I saw a Cop!

And he went zooming past, on the deserted roads in Richmond district, as if with some urgent sense of purpose. And I'm not surprised...

West Coast, Bay Area, SF - these terms always carried away my mind into a world of sunny beaches, beautiful hikes, outdoor sports, night camping and nature trails, all centered around a lively and thriving city. And with that mindset I always wanted to work here. And now, I am!

As the time neared, I was quite apprehensive about leaving NYC as I felt I had got used to it. Quite the same way, in striking contrast, as I felt about leaving Ithaca (upstate NY, for those of you who don't know)! It didn't sink in that I had actually moved until I landed, pulled my luggage from the conveyor belt, hoarded a shuttle and came at the hotel I'd booked. It all seemed perfect - a bright sunny sky, lots of stores and restaurants around and happy faces. I had done my homework and had booked the day to go look at a few listings where I would be establishing my abode for the foreseeable future. I start off from Taylor and Post where I had arranged some temporary accommodation and start walking south west.

As I came out of my hotel I was absorbed in the revelry around the place and didn't feel that I had left New York at all. I started walking admiring the people, the buildings, the shops, streets, but most importantly, the weather. My thoughts were suddenly disturbed by a fowl stench, and, as my neurons registered it, a familiar one, from the cigarette a guy was smoking on the streets. In an utmost expression of joy he shouted "Hey buddy. How are you doing today? Enjoy Life!" Yes... it was something else, camouflaged as a cigarette. And then I was pulled out of my thoughts and sensed the transition that had brought me into a different neighborhood. I was scared for a bit and thankfully I had the Sun watching my back. I notched up my pace and entered a pretty silent building. It seemed well kept and the manager showed me the apartment. The windows of the apartment opened out to face a blank wall, a completely white wall, and that was the only view from the place. Next.
The office manager cautioned about the region and advised that his building was right at the edge of a neighborhood called tenderloin that is known for its notoriety. The area on Jones St. between O'Farrel and McAllister is what he suggested to avoid. And that was when I began to understand how stark the boundaries between neighborhoods in SF are and how distinct their culture is.

The next few days...
The next day I spoke with my friends who had inhabited the area for a while and asked them about their recommendations for places to live. Most of them had settled down in the Bay area and had little knowledge about the neighborhoods in the city. I thought of then doing some research online to figure out the pros and cons of different areas and headed to a Starbucks close to where my office was going to be. It was closed. AND - it closes at 6 pm on weekdays. I was almost shattered and couldn't help feeling bottomed out and I missed the zillions of results that yelp spat out at "24x7 cafes" in NYC. "Nearby". I decided I needed some freshness and some change and I moved over to stay at my family's in  Hayward City.

The week turned out to be pretty interesting as I worked in the day and had fun with my little cousins at home. At the end of the week I found a place to live at Haight. My colleagues had a nice impression of the place with the different eating and hanging joints and that helped me feel positive. But I guess a difference in perspective was again not on my side. As I roamed about Haight trying to explore around I wasn't completely at ease in my mind. I had felt quite similar as I had come out of 16th St. at Mission on BART and it suddenly seemed quite clear. There was quite a visual element to the buildings. Almost all of them were really graphic with the most plain ones also having some graffiti. All these areas - Tenderloin, Haight, Mission St. had some extreme visual graphics on the building walls - hypnotic patterns, dark designs, distorted figures of human body, graphic visualization of "plant leaves", hippie color combinations, etc. To further enrich this appeal these areas were populated by a different breed of adventurers some sporting braided hear, tattoos all over face, pierced lips and eyebrows, heavy beard, half torn clothing, etc. Add on to the fact that many of them have a very stout built, in the first few days I used to feel mildly threatened with their presence. Even as a New Yorker (if I may call myself that) who has seen his share of unique aspects in people, the ratio of such a breed together with their high visibility and coupled with an extremely graphic setting of the visually rich images on buildings construes an uneasy threatening feeling, especially for someone new. Like me. I remember the first time I walked down on Market St. towards Van Ness and after the 4th-5th st. the neighborhood took a sudden transformation. I wasn't surprised as the maps indicated I was at the border of Tenderloin. There were small groups of loud and stout men lingering around, smoking stuff and having music play around. Another group of street kids, the kind who looked up to the former group of men, huddled together with a basketball taking turns on passing it around without any regard to passers by. Add to all this a kind of ghetto appeal that the area has with bright and dark colored walls painted with some abstract art form and with the stores showcasing distorted mannequins with separated limbs sporting respective body accessories. I have never set foot in that area again.
One day I saw a guy walking on the streets completely naked with just a piece of cloth hanging on one side. The other day I was walking on Haight with some take out Thai and after every 10 steps someone would ask "Do you need that food"? I either ignored or gave a rather imperceptible nod without even looking at them. Not all of them were mature, respectable people - one of the "street kids" stomped his skate board that made a loud noise and as my reflexes made me turn he yelled "so you CAN hear me. The next time I ask something, you reply!" I scampered my way back home and was really disappointed with the worst Thai I had tasted. I wish I had actually given it away!

So yeah... the next week I went to check out the Richmond district and it turned out to be quite a residential place with rows and rows of houses lined up. And there he was... a cop, rushing towards the city with a sense of urgency. And you know now why I wasn't surprised!

Welcome NYC

So after a remarkably memorable stay in the small town of Ithaca it was time to leave the confines of the walls that Mr. Ezra had originally intended all of us to stay in. The idea was that away from all the city congestion and distractions students will get a chance to mingle among themselves in an academic setting that would help foster an enriching learning environment. I guess he did not conceive of this stream of Financial Engineering that inevitably brought Cornell closer to NYC until 2007 when a small part actually branched off and landed on wall street.
Now I wasn't going to begin studying anytime soon and if fate had it's way I might not have even been here so early but here I was, for my internship. I have been a city boy all my life. I grew up in Delhi, India, studied in Mumbai and lived in Bangalore. All these megacenters are one of the most populous cities in India and with an ever increasing immigration population and the progressing boundaries the population density doesn't seem to stabilize.They are home to people either scrambling to get onto that bus to reach their workplace, to catch that last spot on the train trying to make an errand or just to people that exist trying to make your life more complex! But in return, to serve the entire array of different classes of people from different backgrounds and tastes, you get a host of amenities that sometimes seem customized to your need. Be it a restaurant that serves your favorite entre, a pub that plays just your music, a coffee shop that blends to your taste or even a  tailor that stitches to your body.
BUT... all this comes when are in a state to really enjoy what they have to offer. And you certainly cannot be in that state of mind when you are in no man's land and trying to find a place to crash for the night. Home. I have looked for a place twice back home and once here in Ithaca, NY. In each instance I took the time (I would now say I had the luxury of time) to look at a few apartments, weigh them based on different criteria and then decide on the one that passes all the screening. Now this process typically took me a week or two and I was fortunate enough to have my cousin living in the heart of the city where I could crash for that time while I looked at other listings. So I log onto craigslist and try to rank the listings based on the location, distance, furnishings, utilities and my understanding of the safety and fun of the neighborhood. My office was at Grand Central and my next term was to be in downtown. To avoid being sucked into Manhattan's expenses and at the same time have a clean, fun and safe neighborhood I chose Astoria in Queens. It was the end of May and the search threw numerous results of places being available in a couple of weeks for the summer. Even after filtering for what clearly was spam there seemed to be a good number of listings checking which could keep me occupied for a few days.
So, being the diligent person I am, I jotted a few places and mapped my route and headed off. Now what you hear or see about a place can be quite different from what you witness with your own eyes, or in my case, ear. My first stop was north east of Williamsburg and I was pleasantly surprised to see the train ride on an elevated platform. But that soon turned into a blare as I stepped out and it was further disappointing to know that the listing was right around the corner and the noise of the train would deem an alarm unnecessary. Next I took the 7 back to take the N/Q and go into Astoria. The same problem persisted though the area was quite widespread and open to take away that claustrophobic feeling of elevated tracks and the blaring sound. They were all 2 storey row houses with a shop on the 1st floor and along with the curbside restaurants and clean streets it gave the town a pre-modern European look. It seemed like a giant chopper had chopped off all Manhattan sky scrapers from 3rd floor up but then you could still see the city across the river. It was a love at first sight and I knew I was going to live in that neighborhood.
Unfortunately I was still not familiarized with how "big" the rooms really are when they say that on craigslist. My first destination was at a place where 3 men, each over 40, resided. The room was as big as the size of a store room, the living room finished before it even started and the kitchen cabinets were locked because no one cooked. As if that wasn't enough the guy listed all the rules of the house as minute as cleaning the floor and I never thought about that place after that. This way I rejected a few other houses of the day and the next morning I was really considering taking up the first place I saw. When I called up to check I was surprised to know that it was taken up already. That got me on my foot and I started carrying my cheque book along to be able to sign off a place as soon as I saw it.
I was glad to have the assistance of a smart phone all this while. I could always check craigslist for any new sublets and I had that page with my search filter always open. I spent the next week looking over each sublet listing and each time something prevented me from committing to it at that very instant. One was perfect but was available only for 2 months. Another was well furnished but was too far from the closest subway. Then another was also very well furnished but it turned out to be a home to a 50 yr old and his dog and I used to curse them for not being clear about such descriptions on craigslist. The ones that had a good location were either too small or were in a dingy apt or were unfurnished. After about a week I became quite stressed of the situation and restless of living out of a suitcase. I expanded my search to downtown and brooklyn as well thinking that it would be better in the long run when my term begins in the fall on wall street. With the constraint on my budget I could only find apts in Chinatown that appeared like sleazy makeshift dorms that could break away any time or others in brooklyn with so much mess that my trash can seemed cleaner.
Finally I struck gold one day with an apt in Jackson Heights that was well connected by an express train, was in a nice neighborhood and had a big and well furnished room and that too for just $600. I immediately contacted the person and was there in 30 mins - a good test to measure the daily commute time I was going to have. I had been tired the past few weeks and being the middle of June the listings were thinning out and I was really hoping for this to work out. When I reached it turned out that the guy was living with his mother and they had had an Indian tenant before so we struck very well and we all had a good conversation for over an hour. We both liked each other and they began typing the sublet contract and I took out my cheque book. I had been warned to verify the credentials before entering any transaction and so I asked to check their papers and showed them my id, etc. Somehow that sort of upset the lady and she started having second thoughts. Now, I wasn't too impressed with the rest of the apt or its distance as well but I really liked the room and already under pressure I wanted to sign it off. So I tried to work it out well enough and left assured that the guy will be able to convince her mom.
Hardly did I know that it was a blessing in disguise for the next day, while I was holding on to them and still trying to find a better place, I struck gold again and this time I really felt that it was the one! Within 40 minutes of the ad I was in the apartment to check it out. Hardwood floors, big enough and furnished with bed, sofa, tv, desk, chair and AC, two large windows, well stocked kitchen and an orderly living room with a 52" screen and psII. I was all over and when I actually handed an advance cheque and got the receipt I could feel a heavy weight suddenly off my head.
I moved in about a week later and I would say that I love the neighborhood and this house was definitely worth the wait.

PS: A word of advice - when looking for apts in NYC be ready to commit on the spot, especially when its a sublet. The market is very rapid and dynamic and it pays to be a bit flexible and strike a place as it comes.