19 East 21 Street,

Manhattan, NY 10010

My apartment was large and spacious, and got good light.

I think the main pros for these apartment units are (1) that the units are very spacious and (2) the location is amazing. It is so nice to be close to so many subway lines, cafes/restaurants, grocery stores, and Madison Sq Park.

Floors and walls are SO thin, I could hear my neighbors insanely well. You can hear them sneeze, hear them vomit, hear their smoke detectors chirp when the batteries are dead, hear their TV/music, hear when they get home and are walking around, etc. Luckily most of the tenants of this building currently seem to be more mature and aren't throwing huge parties, but you can hear when your neighbors use a speaker to play music as is.

The street is very echoey, so the garbage trucks at night (every night) can wake you up even with a white noise machine.

The basement when I moved in was infested with mice, and there have been very few times that I've been in the basement without seeing a mouse or a cockroach (alive or dead). Unfortunately the trash/recycling and laundry facilities are both in the basement, and it's gross and very smelly down there. The mice situation had gotten better over the course of my lease, but the basement generally smells like a mildew-y hamster cage. I have sent my laundry out a few times when the basement is particularly gross, or wear a kn95 mask when I am doing laundry down there. You also need to call management when there are dead mice in the snap traps down there because they will sit there indefinitely otherwise, decaying. Luckily there have been no mice sightings in my apartment itself, so it does seem contained to the basement (probably due to the trash disposal being down there). I think this problem could be solved by the trash being collected outside the building instead of the basement, and putting some air purifiers or better circulation on the basement floor.

There has been so much construction on the street and in this building during my lease, and the apartment is so poorly sound proofed, it borderline drives me crazy. There is a large renovation of the building across the street occurring (which is not this building's fault obviously, however, it was still very loud). It is ongoing still, but now it is occurring inside of the building across the street instead of on the sidewalk/outside, so no longer is as loud luckily, but begins around 7/8 am and ends around dinner time. My unit was street-facing, so it is possible the rear-facing units could be quieter from the street noise at least.

When I contacted management about loud construction projects (so loud it would vibrate all my furniture) going on inside the building without any advanced or retroactive notice, they tried to tell me there was nothing happening upstairs, even though there was evidence of a construction project in the lobby and it was loud enough I couldn't use my apartment during those hours, and it went on for multiple weeks daily at unpredictable times. They were incredibly rude and unhelpful about this, and part of the reason I decided to not renew my lease.

There is a hardware store next door, and while the employees there are very nice, there is a bench in front of the store that people always take their smoke break on, right in front of the apartment building lobby front door, which makes the lobby smell like cigarette smoke.

The lobby also has had quite a few porch-robbers. I have had a few packages stolen myself and other tenants have posted notices in the lobby to warn/complain about the stolen packages.

The units come with almost no amenities--no microwave or sufficient counter space at this level of rent price is frustrating. There is laundry in the basement that works, but as I mentioned above, I would say it is quite gross.

The water in this building takes at least a few minutes to heat up, but once it heats up, it is scorching hot and can actually burn you. If you are a morning showerer, you'll have to add at least 5 or 10 minutes to your routine to let the water heat up.

Essentially--I would only live here if you are okay having no amenities, potentially sending your laundry out if dancing around dead mice while doing your laundry would bother you (despite paying for laundry services with your high rent), and are very, very insensitive to noise pollution from both inside and outside the building. I have lived in Manhattan for years and this is the loudest apt I have ever been in. It feels more like a dorm building than an apartment building.

SOUND PROOF THE UNITS! Better trash and laundry facilities!!!

I have lived in this building for several years and the management has always been courteous and responsive. They do increase the rent a lot year over year, especially given there are very few amenities, but for the neighborhood the size of the units is not bad and I've rarely had any issues.

The walls are quite then so you do hear the other apartments. The cleanliness in the common areas is not always great.