New York Habitat Blog

New York in Song
“Chelsea Morning – Spotlight on Chelsea in Manhattan”

Woke up it was a Chelsea morning and the first thing that I saw
Was the sun through yellow curtains and a rainbow on my wall…

The song “Chelsea Morning” was written and recorded by Joni Mitchell in 1969, and has been recorded by other major artists as well, including Judy Collins and Neil Diamond.  Mitchell has said that she wrote the song while living in a small apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan during the 1960’s.  Former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton have often noted in interviews that Judy Collins’ version of this song inspired them to name their daughter Chelsea.    

Chelsea has undergone many changes in the more than 35 years that have passed since “Chelsea Morning” was written.  At that time, the neighborhood was still in a transition from a more industrial area, with a lot of manufacturing buildings and warehouses, to the hot residential market it has become today.  New luxury buildings blend with destinctive older brownstones and the area boasts some of the most popular restaurants, shopping, and nightlife hotspots in New York.  After you’ve enjoyed a night of great food and wine, you can even make up for it the next day at Chelsea Piers Sports Center (www.chelseapiers.com), complete with a full health club, Olympic swimming pool, basketball courts, boxing rings and rock-climbing walls.

In addition to all of Chelsea’s attractions, you are also a short distance from other Manhattan attractions..  You’re basically right in the middle between the tourist destinations of midtown (The Empire State Building, Times Square, Broadway, etc) and the charming galleries and cafes of downtown Greenwich Village and Soho.  

Click here to check out some great apartments, vacation rentals, bed & breakfasts and roommate shares in Chelsea. Maybe you’ll even be inspired to write a song about your stay.  After all, 35 years is a long time and “Chelsea Morning” deserves a sequel.

“Chelsea Afternoon”, anyone?

Last week, the New York Times published an article on the wonders of West 81st Street (between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues) in their Streetscapes Section (“A Roller-Coaster Ride of Styles”) .

They invite us to discover a “memorable block” that combines a variety of colors and architectural styles that are certainly worth discovering. All house fronts differ and no house is similar to its neighbors. Strolling down the street will have the curious eye wondering about numerous details such as basket balconies, keystones, angled bay windows with ornate framings, gardens, and so much more. All this in a variety of colors as if to better fit the street’s capricious topography.

So if you are planning a stay in New York, why not include West 81st Street on your “must visit” list?

This unique neighborhood features many interesting apartments with in a short walk. If you are thinking of coming to New York and want to stay in a diverse architectural neighborhood then consider some of these apartments that are with in a short walk from West 81st Street.

• One Bedroom - Upper West Side (Ref #7620)
• Two bedroom / one bathroom apartment - Upper West Side (Ref #11931)
• Furnished bedroom with private bathroom - Upper West Side (Ref #9403)

When communicating with our team during your apartment search, you may receive a message like this: “Apartment # NY-11734 has just become available for your dates, do you like it?”

To find out more about this apartment, all you need to do is go to our homepage www.nyhabitat.com, find the “Quick Search” box in the middle of the left hand side column, enter the reference number (digits only) and select the destination (in our example, New York) immediately below the box where you entered the apartment reference number. Then, click on “GO”.

This will lead you directly to the apartment full description and photos.

It’s fast and easy!

You will also find another Quick Search box on each destination page (after you have clicked on a specific destination from our home page, for example http://www.nyhabitat.com/paris-apartment.html for an apartment in Paris). The box is just below the list of the types of rentals (Vacation Rentals, Furnished Rentals, Roommate Shares, Bed and Breakfast). In the Quick Search box, from this page, you only need to enter the digits of the apartment reference number.

Try it!

When you find an apartment rental that you may like on our website, you can click on the top right link to “Find similar rentals in this area”.

This tool will look for an accommodation having the same characteristics as the one on display. For example, if you find a Studio in Chelsea (New York), clicking on the link will lead you to a list of all studio apartments located in the Chelsea area.

Using “Find similar rentals” is a great way to save time–you’re just one click away from finding accomodations in your preferred area. And it’s a terrific tool to compare price, availabilities and amenities before making a choice!

Paris in Song
“Paris – Picture Perfect”

But when I get to Paris we’ll paint all our portraits
In brush-strokes of yellow and christen the canvas

These lyrics are from the song “Paris”, written by the legendary writing duo of Elton John and Bernie Taupin, and included on John’s 1986 album “Leather Jackets”.

The lyrics underscore one of the most famous and enduring aspects of Parisian culture that has lured visitors throughout the years: its art. Home to some of the world’s most prominent museums, not to mention many of history’s greatest artists, Paris is a must destination for both the passionate and the casual art lover.

Read the entire story here… »

Looking for an apartment usually starts very precisely with “looking for”… New York Habitat apartment search pages enable you to enter a number of criteria to match your requirements. What was missing so far, was a quick and easy way to check which new apartments are listed on our website that match your criteria without having to go through all our postings again or having to re-enter your criteria on each visit.

We have just finalized the integration of such a solution thanks to the latest developments in technology. It is called RSS Feed (RSS for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) and is the ideal tool to make your search a Really Simple Search!!

What is it exactly?

RSS Feed is text content in a format that you can view via a special reader after you have subscribed (for free!) to the content of your choice from a website. What happens next is that you do not need anymore to visit the website to be able to view their updates.

It is already widely used in news and news-like sites. Once you have subscribed to their RSS content, you can open your RSS player and keep track of the website updates. Your RSS reader automatically downloads all new feeds for you.

Where can you find an RSS reader?

A number of free and commercial readers (aggregators) are available for download. Many are separate, “stand-alone” programs; other services will let you add RSS feeds to a Web page.
You may also use integrated web based readers from Yahoo or Google. For example, Google users can add RSS feeds directly to their “My Google” page by clicking on the “Add to Google” button.

How does the customized New York Habitat search feed work?

This is the true power of this technology applied to apartment search.

From any main New York Habitat apartment search page (let’s say for example New York accommodation rentals), you first need to fill out your search criteria (for example, for New York, select: Studio, Chelsea area, $150 per night with a starting date of 12-20-06). Then click on “view apartments”.

Our website will display a result page, i.e. a list where you can find available apartments that match your search criteria. On the same page (at the bottom), you can find an RSS button (orange icon). By clicking on it, you can “subscribe” to this feed (customized search).

Through your RSS reader, you will then automatically receive the newly updated apartments that match the search criteria you initially selected (studios in Chelsea, for the selected price and dates). You will not need to go to www.nyhabitat.com anymore to view our last updates, but your reader will still give you the option to link you directly to the apartment you select from your reader’s list.

A big thank you to all our customers, visitors, and apartment owners who visit our website and have made it so popular.

New York Habitat’s steady growth continues with requests for accommodations coming from all continents. Most of our clients come from Europe, Australia, and the United States. We’re delighted to welcome more and more short term apartment renters from Southeast Asia, India, and South America. We’ve even had a client from an Artic scientific station who needed a New York apartment rental during a conference!

Each day we try to anticipate your needs with rental accommodations and we work to integrate the technologies that we believe make a difference. With this in mind, we will explain in an upcoming post the new RSS feed capabilities of our website. (a great tool for apartment search updates and last minutes decision making).

Thank you again, and stay tuned!

P.S. Have suggestions for features you’d like to see on the site? Send us an email at blog@nyhabitat.com