In the Sunday NY Times, there’s an interesting article about people staying in smaller apartments because of the friendships that they and their children have made within the building. In one of the example a small family remains in a 500 square foot apartment because of the relationships that they and their children have made. The children play together in each other’s apartments or they have dinner sometimes at their friend’s apartment. This feeling of family can sometimes fill a void of missing their own families who may be located in other states and only visit occasionally.
In one such case, a family was about to leave their 1000 sqft apartment in Brooklyn for a townhouse but never moved in because they couldn’t leave their child’s friend behind. In another case, on the Upper west at the Park Royal, the parents have become very close friends and while they realize that the children may grow apart, they will remain friends.
It’s an interesting trend, as more families stay in buildings in Manhattan, there are more children and buildings can become communities. I know in our building on the upper west side at 400 Central Park west, we definitely sense that feeling of community. Now that we are expecting our first children, we have so many lovely neighbors and friends who have offer to help us out with walking dogs or taking care of our triplets. It’s a very nice trend.
Have you had any experience with this sense of community in your building?