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Post by babidibubi on May 20, 2022 6:36:52 GMT -5
Hi all,
I come from Italy and I'll spend the summer in NYC for an internship. My finances will be very limited and I'll only be able to afford a room (most likely outside Manhattan) as I won't be getting an actual salary, but rather a stipend which is far below NYC standards. I'll be working in the Grand Central area. It's probably gonna be tough and I won't be able to go out much but the internship is a huge opportunity so I had to say yes.
As an Italian I do have some experience with nasty heatwaves, but that doesn't mean I enjoy the heat. I usually f*ck off to the Alps as soon as I can. I've read that NYC summers can be really humid and disgusting, even though a/c is far more common than this side of the pond. And it kinda scares me tbh - for me it's really about basic quality of life. I care way more about sleeping comfortably and not being a miserable sweaty mess everywhere I go than about having 3 different clubs and foodie places in my block.
Therefore, I am looking for a place which is affordable (by NYC standards), safe, reasonably well connected to Midtown, and not too hot. I can deal with the relative lack of amenities as long as there's a grocery store nearby and I don't get robbed at gunpoint.
Is there anything like it in the city? Am I reaching for the stars here? Central Park brownstones aren't affordable, Astoria/LIC/Sunnyside are treeless concrete jungles with some of the worst nighttime temps in the city, and Rockaway Beach is out in the sticks.
Also, unlike many Italian cities, summer is the rainiest season in NYC. Does this mean tropical-style warm rain that only makes you sweat more? Or is it more like refreshing thunderstorms?
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Post by Benfxmth on May 20, 2022 15:09:54 GMT -5
As no one else got to it by now, I'll reply to some of your points. I can't speak of where to live in and financial stuff/affordability (other posters in here likely have better answers), though NYC's summers aren't that different from Rome's, aside from the precip pattern. Both have got fairly similar mean dew points for JJA, albeit slightly lower in Rome: Both have very similar daily means, even though NYC has got smaller diurnals within the UHI zone and the potential for anomalously warm daily lows is a bit greater en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_New_York_City#Station_data en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_RomeNYC appears to get ~25 T-storms annually [saved and downloaded from NCEI; see pg. 3 for normals]: drive.google.com/file/d/1Sbn-B6_sH-Oqqyg4c7k032FGGsfhx9l2/view?usp=sharingP.S.: Welcome to the forum, hope you stick around here and like it.  |
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Post by babidibubi on May 20, 2022 17:42:23 GMT -5
Thank you for your reply and for welcoming me! Summers in Rome are unpleasant, but I do believe precipitation patterns play a role - summers are the driest season, so from early June you pretty much know you won't be getting any meaningful rain until September aside from the odd thunderstorm. That's because prevailing winds blow from the west-southwest, where the sea is, and the sea only starts to generate storms in September when cold fronts from the Atlantic run over the warm Mediterreanean waters. In June-July-August, westerly winds only mean sea breezes, sunny weather and high humidity. Which is nice if you're into that and you're a beach type of guy, but I'm not. All in all, it's hard to survive without a/c these days, but it gets easier if you're closer to the beach or far out in the outskirts; conversely, neighbourhoods in the east/northeast side get all the worst heat and air pollution from the city. I have no idea how it works in NYC, but since it's a lot rainier, I imagine it should also feel "psychologically" different as there should be a lot more storms. I don't know why but even when max/min temps are technically the same, having a refreshing thunderstorm in the afternoon/evening gives such a different feeling than ust having sun and high humidity all day long. E.g. say you have 30°C at 2PM in city A and city B; but if city A gets a thunderstorm at 5PM with temps plunging to 22°C and then staying there for the rest of the day, whereas city B stays sunny and only gets down to 22°C late at night, city A is gonna feel much different even if the highs and lows are the same. Additionally, I don't know what are the prevailing winds in the city in summer, and the geography of the city is much more complicated, so it's harder to work out which neighbourhoods are best to cool off or just get a little bit of relief from the heat island. Looks like it's more tied to the density of buildings and proximity to large green areas than to sea breezes. |
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Post by desiccatedi85 on May 20, 2022 23:17:01 GMT -5
First off babidibubi, welcome to the forum and I hope you stay awhile  Anyway, I have lived in a NYC suburb on Long Island (5 miles east of Queens) for 14 out of my 17 years of life, so I’m pretty knowledgeable about the NYC area and hope that I can help you find an adequate place to stay. As Benfxmth mentioned, it’s true that NYC summers are very similar to those in many Italian cities. I don’t know exactly where in Italy you are from, but I assume that it will not be a big change from your current residence in terms of climate. NYC has a climate very similar to that of Milan if you are familiar, though summer nights are warmer in NYC due to its intense UHI effect. This is a metro area of 20 million people, after all. If you are looking to live in a more affordable area of the city with relatively cool summer nights, I’d suggest the New Jersey side of the area. You mentioned that you will be working in Midtown Manhattan, and the areas just across the Hudson River from Manhattan have good transportation links to Manhattan via NJ transit. Yes, while not technically located in NY state, or not part of NYC, this is still convenient to Midtown, and more affordable than much of NYC proper. Look at cities along the Hudson River, such as Jersey City, West New York, Hoboken, and Fort Lee. These will be convenient. Also, due to being located more inland and being a bit less dense, summer nights will be a bit cooler here than in Queens or Brooklyn. However, this area will also lack sea breezes from the Atlantic, which means it will have hotter daytime highs, routinely surpassing the 90F (32C) mark, and being more likely to hit the 100F (38C) mark. This area is also rainier in summer than the eastern part of the city, as thunderstorms tend to fizzle out by the coast. There will be little difference in humidity, however. This area averages high/low of 87F/69F (31C/21C) with 4.66” of rain in July. Compare this to 86F/72F (30C/22C) with 4.30” of rain in Queens. Most everywhere in NYC will have warmer summer nights that this area in New Jersey. If you are willing to make a longer commute, I’d recommend parts of Nassau County (my area), which averages 85F/66F (29C/19C) with 3.97” of rain, and summer is not the rainiest season in my area, while spring and fall are. However, like I said Nassau, while it still has public transport links to Midtown Manhattan, is further away and suburban. I don’t know if you are okay with living in a suburb, so I think somewhere like Hoboken, NJ is your best bet. |
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Post by babidibubi on May 21, 2022 5:45:10 GMT -5
First off babidibubi , welcome to the forum and I hope you stay awhile Anyway, I have lived in a NYC suburb on Long Island (5 miles east of Queens) for 14 out of my 17 years of life, so I’m pretty knowledgeable about the NYC area and hope that I can help you find an adequate place to stay. As Benfxmth mentioned, it’s true that NYC summers are very similar to those in many Italian cities. I don’t know exactly where in Italy you are from, but I assume that it will not be a big change from your current residence in terms of climate. NYC has a climate very similar to that of Milan if you are familiar, though summer nights are warmer in NYC due to its intense UHI effect. This is a metro area of 20 million people, after all. If you are looking to live in a more affordable area of the city with relatively cool summer nights, I’d suggest the New Jersey side of the area. You mentioned that you will be working in Midtown Manhattan, and the areas just across the Hudson River from Manhattan have good transportation links to Manhattan via NJ transit. Yes, while not technically located in NY state, or not part of NYC, this is still convenient to Midtown, and more affordable than much of NYC proper. Look at cities along the Hudson River, such as Jersey City, West New York, Hoboken, and Fort Lee. These will be convenient. Also, due to being located more inland and being a bit less dense, summer nights will be a bit cooler here than in Queens or Brooklyn. However, this area will also lack sea breezes from the Atlantic, which means it will have hotter daytime highs, routinely surpassing the 90F (32C) mark, and being more likely to hit the 100F (38C) mark. This area is also rainier in summer than the eastern part of the city, as thunderstorms tend to fizzle out by the coast. There will be little difference in humidity, however. This area averages high/low of 87F/69F (31C/21C) with 4.66” of rain in July. Compare this to 86F/72F (30C/22C) with 4.30” of rain in Queens. Most everywhere in NYC will have warmer summer nights that this area in New Jersey. If you are willing to make a longer commute, I’d recommend parts of Nassau County (my area), which averages 85F/66F (29C/19C) with 3.97” of rain, and summer is not the rainiest season in my area, while spring and fall are. However, like I said Nassau, while it still has public transport links to Midtown Manhattan, is further away and suburban. I don’t know if you are okay with living in a suburb, so I think somewhere like Hoboken, NJ is your best bet. Heyy! Thank you so much for your reply! I think every other person at this point has suggested New Jersey  and I wouldn't mind living in the suburbs per se, but I'm actually not convinced I'd save money. Seems like the lower rents would be offset by having to buy an unlimited PATH ticket on top of the unlimited MTA card. So unless I'll find a super good deal I think I'll try and stay in NYC. When it comes to the comparison with Italy, it's true that temps are mostly the same, but I do at least hope precipitation patterns would make summers feel quite different. See, in most major urban areas in Italy summers are when you just know most of the time it's gonna be sunny and hot as hell, with few breaks. Weather is mostly just gonna stay stable and boring for long miserable periods. In NYC, though, summers are the rainiest/stormiest season, which in Italy only happens in and around the Alps - e.g. in a city like Bolzano, where heatwaves can be NASTY (like highs in the high 90s - low 100s F for days on end), but you can rely on huge storms to break the heat at least twice a week if not even every other day or so. Compare this with places like Bologna or even just Milan where summer "breaks" usually mean a couple days where the heat is slightly more bearable and you're not gonna drop dead on the street.
Also I feel that GW has been hitting Europe harder than the NE US...Milan in recent years has had 31°/20° as July averages, which is a full degree higher than NYC, whereas it used to be at least a couple degrees cooler in the past. I don't know if NYC has experienced anything like this in recent years: ogimet.com/cgi-bin/gsodres?ind=160800-99999&ord=DIR&ano=2015&mes=07&day=31&ndays=31 (and this is Milan! Bologna, Venice, Florence or Rome are worse) I just hope next summer will be merciful but given that the past two in NYC have been "nice" I'm afraid I'm out of luck...
Anyways - I've been looking at two spots that to me seem to strike a decent balance between affordability, access to the city, and relatively bearable weather: one is Upper Manhattan (Inwood/Washington Hts), and the other is South Brooklyn (places like Bay Ridge, Park Slope, Gravesend, and Sheepshead Bay). What do you think about those areas? As I said I don't care about having tons of nightlife in my block as long as I can access it with the subway, and I'm most definitely not a party animal anyway. Also once we're past the heat I could move to Astoria/Sunnyside/LIC. My idea of good life is a mid sized central European city; NYC is far outside my comfort zone. |
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Post by desiccatedi85 on May 21, 2022 9:51:18 GMT -5
First off babidibubi , welcome to the forum and I hope you stay awhile Anyway, I have lived in a NYC suburb on Long Island (5 miles east of Queens) for 14 out of my 17 years of life, so I’m pretty knowledgeable about the NYC area and hope that I can help you find an adequate place to stay. As Benfxmth mentioned, it’s true that NYC summers are very similar to those in many Italian cities. I don’t know exactly where in Italy you are from, but I assume that it will not be a big change from your current residence in terms of climate. NYC has a climate very similar to that of Milan if you are familiar, though summer nights are warmer in NYC due to its intense UHI effect. This is a metro area of 20 million people, after all. If you are looking to live in a more affordable area of the city with relatively cool summer nights, I’d suggest the New Jersey side of the area. You mentioned that you will be working in Midtown Manhattan, and the areas just across the Hudson River from Manhattan have good transportation links to Manhattan via NJ transit. Yes, while not technically located in NY state, or not part of NYC, this is still convenient to Midtown, and more affordable than much of NYC proper. Look at cities along the Hudson River, such as Jersey City, West New York, Hoboken, and Fort Lee. These will be convenient. Also, due to being located more inland and being a bit less dense, summer nights will be a bit cooler here than in Queens or Brooklyn. However, this area will also lack sea breezes from the Atlantic, which means it will have hotter daytime highs, routinely surpassing the 90F (32C) mark, and being more likely to hit the 100F (38C) mark. This area is also rainier in summer than the eastern part of the city, as thunderstorms tend to fizzle out by the coast. There will be little difference in humidity, however. This area averages high/low of 87F/69F (31C/21C) with 4.66” of rain in July. Compare this to 86F/72F (30C/22C) with 4.30” of rain in Queens. Most everywhere in NYC will have warmer summer nights that this area in New Jersey. If you are willing to make a longer commute, I’d recommend parts of Nassau County (my area), which averages 85F/66F (29C/19C) with 3.97” of rain, and summer is not the rainiest season in my area, while spring and fall are. However, like I said Nassau, while it still has public transport links to Midtown Manhattan, is further away and suburban. I don’t know if you are okay with living in a suburb, so I think somewhere like Hoboken, NJ is your best bet. Heyy! Thank you so much for your reply! I think every other person at this point has suggested New Jersey and I wouldn't mind living in the suburbs per se, but I'm actually not convinced I'd save money. Seems like the lower rents would be offset by having to buy an unlimited PATH ticket on top of the unlimited MTA card. So unless I'll find a super good deal I think I'll try and stay in NYC. When it comes to the comparison with Italy, it's true that temps are mostly the same, but I do at least hope precipitation patterns would make summers feel quite different. See, in most major urban areas in Italy summers are when you just know most of the time it's gonna be sunny and hot as hell, with few breaks. Weather is mostly just gonna stay stable and boring for long miserable periods. In NYC, though, summers are the rainiest/stormiest season, which in Italy only happens in and around the Alps - e.g. in a city like Bolzano, where heatwaves can be NASTY (like highs in the high 90s - low 100s F for days on end), but you can rely on huge storms to break the heat at least twice a week if not even every other day or so. Compare this with places like Bologna or even just Milan where summer "breaks" usually mean a couple days where the heat is slightly more bearable and you're not gonna drop dead on the street.
Also I feel that GW has been hitting Europe harder than the NE US...Milan in recent years has had 31°/20° as July averages, which is a full degree higher than NYC, whereas it used to be at least a couple degrees cooler in the past. I don't know if NYC has experienced anything like this in recent years: ogimet.com/cgi-bin/gsodres?ind=160800-99999&ord=DIR&ano=2015&mes=07&day=31&ndays=31 (and this is Milan! Bologna, Venice, Florence or Rome are worse) I just hope next summer will be merciful but given that the past two in NYC have been "nice" I'm afraid I'm out of luck...
Anyways - I've been looking at two spots that to me seem to strike a decent balance between affordability, access to the city, and relatively bearable weather: one is Upper Manhattan (Inwood/Washington Hts), and the other is South Brooklyn (places like Bay Ridge, Park Slope, Gravesend, and Sheepshead Bay). What do you think about those areas? As I said I don't care about having tons of nightlife in my block as long as I can access it with the subway, and I'm most definitely not a party animal anyway. Also once we're past the heat I could move to Astoria/Sunnyside/LIC. My idea of good life is a mid sized central European city; NYC is far outside my comfort zone. Both South Brooklyn and Upper Manhattan will suit you well, in terms of being relatively affordable and having relatively cool summer nights while also maintaining good subway links to Midtown Manhattan. I don’t know those areas extremely well, but I’m pretty sure that South Brooklyn especially is starting to gentrify, though rents are not yet extremely high by NYC standards. Still, you can probably find a suitable room in both neighborhoods, and I wish you luck with your move Now, as far as weather/climate in NYC goes generally, July in recent years (1991-2020) has averaged 86F/72F (30C/22C) which is actually slightly warmer than Milan in recent years. Again, I don’t know which city in Italy you are from, but I don’t think that you will have a hard time acclimatizing to NYC summers, since they are very much on par with major Italian cities in terms of both temperatures and humidity. As for rain, it mostly falls in short evening thunderstorms on about a quarter to a third of summer days, so to address your concerns, no, NYC doesn’t feel very rainy or cloudy in summer, and in fact August is the sunniest month by % possible sunshine. That said, recent summers like 2020 and 2021 have showed the potential for tropical systems to impact the area multiple times per summer, which made those summers historically wet here, but those are rather extreme cases. Here’s a summary of one of the hottest months in recent years (July 2011) so this is the hottest you can realistically expect, though records can always be broken.  |
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Post by Beercules on May 21, 2022 9:58:33 GMT -5
whichever one is the fucking warmest lmao
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Post by babidibubi on May 21, 2022 12:06:39 GMT -5
Both South Brooklyn and Upper Manhattan will suit you well, in terms of being relatively affordable and having relatively cool summer nights while also maintaining good subway links to Midtown Manhattan. I don’t know those areas extremely well, but I’m pretty sure that South Brooklyn especially is starting to gentrify, though rents are not yet extremely high by NYC standards. Still, you can probably find a suitable room in both neighborhoods, and I wish you luck with your move Now, as far as weather/climate in NYC goes generally, July in recent years (1991-2020) has averaged 86F/72F (30C/22C) which is actually slightly warmer than Milan in recent years. Again, I don’t know which city in Italy you are from, but I don’t think that you will have a hard time acclimatizing to NYC summers, since they are very much on par with major Italian cities in terms of both temperatures and humidity. As for rain, it mostly falls in short evening thunderstorms on about a quarter to a third of summer days, so to address your concerns, no, NYC doesn’t feel very rainy or cloudy in summer, and in fact August is the sunniest month by % possible sunshine. That said, recent summers like 2020 and 2021 have showed the potential for tropical systems to impact the area multiple times per summer, which made those summers historically wet here, but those are rather extreme cases. Here’s a summary of one of the hottest months in recent years (July 2011) so this is the hottest you can realistically expect, though records can always be broken. Thanks a lot again! Wow, that month was...intense. I really hope next summer is not gonna be that hardcore. Unfortunately seasonal forecasts aren't that reliable... Btw, I know I sound like the whiniest brat complaining about 1st world problems, deep down I'm excited, it's just that I'm kind of an anxious mess right now lol. Moving across the pond - and to NYC of all places - is overwhelming. |
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Post by desiccatedi85 on May 21, 2022 13:03:44 GMT -5
whichever one is the fucking warmest lmao For you, I'd say New Jersey suburbs is best, storms tend to fizzle out here on LI, especially during early summer. |
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Post by Benfxmth on May 21, 2022 15:43:48 GMT -5
babidibubi Haha I used to get triggered seeing every(fucken)where else (e.g. Paree, Sicily, Greece and Iberia) get better quality heat waves, especially last summer, and thought Rome's summers were fleeting being an avid heat foamer! That being said, I think you're right that Europe has been getting the rediculous anomalies the past two decades, but global warming isn't the only factor there. Especially the consistent heat of summer 2003 and 2015. Most common wind directions appear to be S, or NE for NYC in summer (using LGA as a model, even if temps are inaccurate):  I can't blame you for finding the move stressful, hopefully it'll work out for you.
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and I wouldn't mind living in the suburbs per se, but I'm actually not convinced I'd save money. Seems like the lower rents would be offset by having to buy an unlimited PATH ticket on top of the unlimited MTA card. So unless I'll find a super good deal I think I'll try and stay in NYC.