The apartment is the second floor of a secure, no-frills, four-story, 19th-century walkup -- no frills meaning no laundry but there's a good laundromat a few doors away. There is a super but not on site. It is best for a single person (my preference), but a couple is ok.

The apartment is not luxurious but comfortably fully furnished, pleasant, and pragmatic, with double-paned windows front and back to keep it quiet and bring in daylight. The layout is a U-shaped railroad style, though I turned the bedroom into a proper office, so the living room is basically a bed-sit with a queen bed and a couch long enough to stretch out on, a TV and an audio receiver with four speakers, a streaming box, and a lot of books. Wifi reaches every room.

The eat-in kitchen is all-electric but it's large and well-equipped (though no dishwasher). Appliances include a microwave, big fridge, milk frother, electric kettle, and a toaster. The full bathroom is also a good size with vanity and full-length mirrors. A middle, alcove-like room - i.e. the only room without a window - has a studio bed suitable for an overnight guest or a child, but it’s also where the closets are, so it functions as a dressing room, has a sturdy, garment center clothing rack for use by renter and, like every other room, has plenty of books.

The neighborhood is a residential-commercial mix in what I call lower Hell's Kitchen, though it seems to have been renamed Hudson Yards, even though technically it’s neither. It is near all public transportation, including the Port Authority Bus Terminal and Penn Station, about a 10-15 minute walk to Chelsea, Bryant Park or Hudson Yards, 25 to MoMA or Columbus Circle, t minutes to theater district. Not a pretty location, but a useful one.

It offers several options for getting groceries of all sorts, including a good 24-hour deli downstairs and a small, independent market that stays open to 10 or 11 pm, a wholesale fish market, a nearby butcher, a Brooklyn Fare supermarket, a huge Key Foods, Whole Foods, and another independent market a block away, where the core business is meats. Plenty of restaurants and take-out places.

About This Lister

I'm a working writer and published author who is going to be away for work, which I mainly do in this apartment, where I've been renting for ten years and. keep as neat as possible, though I have a lot of books and files, and sometimes use every room for work, so there won't be a ton of open space while I'm gone but I will clear as many drawers and surfaces as I can.