生活在纽约的青年：钱不够，挤挤住

A Tight Budget and a Tighter Schedule

钱不够，挤挤住

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

琳赛·盖(Lyndsie Guy)在美国志愿队(AmeriCorps)的志愿服务期满之后，搬到了纽约，借住在切尔西朋友家(Chelsea)一套一居室内。

“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.

“她能让我在自己家里借住，真是太慷慨了。正是因为她，我才能顺利度过刚到纽约的过渡时期，”现年25岁的盖说。去年夏天，她找到了工作，在一家图书馆担任资讯助理。是时候给自己找处房子了。

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”，预算是每月900美元(约合人民币5529元)。要想找到这个价位的单间公寓，她就得搬到离市区很远的地方去。而且她觉得，一个人住可能会觉得孤单。

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

通过分类广告网站Craigslist，她试图给自己找个室友。但是整个过程混乱不堪，竞争又激烈。于是她把触角伸向了朋友们。

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.

一位朋友通过Facebook把盖介绍给了梅根·沃森(Megan Watson)。沃森现年22岁，当时她正准备到纽约的时装技术学院(Fashion Institute of Technology)上学。两位女生都来自宾夕法尼亚州中南部。她们决定结伴找房，并在Craigslist上再征一名室友，进一步分摊费用。“在价格与生活质量之间，是有一个平衡点的。”盖表示。

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.”

她也不确定，900美元能够换来什么。以这个价位租房的朋友，都对他们的生活状况不甚满意：乘车要走很远的路，住的地方楼层很高，楼内又没有电梯，附近也没什么商店。盖也不知道自己以同样的价位租房，到头来会不会“同样不满意”。

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.

这两位合租者还试图通过Craigslist联系业主，但是鲜有回应，后来她们致电迈伦地产(Miron Properties)的销售员詹姆西娅·普尔凯特(Jamesia Purkett)后，运气终于来了。她们告诉普尔凯特，她们正在找一套真正的三居室，月租的预算最多是2700美元(约合人民币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.

普尔凯特安排好了行程，于是沃森坐了四个小时的火车来到了纽约市，投身到一整天紧张激烈的找房作战当中。

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.

首先看的是位于贝德福德-斯图文森(Bedford-Stuyvesant)一栋无电梯公寓楼里的一套三居室，房租2500美元(约合人民币 15359元)。有两间卧室特别小，但这套房子还是可以考虑的。在附近走动时，“我们不知会遇到什么，”沃森说，“就算是在同一个社区内，每条街的面貌都可能不一样。”她们看中的是这里的社区花园、教堂，还有一座里面有人踢球的公园。

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.

房东要求缴纳两个月的押金，而她们只打算交一个月的。“我的积蓄都要掏空了，所有的薪水都得花在搬家上，所以这不可能。”盖说。

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

无论如何，两位合租者觉得，才看第一套房子就做决定有些太仓促了。“这真的是一个很好的开始。”沃森说。

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.

普尔凯特手里还有另一套贝德福德-斯图文森的房源，可以给她们看。这是一套漂亮的褐石住宅，坐落在一条宜人的街道上，房租每月2850美元(约合人民币17509元)，这就超出了预算。“我本来不指望能找到带厨房台面的空间，”盖说，但是这套房子“有足够的空间来做烘焙”。房子还带一座私人后院。但是，有一间卧室里没窗户，还有一间卧室没有衣橱。

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.

盖看不惯淋浴间的设计。“我身高6英尺(约合1.83米)，”她说，“对我来说，淋浴间可以成就一套公寓，也可以毁了一套公寓。因为，如果你的个子很高，洗澡时头上就冲不到水，得缩着脖子。长时间住在这里，脖子都要抽筋了。”她最终决定委屈自己，将就一下。

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.

普尔凯特确信她能把租金砍下来。但是两位合租者又担心，一旦砍价，房东可能就不会把房子租给她们了。于是她们去了行程安排中的下一个地方。

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(约合人民币15973元)，但是所在的大楼没那么美观。而且她们担心，其门前的金属台阶冬天可能不好走。

“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.

“我都能想象它结冰的样子。”沃森说。布鲁克林-皇后区高速路(Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) 正好就在街对面;另一大潜在噪音源是一所学校的操场，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，她们告诉普尔凯特，她们想要当天所看的条件最好的那套房子——贝德福德-斯图文森的那套褐石住宅。普尔凯特提醒房东说，“有一间卧室没有窗户，所以这套房子其实相当于两居室加一间办公室，”于是将月租砍到了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.

她又把常规的中介费降到了一年租金的10%，也就是3240美元(约合人民币19905元)，因为两位合租者当下就递交了申请。

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.”

盖是两位合租者当中唯一一个已经住在纽约市的人，所以手续由她打理。“我特别担心出问题，”她说，“心里揪得紧紧的。”

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.

盖和沃森，加上沃森的猫“泰坦”(Titan)，去年夏天搬进了新家。她们从宾夕法尼亚州一起开车过来，拉了一整辆拖车的二手家具。有个沙发没法通过大门，所以又运了回去。

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.

第三位合租者没有看房，就搬进了那间没窗户的卧室。她住了几个月就回到了西部老家，取而代之的新室友是在Craigslist上征集来的，刚刚搬进来。

“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.

沃森说，“我们对这套公寓太着迷了，”以至于没意识到她们会有多喜欢这个社区。现在的住处离家得宝(Home Depot) 特别近，她们从来不用担心买来的东西搬不回去。

“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.”

“家得宝已经变成了我们在当地的综合商店，”盖说，“几乎每个角落都开着杂货店，我们正在调查哪家做的培根三明治或鸡蛋芝士三明治最好吃。”