Ahhhhh…King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut! And how 'bout The Pyramid? The Aztec? Downtown Beruit? Save the Robots? The World?
So many memories. I mean if I could remember any of them :).
Hey, try Sutton Place. I think Beekman (which is indeed v. ritzy) is included inside it, sort of. Sutton Place is a street itself, but the neighborhood is from First to the East River and about 48-57 Street, between the UN and the Queensboro Bridge. Incredible neighborhood and instantly recognizable. Mario Cuomo and Kofi Annan live there.
Your characters, however, don’t sound like the type who’d like the Upper East Side. Did you see THE HOURS? Meryl Streep’s Clarissa lives in a townhouse off 5th Avenue on 10th Street, I believe, the edge of the West Village. That would suit them better, that or a brownstone on the Upper West Side, or one of the funky old apartment houses on Riverside Drive. Maybe a big Soho loft or Tribeca ex-warehouse apartment or Hell’s Kitchen townhouse for the artsy one.
Ditto what everybody said about the cars. Fuhgetabout the cars. I live in An Outer Borough and didn’t learn to drive until my late 20’s. Kids socialize very differently–if your friends were from outside the neighborhood, you usually met in Manhattan and hung out in parks, restaurants, etc. It could be a two-hour trip each way to visit a friend in Brooklyn, for example. Now, there was a car culture in my neighborhood a bit since we were up by the Yonkers border, but in Manhattan absolutely not. It’s a hindrance. What folks said about rentals and expensive apartment-house garages still holds, though. Assuming your guy’s in one–maybe he buys a brownstone or townhouse, which is another popular option on the side (numbered) streets. They’re 3-5 stories and can sell for about 4 mil.
Here’s a link to the Manhattan Transfers column of the NY Observer, a little weekly paper that has great media and arts coverage and some terrific columnists. Great way to learn about how real estate is bought and sold here and what it means to the wealthy classes.
If your hero’s an Upper East Sider, he’d probably hop the 6 train a lot, the Lexington Avenue Local, and switch to the 4 or 5 train at Grand Central to get to the Wall Street stop. No New Yorker will take a local if there’s an express handy, nor will they take a bus long distances because it’s just too slow during the day. Weekends, late nights, sure, although the wealthy usually just grab a taxi.
Your hero will get a lot more things delivered than most other folks do. Food, groceries, flowers, videos, etc. Delivery guys on bikes and on foot are always scooting around the city. Grocery shopping and all tends to be done more often because you don’t have a car to tote a bunch of stuff home with, although sometimes folks have fold-up shopping carts but you usually don’t see younger rich people with them. Which is OK, because fresh food is important to NYers and there are grocery stores everywhere (some big chains are Gristede’s, D’Agostino’s, and Food Emporium) as well as convenience stores, ethnic food stores (I work in Little India, Lexington Avenue in the northern 20’s, and have my pick of the cuisine of the subcontinent, all 3 countries, takeout, sit-down, grocery stores, etc.) and bodegas.
Nyers do a lot of walking and usually don’t dress in as bright colors as people in LA. Museum shows are important–everybody’s got to go out to MOMA to catch the Picasso/Matisse or to the Met (the opera house and the Museum of Art are called the same thing and you figure out which it is from the context) for the Leonardo, etc. Sports aren’t as important as they are in some cities among the wealthy–it’s not Dallas or anything–but most people attend a game with clients or family a couple of times a year (it’s the 4 train to Yankee Stadium, the 7 train to Shea). Your folks might like the theater, maybe the downtown and Off-Broadway scene more than Broadway itself, although on the latter they might be found in the audiences of URINETOWN or HAIRSPRAY. Stuff like LES MIS or PHANTOM or anything Disney are considered tourist traps and if you see real New Yorkers at them, they’re grumbling and sitting grudgingly next to their out-of-town visitors. Concerts are also a big thing, and while people of course have preferences folks will go to see something classical at Carnegie Hall one night and then Irving Plaza the next night; eclecticism is fine.
Whew, rambled on too long. Good luck!
If I had unlimited funds, I’d probably look at the West Village, maybe some places on Riverside. I live on East End Avenue, which is one of those unknown hoity toity streets, but it doesn’t really do it for me. There are some fabulous little apartments between 86th and 87th on East End that I wouldn’t mind occupying, though. Henderson Place is a little cobblestone alley that services those buildings. I don’t know why anyone would want a commanding view of the East River.
It takes me 45 minutes to commute from 83rd and East End to 2nd and 42nd, where I work. If I caught the 4 or the 5 at 86th, it might take another 10-15 minutes to go to work downtown (Wall Street). The Lincoln Town Car is the typical limo one might take downtown if one’s company was paying for it. Anything bigger would be crass. A Mercedes-Benz S-class sedan (or E class if you’re on a budget) does the trick if you want that euro flair.
You might want to go with Tribeca. I think you can fit your characters in there comfortably and it’s reasonably well known outside the city.
Mehitabel, Sutton Place does not nearly have the look or charm of Beekman, in my opinion. Too trafficed and, at least from the street, bland.
To give you a sense of the vibe of Beekman, the Mame Dennis character (of Patrick Dennis’ “Auntie Mame” fame, from which the musical was made) lived there. In fact, the opening number of the “Mame” features the lyric line “… deliver us to Beekman Place.”
The whole general neigborhood, Turtle Bay, Beekman and Sutton, has/had a reputation for being home to artsy types – writers & actors mostly – but established and successful, not struggling, ones. Now that was mostly back in the day, from say the 30’s to the 80’s; now the occupational types you’ll find there are more mixed. (Which explains how a schlub like me is in Turtle Bay. Talentless and struggling, struggling, struggling.)