Forest Hills Living

FH is not bad- and the windsor is a very nice building. I guess it could be considered a bargain compared to other places in teh city and its centrally located near the highways, express subway, etc. Food shopping is def cheaper vs manhattan but in terms of stores and restaurants its much better to be in manhattan. the commute to midtown east is very easy- downtown or the westside is tougher. but trust me- when you come home from work most likely you will not feel like going back to the city on the subway to go out. i dont find the crowd in forest hills to be as nice as the city either. overall i'd say its not bad but its definitely better to be in manhattan- however if you were living in an old studio walk up- i agree that a 1BR or whatever you would have in teh windsor is much nicer and worth the trade offs.

Forest Hills is a little like the city. It's fairly busy. It's a great neighborhood, with good transportation and services. The negatives are that parking is impossible and crossing Queens Blvd by foot a death trap.

as close as it is to the city by subway, i agree with previous post... u have to be more of the energetic type to want to go back out to the city after coming hom from work. also longer cab rides after the bar. if you and your gf can enjoy a couple of local spots (bars/restaurants), i think you will be ok. plus, u have a more enjoyable home to spend time in.

Forest Hills is nice. Outside of Staten Island, I would say it is the most suburban neighborhood in NYC. I know nothing about the building you are moving to, , but Forest Hills is a great area. If you have ever walked through Forest Hilsl Gardens, they have some really huge multi million dollar mansions.

I see only 2 drawbacks to Forest Hills:

1. The Blvd. of Death
2. Get used to making all local stops in Queens on the E and F trains on weekends and nights

Ajank, I considered Forest Hills myself a few years ago.

-- It's nothing like Park Slope. That's not bad. That's not good. It just is what it is. It has its own flavor.

-- Forest Hills is NOT the city, so don't try to make it something that it's not -- otherwise you will be disappointed. Make sure you're moving to Forest Hills because you like Forest Hills, not because you're looking for a substitute for Manhattan.

-- Subway transportation to and from this neighborhood is among the best in the city. Waiting in stations along the Eighth Avenue line, it seems like for every A train there are THREE E trains.

-- 5thGenNYer said the crowd in Forest Hills isn't as "nice" as Manhattan. I'm not sure what that means, but my impression is that the crowd in Forest Hills is a bit more mature and "over" the "city". If you're over 35 and looking to settle into a grown-up apartment surrounded by other grown-ups, this is the neighborhood for you.

Congratulations, and good luck in your new home! :)

Forest Hills:
Very nice.
Not Manhattan. So what. It's clean and quiet and you can get a better apt. there for your money.
No transition. You're not moving out of the U.S.A. to a place where you don't know the language.
Car-service to and from Manhattan when you don't want to take the subway. (There's also an express bus.)

Good luck.

Forest Hills also has great shopping. You have all the local merchants and the Queens Mall is right next door.

FH is a lovely place to live for many: you get a lot more space for your money, the village has whatever you need in terms of shopping day-to-day, moderate restaurants are plentiful, easy transportation along E & F lines. NYSC is decent gym. There's a movie theatre.

What it isn't: buzzing with the vitality of Manhattan or a more youthful place like Williamsburg. Some may say FH is more "suburban" and in ways it is because it looks like some small Westchester towns. It is also, imo, much more provincial in feel than Manhattan. There is nothing hip in FH. It isn't edgy, new, happening. You won't find restaurants to rival Manhattan. It also is not all that close to Manhattan; for a commute, yes. But for a pop into the city after work? Not so much. How often will you really be willing to devote a minimum of 1.5 hours round trip to go to and from Manh on a work day? By the time the trains come and get from FH to downtown Manh, that's how much time you are realistically looking at. Midtown is obviously less time, but if you don't hang out on the upper east side, you need to plan on a 45 min one way excursion with wait time and transfers if any.

Parking in FH is utterly infuriating and as bad if not worse than Manhattan. If you drive, I wouldn't get a place to live that didn't come with a parking space or garage nextdoor. Forget street parking unless you buy in FH Gardens and can get a permit for the private streets inside the development.

Alternatives? Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill are all more vibrant and youthful in my experience with much more interesting shops and more exciting eateries. Park Slope is also younger, tons of families (probably comparable to FH but slightly hipper group) and the greater number of shops and restaurants makes Park Slope feel much bigger than FH. Astoria is a better mix of nations, more eclectic food, more young people who can't afford Manhattan but add to the mix and vibe.

Yes, the shopping is good.
Some nice restaurants.

You won't miss Manhattan when you're sleeping-in on the weekends and you don't get woken up at 8am by Verizon/Con Ed/whoever else jackhammering in the street.

Or when you leave your windows open on a nice day and come home to find that your windowsills are not dirty with soot.

Or in the summer when you won't smell the stinky Manhattan streets.

"There is nothing hip in FH."

You make it sound like that's a BAD thing. Define "hip". I think I've seen my share of overprivileged 20-somethings trying to be ironic.

***

It isn't edgy, new, happening."

Again, definitions please?

***

"You won't find restaurants to rival Manhattan."

Frankly, food is food. How many ways can you really serve up tiny meals on oversized plates drizzled with some unidentifiable sauce for $75?

***

It also is not all that close to Manhattan; for a commute, yes. But for a pop into the city after work? Not so much."

Again, define "close". Distance-wise or time-wise?

I lived in one of the "hippest" neighborhoods (Williamsburg) and it was a royal pain in the ass getting to and from Manhattan.

ajank: Are you nervous about not living in Manhattan because you want people to think you are hip/edgy?

You are either hip/edgy or you're not.

According to Kyle, you're neither hip nor edgy if you live in Forest Hills. Apparently you have to surrender your Hip and Edgy Card at the Lexington Ave. stop before heading into Queens.

Went to a restaurant in Park Slope called: "Al Di La".
Haven't been to P.S. in years.

The restaurant was crowded but not with hip people.
Mostly people who want to look hip.

Tasty mussels and squash ravioli.

Matt, sounds like FH is perfect for you. Surely you can't think that it is right for every single person among those whom you would deem to be right-thinking?

It actually was not a perfect fit -- that's why I'm not living there.

And to deny there is a difference between neighborhoods seems silly. I took a shot at doing so without disparaging any of them (well, maybe "provincial" was a little judgmental, but otherwise I was pretty balanced). Why don't you take a shot at constuctive discussion of differences between neighborhoods the OP may be considering?

Of course F.H. isn't right for everybody, kyle.
It's not hip and edgy.

But the hip and edgy can hip and edge in Manhattan and then go home to F.H. to relax from all of the hipness.

It wasn't "constructive", it was subjective and bordering on elitist.

When Nobu first opened in TriBeCa some guy wasn't happy with his table.
He made a big stink and Drew Nieporent went over to the table to calm things down.

Drew told the guy "YOU make the table
the table doesn't make you."
The guy then punched Drew in the face.
He and his party were escorted out of Nobu.
He wanted to look hip and edgy.

At a Brooklyn or Queens restaurant, the owner would have thrown the guy out, pre-punch.

Its easy to criticize Matt. You still haven't taken a stab at describing the neighborhoods yourself in what you feel would be a non-elitest way. Go ahead.

hi truth! hope you're well. best wishes for the new year.

Matt: Could you please try to describe the neighborhoods in a non-elitest way in 1 comment or less?

Hey lucille: How are you doing?
Did you find a place in Brooklyn yet?

Matt one expects an opinion to be "subjective."

KW there is absolutely nothing to be remotely defensive about your post. Would expect to read exactly what you wrote in Frommers if Forrest Hills if the neighborhood is worthy of mention in the guide.

Regarding Blvd of Death comments; Ancient history, the frequency of cameras and the ill timed (for driving) traffic lights have made this street exponentially safer.
So much so that I as a driver avoid at all costs as you could almost walk faster.

no, that won't be for a while. i need to get a job first and get a little more comfortable in the single mom skin. maybe i won't have to move to brooklyn and just move closer to the city on the jersey side instead. it depends where the job is and how stable it is, etc. and i do have 2 kids to to edumucate so i may have to stomach the longer commute in lieu of potential private school bills. thank you for asking.

edit- Would expect to read your exact review in Frommers if the neighborhood Forrest Hills were worthy of mention in the guide.

Stay where the schools are best for your kids, lucille.
The commute isn't so bad if you have something to read.
But Brooklyn has some good public schools, Bay Ridge being an example.

truthskr: Matt wrote a non-elitist description.
It was in less than 1 comment.

kyle writes good copy.
Better than Frommers.

His description of the Hamptons on the "Hamptons - I don't get it" thread a year or so ago, was worthy of a check from the Hamptons Chamber of Commerce.

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/search?search=hamptons+i+don%27t+get+it
You got me to go look it up, Truth. Yeah--that was some good writing, huh? Well, the days have been getting longer for 2 weeks now--spring is just around the corner.

That was damn fine writing, kyle!

Know FH well and would agree w/ KW. Not "charming" by Park Slope standards - no tree lined streets w/ classic brownstones. Not Willaimsburg - no hipster bars to speak of. FH is very congested - people and vehicular traffic seemingly at all times. The nearest large open space - Forest Park - is a bit of a hike from the subway line north end, Flushing Meadow is on the othweer side of GCP.. It has several very good ethnic restaurants. As is typical of Queens, it is very diverse ethnically. It has an older demographic. Transportation by subway is excellent assuming that you live near a station (they are fairly distant from one another) - and there is a LIRR stop as well. Not everyone can live in Manhattan, and for price and convenience, FH is not a bad choice.

Not everyone wants to live in Manhattan, even if they can.

I would say Fort Greene, maybe, in terms of Brooklyn comparability?

We didn't move to FH from Midtown (though we considered it) but moved to the Upper Upper West Side instead to get more space for our money.

The two issues that we've had, which I expect you will run into, are

1) you are farther from everything than you were in Midtown, and while that commute isn't a drag during rush hour, it can seem long when the subways aren't running as well, say on weekends. It will be 45 minutes to downtown when the trains aren't behaving, and that's a drag.

2) You may meet a lot of people who locked in their housing costs 20 years ago. This could happen in Midtown too -- but we've found it much worse in a "discovery" neighborhood. Our neighbors, who have roughly the same professions we do, don't understand why work so many hours and live so relatively frugally. Hopefully you'll be insulated from this factor by living in a relatively new and fancy building.

I think you'll enjoy it, though. See you at Eddie's.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

I have a friend who just moved to Forest Hills and I visited her recently after having not been in that neighborhood for many years. She lives near Queens Boulevard in a doorman building and her apartment is lovely. You get much better value for the money in Forest Hills that's for sure. We went to a bakery/cafe on Austin Street called Martha's Country Bakery I think and it was very nice- good coffee, pastries. There's quite a bit of shopping and a few movie theatres and plenty of restaurants. It seems very nice from what I saw. Her commute by E/F is about 40 minutes to the city.

So what if FH is not hip? How do you know that is the type of neighborhood the original poster wants? Maybe he is looking for a more mature community. FH is basically like living in the suburbs... especially when you leave Queens Blvd. and go down the side streets where all the houses are.

I've lived in forest hills, and the city, and currently am in Astoria. Forest hills is about half the price of renting a similar Manhattan apt, maybe even less if you have a doorman. So on a budget Forest hills wins hands down. Why is it half? The commute to lower Manhattan and just about anywhere else sucks compared to living in very central Manhattan, but that's true of 50% of NYC. Rush hour to midtown is excellent, so if you work in Midtown win for you. HUGE bonus, you get to own a car if you live in Queens and maybe even get free parking (no alternate side parking) depending on where you are. So the whole subway weekend thing goes out the window. Many of my friends that live in Forests Hills and neighboring areas won't leave because they are car owners.

Restaurants, night life, to me is not so interesting. There are restaurants, bars, cafes, but I don't really care for them or the crowd, so get in your car and go somewhere else. Lots of places to pick for take out. The reason why I won't return to Forest Hills, it's boring at night. The streets are kind of dead except for 2-3 blocks. And you have to deal with teenagers. I won't move back to Manhattan because everyone that lives there has to pay as*hole tax in the form of parking tickets, high rent, and overpriced groceries.

Craberry: I think you are dead-on in your assessment. Sjtmd, you too make apt observations about congestion and the relative diversity, although the village to me always feels more homogenous than most of Queens. As for "hipness," obviously not everyone wants even a little of that. Many people want "neighborhood," "small town feel," or a place that just feels "comfortable" (usually that means where going out in sweatpants and matching tops in public is perfectly acceptable). For many people, Banana Republic, Sephora, Barnes and Noble, and Gap represent precisely and entirely the type of shopping they like and require, and that is exactly what is available in FH. As for food, if a meal at any of the FH restaurants is indistinguishable for someone (MattNYC?) from a meal at Momofuko Ko or Corton, or more everyday moderate places like The Smith or the eternal Cuccina di Pesce, or even Crif Dog, then FH can work fine. But if you love trying new things, want to see the city swirling around you, want shops that hold some surprises and unexpected treats, then you will be sorely disappointed. Hip isn't a dirty word to hurl at people like the way talk radio treats the word "liberal" as if it were a curse word. Hip is just shorthand for what otherwise takes a lot of words to say. Nothing sacred about the word, though; if someone has a better one, offer it up. And a couple dozen posts later, I'm still waiting to see what insights Matt has to offer about neighborhoods. It gets so tiresome on here reading posts that amount to little more than tearing into other people but offer nothing constructive or new.

Truth,

Like your input straight, direct and to the point.

Happy New Year and Love you!

mutombu: Thanks.

ajank and his g.f. have had the Manhattan living experience for 7 years.
When they get that nice new apt. they will be so happy to come home to it they won't want to go out so much. They can stay home and relax. Save up some money. Going out every night gets old as we get older too.

Maybe the point here is that a neighborhood can be considered hip and edgy but not everybody who lives in it is hip and edgy. And the same for hip and edgy people. They can still be hip and edgy without living in a hip and edgy neighborhood.
Mick Rock, the music photographer lives in Staten Island. Very happily.
He's hip and edgy. Nobody thinks less of him for not living in a hip and edgy place.

kyle: Corton.
I've seen an interesting gay couple eating there. They are so nice and the staff loves them.
They also got married this past summer. And they have a house that they renovated in East Hampton.

It may have been you and your husband. They didn't look hip and edgy to me. Just happy.