the beauty of manhattan is that some neighborhoods are great places to live because everything is in walking distance - bars, delis, restaurants, dry cleaner, transport, etc. this is more true of almost all areas except downtown, south of Houston.
but for such a small island, the neighborhoods are very different. you really should take the time to investigate because if you meet someone and you say you live on the Upper East Side, they picture you as a yuppie, but if you say Lower East Side they picture you very differently.
Upper East Side - towards the park its the wealthiest, boringest part of manhattan. Very far east, first ave and east, is kids straight out of college and low end beer-oriented bars.
Upper West Side - where Seinfeld lived. A lot less vanilla than the east side, better bars restaurants, etc. But still less alternative than the LES or the Villiage. More residential than downtown.
LES - if you have piercings or tats, this is for you. There are some good things about it, but it tends towards that.
W. Villiage and Chelse - used to have a reputation for gay men.
Villiage east of 6th ave - close to NYU but sort of a tourist area (in a bad way).
make sure you understand the mechanics of getting an apartment in Manhattan. Say you find a place for $4,000 a month. To move in they'll want first month's rent, a security deposit of 1 or 2 months, and if you used a broker to get the apartment a fee to the broker equal to 1.5 months. The brokerage fee is a wasted of money but the apartment owner is the one who requires the broker. Apartments that don't have a broker will be advertised as no-fee. So if you are not careful, you might need 4.5 months' rent to move in, which in your case is $18,000!
but for such a small island, the neighborhoods are very different. you really should take the time to investigate because if you meet someone and you say you live on the Upper East Side, they picture you as a yuppie, but if you say Lower East Side they picture you very differently.
Upper East Side - towards the park its the wealthiest, boringest part of manhattan. Very far east, first ave and east, is kids straight out of college and low end beer-oriented bars.
Upper West Side - where Seinfeld lived. A lot less vanilla than the east side, better bars restaurants, etc. But still less alternative than the LES or the Villiage. More residential than downtown.
LES - if you have piercings or tats, this is for you. There are some good things about it, but it tends towards that.
W. Villiage and Chelse - used to have a reputation for gay men.
Villiage east of 6th ave - close to NYU but sort of a tourist area (in a bad way).
make sure you understand the mechanics of getting an apartment in Manhattan. Say you find a place for $4,000 a month. To move in they'll want first month's rent, a security deposit of 1 or 2 months, and if you used a broker to get the apartment a fee to the broker equal to 1.5 months. The brokerage fee is a wasted of money but the apartment owner is the one who requires the broker. Apartments that don't have a broker will be advertised as no-fee. So if you are not careful, you might need 4.5 months' rent to move in, which in your case is $18,000!