I have moved to DM from Manhattan's Upper East Side -- and a ground floor studio with a single window facing the street cost me about $70 more than the 2-BR Duplex, top floor, with a little deck which I have in DM now (I'm in the A building, which appears to get the best reviews). Commute time to the office (Midtown) hasn't changed.

The place has character -- both good and bad. The floor plans are somewhat crooked, or individualistic, depending on your view. If you move in from the burbs, are used to everything being tidy, clean, and standard size, move to the JC waterfront -- DM is not for you. However, if you are a young professional and considering Brooklyn or Queens neighborhoods to be your alternative, you may have found heaven. Even though the floors are not straight, there is the occasional equipment problem, the washers aren't perfect, and other stuff may tweak here and there, you are living in a city (with a city atmosphere and neighborhood) with a lot of space at fair prices.

A lot of people complain about the heating. My place is actually so warm that I never need to run the central heating (I have a little oil-filled radiator in the upstairs bedroom which I turn on when it dips below freezing for a number of consecutive days). The living room (downstairs) is marvellously warm. Since the windows don't open easily (they are poorly maintained wood, and you have to screw on the double pane for the winter), I actually ran the A/C a couple days in December (albeit only a few minutes right after getting home). Honestly, though, I think that if I had to rely on the heating, I would freeze, because it does not appear to warm the room significantly above its "natural" temperature. The A/C appears efficient, though, not only in December...

I am a nitwit foreigner who sees a lot of things in this country with some distance, and often scepticism. The service level is one of those things. I think DM's service level is country average -- read, it is rotten. People are generally clueless unless instructed what to do. So be prepared to do that, just like you have to do it with your bank, your insurance company, you car repair shop, you name it. The staff is friendly and will make an effort once you get to know them. There has been some display of aloof attitude, in particularly from the ladies in the back room, but I found that easily curable by "tit for tat" treatment, and things work fine now.

Dog owners can be annoying, and the dogs are victimized for it. There is no place near DM where a dog gets even close to a natural environment, so there is apparently no need to take it to the street, the hallways are just as good. Some hallways have been redone because the smell was beyond tolerance. Fortunately, on my hallway, things are fine, but I may rate the whole experience very differently if I had a "bad" hallway.


Last but not least, the neighborhood. It's not glorious, but again, consider the alternatives. It is an urban neighborhood, and it's not all white. On the other side, I have never felt uncomfortable being the only white guy in a bar. Walking around alone at three o'clock at night is probably not recommended, but then, where is that recommended in any city outside your own bedroom'

In summary: spacious, relatively cheap, acceptable services, and CLOSE TO MANHATTAN.

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