生活在紐約的青年：錢不夠，擠擠住

A Tight Budget and a Tighter Schedule

錢不夠，擠擠住

When Lyndsie Guy moved to New York after completing a stint with AmeriCorps, she crashed with a friend in a Chelsea one-bedroom.

琳賽·蓋(Lyndsie Guy)在美國志愿隊(AmeriCorps)的志愿服務(wù)期滿之后，搬到了紐約，借住在切爾西朋友家(Chelsea)一套一居室內(nèi)。

“It was so generous of her to share her space, and she made my transition to New York the positive thing it was,” said Ms. Guy, who is 25. Last summer, she landed a job as a library information assistant. It was time for her own space.

“她能讓我在自己家里借住，真是太慷慨了。正是因為她，我才能順利度過剛到紐約的過渡時期，”現(xiàn)年25歲的蓋說。去年夏天，她找到了工作，在一家圖書館擔(dān)任資訊助理。是時候給自己找處房子了。

Her housing budget, “as little as possible,” was $900 a month. For a studio at that price, she would need to move far from the city. And she thought she might be lonely living by herself.

她希望房租“越低越好”，預(yù)算是每月900美元(約合人民幣5529元)。要想找到這個價位的單間公寓，她就得搬到離市區(qū)很遠的地方去。而且她覺得，一個人住可能會覺得孤單。

Via Craigslist, she made some stabs at finding a roommate, but the process was chaotic and competitive. So she extended feelers to friends.

通過分類廣告網(wǎng)站Craigslist，她試圖給自己找個室友。但是整個過程混亂不堪，競爭又激烈。于是她把觸角伸向了朋友們。

One connected Ms. Guy via Facebook with Megan Watson, 22, who was coming to New York to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The two women, who are both from south central Pennsylvania, decided to hunt together, and found a third roommate on Craigslist to further split costs. “There’s a sweet spot between price and quality of life,” Ms. Guy said.

一位朋友通過Facebook把蓋介紹給了梅根·沃森(Megan Watson)。沃森現(xiàn)年22歲，當(dāng)時她正準備到紐約的時裝技術(shù)學(xué)院(Fashion Institute of Technology)上學(xué)。兩位女生都來自賓夕法尼亞州中南部。她們決定結(jié)伴找房，并在Craigslist上再征一名室友，進一步分攤費用。“在價格與生活質(zhì)量之間，是有一個平衡點的。”蓋表示。

She was uncertain what $900 could buy. Friends paying that sum were unhappy with their distance from a train, their high-floor walk-ups and the paucity of nearby stores. For the same price, Ms. Guy wondered if she was “going to be equally unhappy.”

她也不確定，900美元能夠換來什么。以這個價位租房的朋友，都對他們的生活狀況不甚滿意：乘車要走很遠的路，住的地方樓層很高，樓內(nèi)又沒有電梯，附近也沒什么商店。蓋也不知道自己以同樣的價位租房，到頭來會不會“同樣不滿意”。

The roommates tried contacting landlords through Craigslist, but rarely heard back. Their luck turned when they called Jamesia Purkett, a saleswoman at Miron Properties. The prospective roommates told her they sought a true three-bedroom for a top monthly rent of $2,700.

這兩位合租者還試圖通過Craigslist聯(lián)系業(yè)主，但是鮮有回應(yīng)，后來她們致電邁倫地產(chǎn)(Miron Properties)的銷售員詹姆西婭·普爾凱特(Jamesia Purkett)后，運氣終于來了。她們告訴普爾凱特，她們正在找一套真正的三居室，月租的預(yù)算最多是2700美元(約合人民幣16587元)。

Ms. Purkett set up a schedule, and Ms. Watson took the four-hour train ride to the city for an intense day of hunting.

普爾凱特安排好了行程，于是沃森坐了四個小時的火車來到了紐約市，投身到一整天緊張激烈的找房作戰(zhàn)當(dāng)中。

The starting point was a $2,500 three-bedroom in a walk-up building in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Two of the bedrooms were especially small, but the place was a possibility. Walking around the area, “we didn’t know what to expect,” Ms. Watson said. “Even within the neighborhoods, each street could be different.” They liked the community gardens, the churches and a park with soccer players.

首先看的是位于貝德福德-斯圖文森(Bedford-Stuyvesant)一棟無電梯公寓樓里的一套三居室，房租2500美元(約合人民幣 15359元)。有兩間臥室特別小，但這套房子還是可以考慮的。在附近走動時，“我們不知會遇到什么，”沃森說，“就算是在同一個社區(qū)內(nèi)，每條街的面貌都可能不一樣。”她們看中的是這里的社區(qū)花園、教堂，還有一座里面有人踢球的公園。

The landlord required a two-month security deposit, and they had figured on only one month. “I was emptying my savings and using my entire paycheck to facilitate the move, so it was not possible,” Ms. Guy said.

房東要求繳納兩個月的押金，而她們只打算交一個月的。“我的積蓄都要掏空了，所有的薪水都得花在搬家上，所以這不可能。”蓋說。

In any event, the roommates were nervous about taking the first place they saw. “It was a really good starting point,” Ms. Watson said.

無論如何，兩位合租者覺得，才看第一套房子就做決定有些太倉促了。“這真的是一個很好的開始。”沃森說。

Ms. Purkett had another Bed-Stuy place to show them, a handsome brownstone on a lovely street, over budget at $2,850 a month. “I thought that kitchen counter space was impossible to find,” Ms. Guy said, but this one had “enough to do some baking.” It also had a private backyard. However, one bedroom lacked a window and another lacked a closet.

普爾凱特手里還有另一套貝德福德-斯圖文森的房源，可以給她們看。這是一套漂亮的褐石住宅，坐落在一條宜人的街道上，房租每月2850美元(約合人民幣17509元)，這就超出了預(yù)算。“我本來不指望能找到帶廚房臺面的空間，”蓋說，但是這套房子“有足夠的空間來做烘焙”。房子還帶一座私人后院。但是，有一間臥室里沒窗戶，還有一間臥室沒有衣櫥。

Ms. Guy eyeballed the shower. “I am 6 feet tall,” she said. “A shower can make or break an apartment for me, because if you are tall enough that your head is above the stream of water, that’s a crick in your neck the entire time you live there.” She determined that she would fit.

蓋看不慣淋浴間的設(shè)計。“我身高6英尺(約合1.83米)，”她說，“對我來說，淋浴間可以成就一套公寓，也可以毀了一套公寓。因為，如果你的個子很高，洗澡時頭上就沖不到水，得縮著脖子。長時間住在這里，脖子都要抽筋了。”她最終決定委屈自己，將就一下。

Ms. Purkett was sure she could negotiate a lower rent. But the roommates feared that an attempt at a discount would put them out of the running. They moved on to the next place on the schedule.

普爾凱特確信她能把租金砍下來。但是兩位合租者又擔(dān)心，一旦砍價，房東可能就不會把房子租給她們了。于是她們?nèi)チ诵谐贪才胖械南乱粋€地方。

A building in Fort Greene, with a three-bedroom for $2,600 a month, wasn’t as pretty, and they worried its metal front steps might be treacherous in winter.

格林堡(Fort Greene)有一套三居室，月租2600美元(約合人民幣15973元)，但是所在的大樓沒那么美觀。而且她們擔(dān)心，其門前的金屬臺階冬天可能不好走。

“I could just see them freezing over,” Ms. Watson said. The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway was directly across the street; another potential source of noise, a school playground, was nearby.

“我都能想象它結(jié)冰的樣子。”沃森說。布魯克林-皇后區(qū)高速路(Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) 正好就在街對面;另一大潛在噪音源是一所學(xué)校的操場，也在附近。

At the end of the day, they told Ms. Purkett they wanted the nicest place they had seen, the Bed-Stuy brownstone. Ms. Purkett reminded the landlord that, as she put it, “one of the bedrooms doesn’t have a window so it really is a two-bedroom with an office,” and negotiated a monthly rent of $2,700.

看了一整天房后，她們告訴普爾凱特，她們想要當(dāng)天所看的條件最好的那套房子——貝德福德-斯圖文森的那套褐石住宅。普爾凱特提醒房東說，“有一間臥室沒有窗戶，所以這套房子其實相當(dāng)于兩居室加一間辦公室，”于是將月租砍到了2700美元。

She dropped her usual broker fee to 10 percent of a year’s rent, or $3,240, because the roommates applied immediately.

她又把常規(guī)的中介費降到了一年租金的10%，也就是3240美元(約合人民幣19905元)，因為兩位合租者當(dāng)下就遞交了申請。

Ms. Guy, as the only roommate already resident in the city, shepherded the paperwork. “I was just so sure something wasn’t going to work out,” she said. “My stomach was in knots.”

蓋是兩位合租者當(dāng)中唯一一個已經(jīng)住在紐約市的人，所以手續(xù)由她打理。“我特別擔(dān)心出問題，”她說，“心里揪得緊緊的。”

Ms. Guy and Ms. Watson, along with Ms. Watson’s cat, Titan, arrived last summer, driving together from Pennsylvania with a trailerful of used furniture. A couch didn’t fit through the door, so back it went.

蓋和沃森，加上沃森的貓“泰坦”(Titan)，去年夏天搬進了新家。她們從賓夕法尼亞州一起開車過來，拉了一整輛拖車的二手家具。有個沙發(fā)沒法通過大門，所以又運了回去。

The third roommate, who took the windowless room sight unseen, returned to her hometown in the West after a few months. Her replacement, found via Craigslist, has just arrived.

第三位合租者沒有看房，就搬進了那間沒窗戶的臥室。她住了幾個月就回到了西部老家，取而代之的新室友是在Craigslist上征集來的，剛剛搬進來。

“We were so enthralled by the apartment,” Ms. Watson said, that they didn’t realize how much they would like the neighborhood. They are so close to Home Depot that they never have to worry about carrying their purchases home.

沃森說，“我們對這套公寓太著迷了，”以至于沒意識到她們會有多喜歡這個社區(qū)?，F(xiàn)在的住處離家得寶(Home Depot) 特別近，她們從來不用擔(dān)心買來的東西搬不回去。

“Home Depot has turned into our local catchall store,” Ms. Guy said. “We have bodegas on almost every corner, and are in the process of trying to identify which makes the best bacon, egg and cheese sandwich.”

“家得寶已經(jīng)變成了我們在當(dāng)?shù)氐木C合商店，”蓋說，“幾乎每個角落都開著雜貨店，我們正在調(diào)查哪家做的培根三明治或雞蛋芝士三明治最好吃。”