takes you around new york, that i'm already sold on. hmm, the apartment does sound real interesting, and has the added luxuries too, i.e. kitchen, tv etc, but again its no real biggie, but i won't dismiss it either.

ahh k got it about the white horse, ikinda thought it may be related to drugs, but thought i'd be naive and be sure by asking, never heard of the group though, i will check out the site info you gave, that is a great help, cheers bub


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## mhendo (Aug 26, 2005)

Goutetsuu said:
			
		

> thanks mhendo for your tips, never considered an apartment, but will do now. you say times square is alright, but what is good about the other areas you mentioned? i'm looking to be a real tourist there, so i'd like to see all that i can.


Well, like i said, Times Square os OK, but i'd much prefer to stay somewhere else. There are plenty of tourists in Times Square but, in my opinion, unless you're going to a Broadway or Off-Broadway show, there's not much interesting stuff to do there. Times Square itself is filled with a bunch of crappy shite (Virgin Megastores, McDonalds, a heap of ripoff merchants selling cheap electronics). There are much more interesting places to stay.

In terms of your location and getting to tourist destinations, it really doesn't matter where you are, because you will need to use the subway (or taxis, if you have more money) to get around. Some of the tourist attractions require that you go all the way downtown (Ground Zero, Staten Island Ferry, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty); some are a bit further north (Greenwich Village, Soho, Washington Sqaure Park, Union Square). Some are up towards midtown (Madison Square Garden, Flatiron Building, Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, New York Public Library), and some are further north again (Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Central Park, Guggenheim, Museum of Natural History, the Met). Then, even further north, there's Columbia University, Harlem, The Bronx Zoo, etc. And there are great bars, clubs, and restaurants all over the city.

There's a lot more, but you get the picture. No matter where you stay, you'll have to travel to some of your tourist destinations. What you need to decide is what you want to see most and plan your stay that way—because you won't be able to see everything. Also, don't discount trips to the outer boroughs. Brooklyn and Queens, in particular, have some great neighbourhoods. When my wife and i go to NY, we often head over to Jackson Heights in Queens or Park Slope in Brooklyn, among other places. And you come during baseball season, head up to the Bronx and check out a game at Yankee Stadium.






			
				Goutetsuu said:
			
		

> i heard there is  an helicopter ride\flight that takes you around new york, that i'm already sold on.


Just be careful which company you choose.

Caution #1

Caution #2


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## Concrete Meadow (Aug 26, 2005)

First off, welcome to u75, Goutetsuu.

Speaking of cheap, here's an article in yesterday's New Yor Times. 
(Sorry for the cut-and-paste as you need to register to read the Times.)

*Be It Ever So Humble. O.K., It's Shabby*






The Baxter Hotel, a stubborn survivor of New York's shifting housing picture, 
is one of three single-room-occupancy hotels huddled together against the world on 
Beach 116th Street in Rockaway, just down from the end of the A subway line.  

By COREY KILGANNON - Published: August 25, 2005 (nytimes.com)

If you need a home in a hurry and do not mind salt air and salty neighbors, with $130 and your own roll of toilet paper you can move into the Baxter Hotel in Rockaway Park, a half-block from the Atlantic Ocean.

Inside the office, a sign directs new residents to "please read all the house rules carefully or ask management to read them to you." For a $130 check, Mr. Baxter handed a recent visitor the key to Room 27 and said in his Irish brogue, "I hope you're good at remembering faces," adding as he walked away, "There's no mirror in the room."

His assistant, Sean Reeder, led the way up creaky stairs to a fourth-floor room. Smoking was permitted out the room window. Asked about the house rules, Mr. Reeder said, "Just don't do anything to make us kick you out."

"The bathroom's over there," he added, pointing to three tiny bathrooms at the end of the hall. Two had stall showers. None had sinks, mirrors or toilet paper. They did provide views of Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic.

The Baxter is one of three single-room-occupancy hotels huddled together against the world on Beach 116th Street, just down from the end of the A subway line. It sits between a closed S.R.O. called the Hotel Lawrence and the Rockaway Park Hotel, a functioning S.R.O. whose residents include young children and a man who wears outfits made from plastic garbage bags.

It is also a stubborn survivor of New York's shifting housing picture. Places like the Baxter that offer humble lodgings to people of humble means have been steadily disappearing from the city's landscape, in part to make room for more lucrative real estate. 

In 1998, the last year for which the city has data, there were 46,744 S.R.O. units, down from 57,128 in 1993. In 2002, a survey by the West Side S.R.O. Law Project, an advocacy group, counted 35,227 units. 

And while the Baxter may be the only thing standing between its tenants and the street or a shelter, the hotel, like many S.R.O.'s, is reviled and regarded by its neighbors as a fleabag that attracts undesirables. 

Most residents are acutely aware that many local homeowners and merchants consider them a blight on the community and want their home torn down - a view stated regularly at community board meetings and in letters to the local newspaper.

So the Baxter's tenants prefer to avoid conversation by scurrying silently by and squeezing behind their doors. "It's really 'live and let live' around here,' " explained one resident, Jim Hammond. "No one wants to be bothered. They know the reputation people have of them and the place. I've learned to just keep my eyes looking straight ahead of me. After all this time, I only know a few people here by name."

Mr. Hammond, an administrator for the New York Fire Department, said he had been living at the Baxter off and on for four years while on a waiting list for a studio co-op he could afford in a high-rise nearby. His name had just come up so he was packing up to leave the Baxter for good.

"You could fit five of these rooms in it," he said, sitting in his hotel room. A lineup of Jockey shorts hung neatly on hangers next to his dress shirts. 

After telling his story, he spelled his name slowly and added, "That should make my ex-wife happy."

The rooms at the Baxter are smaller than some elevators. The one visited recently had a ceiling and walls painted powder blue. There was a bald light bulb in a ceiling fixture, a dresser, a mini-refrigerator, an itchy bed with mismatched sheets and a television equipped with an antenna, not cable.

Air-conditioners are banned at the Baxter because its old electrical system could not support them, but with the door open, a salty breeze sweeps through the room and makes even sweltering days tolerable.

At night, the soundtrack is an overlay of arguments, children chanting, adults making love, a ballgame, talk radio, pop, rap, sitcom laugh-tracks and low-flying jets bound for Kennedy Airport.





The hotel's owner, John Baxter, charges $130 a week for rooms.  

Next door is Annie Kenney, 82, a Brooklyn native who took her disability checks and retired to the Rockaways. She can barely climb stairs because her knees are shot. So Mr. Reeder runs her errands and she stays up in her room for days at a time.

"I'm used to it," she said. "I keep busy with the radio and the TV. I like sports and the news." 

"The people here are all special people," she added. "I say a prayer for every one of them."

Across the hall is a young man who works in the kitchen of a Pizza Hut in Midtown. He said he was just passing through, and when he walked away, Mrs. Kenney said, "That's what everybody says when they come here."

Most people wind up at the Baxter because of loss, either of family, friends, job, home, or all of the above.

Richie Veneziano, 51, who lives on the second floor, said he was "living a normal life" as a banker in Manhattan with an apartment in Brooklyn and a place in Florida. Then he had a stroke, stopped working and was evicted by his aunt.

"My family used to have big Sunday dinners, but when I hit the skids, they all disappeared and so did my friends and my apartment," he said. "No one wanted to know me anymore."

Living on disability checks, he moved in with another aunt in Rockaway, who eventually evicted him, too. So he came to the Baxter.

"It's better than sleeping on the street," he said. "I had no place to go and very little money. To find a room a half-block from the beach is a bargain. I'm in limbo, but it's a comfortable limbo." 

Mr. Baxter and his wife have a nice house several blocks away, but he spends most of his time around the hotel and keeps a suite of rooms for himself on the second floor. 

In the afternoon, he drinks with the working stiffs and holds court at the Sand Bar, on the boardwalk next to the Park Inn psychiatric home, one of the many nursing homes and mental health facilities that are clustered nearby. 

The open-air bar is the center of the circus that is Beach 116th Street: a busy commercial strip that attracts vagrants, drunks, mental patients and battalions of beachgoers. 

Mr. Baxter grew up on a farm in County Cavan, Ireland, and came to New York in 1954. He has run for the New York City Council, published a local newspaper and is a fixture at community board meetings, speaking his mind and videotaping them for use on his monthly Queens cable television show. 

On the show and in plays and revues he produces in the small theater on the Baxter's ground floor he skewers local politicians, whom he blames for letting the city turn the Rockaways into "the toilet of New York City." 

The peninsula has a high unemployment rate and more than its share of housing projects and psychiatric and nursing homes. 

Luxury co-op apartments are being built across the street, and rumor has it that the developer is offering the Rockaway Park Hotel's owners $3 million to sell. Whatever happens, Mr. Baxter says he is not selling.

"This is all I have, fighting these bums," he said. "They're going to have to carry me out in a tin box."


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## Goutetsuu (Aug 27, 2005)

thanks for the welcome concret and for the info, once i've finished reading this post i'll get back to this article, its a longing, but thanks.

hey mhendo, i think you have fuled my loss in confidence in the helicopter flights...cheers   although it seemed no one died, so i can take a gamble huh?

i guess i'm gonna have to draw write up a plan or something on what i want to do, since from what you're saying, there is loads to do. i've schedualled myself to stay for 2 weeks, but i have an open ticket for next year, so i could stay in the summer and give myself more time to do things, but its all down to money in the end.

but i think i may go for one of the hostels that mhendo provided (many thanks), and get enough money for a private room, can't be sharing with no cut throat.

thanks for the info peeps, speak to you again hopefully,

-K


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## duvel (Aug 29, 2005)

....if you don't mind the bare minimum, but love a great location, the Chelsea Hostel on W20th is pretty cool.

www.chelseahostel.com


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## DialT0ne (Aug 29, 2005)

yea, usually the bigger/safer/nicer hotels in NY cost a lot.


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## simon_rushton (Aug 30, 2005)

I've stayed at the Vanderbilt Y before, and it's absolutely fine. On E. 47th St, a couple of blocks from the United Nations, and very near Grand Central, Chrysler Building, a few mins walk from Times Sq. etc. Not as cool as downtown, of course, but it's pretty cheap and handy if you want to be based in midtown. Can't remember exactly, but it was about $70 ish per night, single rooms, safe, secure. Plus swimming pool and other stuff in the basement.


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## hiccup (Aug 30, 2005)

I'm staying here:

http://www.americandreamhostel.com/

in November. I'll let you know what it was like.


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## gabi (Aug 30, 2005)

www.jazzonthepark.com

I've stayed at the one right by Central Park on the Upper West Side.  Great place... very friendly, and they have jazz on the roof! Or they did when I stayed anyway.

I think it was about 25 bucks a night.


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## phildwyer (Aug 30, 2005)

DialT0ne said:
			
		

> yea, usually the bigger/safer/nicer hotels in NY cost a lot.



You can negotiate with them, though (a well-kept secret).  But you certainly won't get them to go below $100.


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## t0bytoo (Aug 30, 2005)

This ain't my usual kind of abode, but check it out:
http://www.hotelgansevoort.com

Just scored a voucher for two super deluxe mights for two. So we're going to spend our last two few days in the city lounging by the rooftop pool and lunching out on room service. I think it includes all the tips too. yee Ha.


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## 1927 (Aug 31, 2005)

Definitely check out craigslist,I just checked for my next trip and am in contact with a few peeps who are offering a private room in an aprtment for $75 a night on the Central Park West,to a one bed aprtment in Queens for $65 a night.

Definitely cheaper than a cheap hotel!!


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## gracious (Sep 17, 2005)

hey 1927, im gonna be over there in october, can you put me in touch with the same people you are talkin to? PM me peeerleeeease


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## D (Sep 18, 2005)

mhendo said:
			
		

> I'm no expert in street speak, but i'm betting that it's heroin. "Horse" has been slang for heroin for a long time. Ever heard the song "Horse With No Name" by the band America? That song's about heroin.



I never knew that, but have just read much about the ole controversy.


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## walktome (Sep 18, 2005)

You can get a private room in a hostel for around $30. I suggest doing that. Then you wouldn't have anyone going in and out of your room. Also, hostels are a fun environment.


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## Dead Cat Bounce (Sep 21, 2005)

> www.jazzonthepark.com
> 
> I've stayed at the one right by Central Park on the Upper West Side. Great place... very friendly, and they have jazz on the roof! Or they did when I stayed anyway.
> 
> I think it was about 25 bucks a night.



Just booked seven nights at the above hostel in late October , I can't wait   

Is it jazz every night or just on the weekends?


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## gracious (Sep 22, 2005)

my gosh... me too.. in the one in the east village from 19th to 26th... will i bump into you?


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## Moody Blue (Sep 25, 2005)

Also - check out craigslist below for alternatives to hotels, etc - maybe you can find a temp apt or sub-lease for a week or so.
-MB in NYC

http://newyork.craigslist.org/vac/


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