In February, she went house hunting in the Houston suburbs. “I cling dearly to the fact that Manhattan is the center of the universe,” she said. But when the opportunity arose again mid-pandemic, she knew it was time to go. “I thought I’d raise the kids running around under the giant whale at the Natural History Museum on Sunday mornings.”Ī few years back, her husband was offered a terrific job at his firm’s Houston office. “My 6-year-old son knows all the subways by heart,” said Ms. “The walkability lends itself to people dropping in and hanging out.”Ĭharlotte Morgan, a native New Yorker and general counsel for Adore Me, an online lingerie business, had always imagined such a New York life for her family. “To find those little communities in Manhattan was amazing,” she said.
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She recalled how she happened upon a yarn store near her apartment full of chatty knitters when she was just out walking one Sunday. “I miss the MoMA, and I miss the walk through Central Park to get there,” she said.Įven so, she misses the serendipity of New York. But her first trek, made in 28-degree weather through medical campuses and industrial neighborhoods, was sobering. She can also reach the Cleveland Museum of Art on foot in about half an hour. Brett, a visual artist and retired architect, appreciates the similar commute on foot to a sizable art supply store. To lessen their reliance on driving, their new house is a 15-minute walk to the Rapid Transit light rail, and Ms.
After riding the subway for three decades, the couple was determined to own just one car. Public transit and walkability helped sell Patricia Brett, 57, and her husband Tom, 65, on the Cleveland Heights, Ohio home that they bought in March 2021. “This signals that many New Yorkers aren’t sure their new home will stick, and they may be testing the waters,” said Igor Popov, the chief economist for Apartment List. And a large percentage of New York expats searched for short-term leases, between one and six months. New Yorkers also prioritized access to public transportation above the average renter, even in cities that are not known for their transit systems. (For example, 65 percent of New Yorkers searching in Miami listed the urban center of Brickell as their first choice.) An analysis by Apartment List for The New York Times found that between July 2020 and July 2021, New Yorkers searching for homes in nine major metro areas predominantly looked in urban and downtown neighborhoods. It’s perhaps not surprising then that many New Yorkers who moved out of the city are looking for an approximation of what they left behind - albeit with backyards and extra bedrooms.
buildings and how the ingenuity of engineers helped build landmarks. Hidden Feats: Our critic looks at some supertall N.Y.C.An Evolving Skyline: The high-rise building boom has transformed the city’s skyline in recent years.Luxury Developers’ Loophole: Soaring towers are able to push high into the sky because of a loophole in the city’s labyrinthine zoning laws.The Downside to Life in a Supertall: 432 Park faces some significant design problems, and other luxury high-rises may share its fate.Testing the Limits: Only three of New York’s 25 tallest residential buildings have completed safety tasks required by the city.“You find yourself on a new journey when you’re still not out of love with where you were.” “You’ll have regret, because the relationship didn’t run its course,” she said. Loflin, whose background is in marriage and family therapy, called Covid a “forced divorce.” People often separate, not because they fall out of love, but because an unforeseen event breaks up the marriage.
“Just like you can date or marry a place, you can divorce one.” “Finding the right place to live is often like finding the right spouse,” said Katherine Loflin, a consultant who studies emotional and sociological attachments to place. This has some people grappling with their decision to leave, even if they know they aren’t going back. As much as New York expatriates may romanticize the schlep, they are also mourning it, especially as the city starts to reopen. This is certainly true for longtime New Yorkers, whose identities are intertwined with the city’s energy, diversity and culture. Many of the estimated 400,000 New Yorkers who left the city in the early months of the pandemic have since returned, but among those who moved permanently, many have found the transition to be emotionally fraught. Maybe because I’m this neurotic Jew - walking to the Park Slope co-op with a stroller and bags and two kids in solidarity with the other schlepper doing the same thing - here nobody schleps.” “But for whatever reason, it just feels off. “The more I talk about it, the more perfect it sounds,” Ms.