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Stephanie Peng's avatar

Plus learning to share with all the other kids at the playground!

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Kate Neale Cooper's avatar

Well said. Richmond, VA, is not New York City, but we live in a rowhouse there in a historic urban neighborhood and my children — who are all now young adults — are so thankful for their city childhoods. In many ways, the communal nature of it all feels very old-fashioned and offered them a lot of age-appropriate freedom they would not have had had they been raised in a cul-de-sac in the exurbs.

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Christina Bryant Herbert's avatar

I love Richmond! One of my best friends used to live in the Fan — smitten — and it looked like the best Halloween situation.

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Kate Neale Cooper's avatar

Yes! That's where we are. Four thousand trick-or-treaters in four hours. But now that my youngest is headed to college, my goal is to spend more time in NYC. So, let me know if you know anyone who needs a house or pet sitter ...

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Ellen Scanlon's avatar

I’m very sorry to hear about your Dad & sending love to you. Thanks for this great city-lovers post!

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Christina Bryant Herbert's avatar

Thank you, Ellen!! ❤️

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Elizabeth Sims's avatar

So perfectly articulated. As my husband says on raising kids anywhere else…the silence would be deafening. Love raising our family here, and wouldn’t trade it for any backyard in the world!

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Jelly's avatar

My husband and I really enjoyed this post. Hope you continue to sprinkle this theme in. We are considering a move back to NYC with our baby 🙃

What were the main reasons your family decided to move to the UES over staying downtown? I know many families make this transition and would love to hear your take.

Broken HVAC - we also had issues with our building’s HVAC when we lived in NYC. I guess this is more common than I thought! Curious what the specific problem is for us to keep in mind as we look at places.

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Christina Bryant Herbert's avatar

Thank you for the feedback!

Clearly we love living here with kids and think you would, too. We ended up moving uptown to be closer to a lot of great school options and the park. There’s also a lot of great doctors in the neighborhood which becomes more and more relevant. We ended up loving the community and general neighborhood feel — London-ish! (I think downtown was also a bit harder hit in Covid, when we moved and had since rebounded, but IMO it’s less family focused).

Re HVAC, I think regular service is important and just keep in mind a unit lasts like 10-15 years and then needs to be replaced.

Good luck!

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Jelly's avatar

Thank you for sharing! 🍎🐣🙏🏻

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