Re: Apartment Search
I lived in a beautiful building on 85th st between Lex and 3rd. 3rd ave is "restaurant row" and there was a GREAT indian restaurant just steps away. The apartments are small for sure, the kitchen tiny but nice. AND it had a little balcony with enough room for a small cafe table with 2 chairs. There were nice grocery stores right nearby, subway a couple of blocks away. And the street fairs - twice a year - were awesome, right down 3rd ave. It had washers and dryers in the building which was nice. I saw the building and just walked into the office and asked if they had any apts for rent. And the company has like 8 buildings, mostly right in that area but a couple of them also in midtown. So the thing to do really would be to go into the office of an apartment bldg and ask about apartments. That way, you dont end up paying a fee of up to 2000 dollars. If you want to live in Manhattan, thats the way to go.
In queens, theres a place called Forest Hills, its truly lovely and has halaal shopping in the area, has E and F trains right nearby, lots of shopping places, little cafes, nice restaurants. There, you might have better luck looking in the NY Times for apts since they're usually attached houses rather than the big bldgs. If its important to you, these usually do not have washer/dryers so you'd have to make a trip to the local laundromat.
I'm sure theres lots of other nice places, but those are the 2 that I know of....
best of luck in your search for a new home!