unreal estate
Clockwise from upper left: Williamsburg, Fifteen Central Park West and a spectacular Inwood view.
MANHATTAN WAS ONCE THE BE-ALL AND END-ALL, THE EMERALD CITY, TO WHICH ALL EAGER, AMBITIOUS OR ARTISTIC DOROTHYS OF KANSAS AND KURTS OF NEBRASKA WERE INELUCTABLY DRAWN. ly touting it as undervalued and “next.” But I did mention Inwood, at the northern tip of Manhattan, where a friend happens to own a duplex penthouse with a vast terrace that boasts a view, over the Spuyten Duyvil to the Palisades, that makes me drool. Apartments like those go for under $750,000. Talk about undervalued! To be frank, the mention of Inwood was a joke. What I actually said was, “. . . even Inwood.” But the reporter took me seriously and left out any mention of the rest of Manhattan, though another joke or perhaps half-joke I made, saying I wouldn’t consider Brooklyn because it is “over,” by which I meant over-hyped (as well as, in my mind, over-priced in its premium districts), did make it into the story. But what about Inwood? And Brooklyn? And the far east Upper East Side? What makes two hot and one not? It’s a good question. Clearly, Brooklyn’s rise has been a classic by-product of the cycles of decline and gentrification that have come to define Manhattan, once the be-all and end-all, the Emerald City, to which all eager, ambitious or artistic Dorothys of Kansas and Kurts of Nebraska were ineluctably drawn. They came, poor, and found cheap places to live on the fringes of fashionable districts. Yorkville was accessible, where Park Avenue was not. Even more so the East Village, versus central and west, SoHo, NoHo and Nolita. But soon enough, their new energy became a beacon that drew others. As interest in those raffish habitats rose, rents and purchase prices did too, condos followed, and the next wave of newcomers was forced 44 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • MAY 2014
a bit farther out onto the fringe, until, inevitably, they hit a river, because Manhattan is, finally, finite. Thus, not quite accessible but once incredibly affordable Billyburg slowly became the new “it” neighborhood. And now, the cycle starts anew. Here’s the good news. Fact is, there are still backwaters to be discovered, even in Manhattan. Inwood, with its lovely river views, is certainly one. And clearly, there are others. After that article about my apartment sale appeared, I got letters and phone calls from several upper Manhattan pioneers and real estate agents, singing Siren songs. One broker even told me that the former editor of a glossy shelter magazine, a beautiful, erudite woman who lives on upper Riverside Drive alongside a handful of other glam media types, had called her—twice—to say we had to be induced to join them. Ninety-sixth Street remains a psychic dividing line for many, New Yorkers and Nebraskans alike, but I looked at some of the listings she mentioned, and clearly, there’s gold in them thar northern climes. So my little joke about Inwood was firmly rooted in a factual foundation. And while we continue to look for a new home all over Manhattan, we have taken a rental just a few blocks east of Alwyn Court, in a neighborhood that’s both new and familiar, and a bit unstylish, as a base for our continuing search for a new home, in an old but new and currently undervalued place that will, inevitably, become hot, too. God, I love Manhattan. ✦