this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2024
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Back to work. With the US holiday being essentially a 4day weekend, plus getting back into town from a weeklong biz trip the week prior, didn't do a whole lot of anything last week, other than sleeping and gaming and occasionally looking at email/Teams.. So it's a bit hard to get back into it.
I think I've settled on a new apartment in my soon-to-be new city. It's expensive. Parking alone is like $120/mo (street parking requires a city permit). But it is what it is. It has what I want, particularly being close to a subway stop. Maybe I pay out the nose for the first year, then once I have my bearings, learn the area, I can find something cheaper elsewhere.
Dealing with apartments is a pain in the ass. I live in an apartment now and have lived in a few different apartments for the last 9yrs. So it's not like I have no experience. But god, some of these places makes it very difficult to talk with a human. No, I don't want to chat or text or have a phone call with a chatbot or AI assistant. No I don't want to start the application process online before I get my questions answered. I just have a few questions; call me, please. Luckily someone -- a real someone -- finally called me today.
Also, what the fuck is an "administrative fee" at an apartment, and why is it so high? I get having an application fee of like $50. I get needing a deposit. But a $500 "administrative fee?" Have never come across that before. And this isn't the only place I'm looking at that has it. As always, just another way to wring money out of folks.
Hopefully I'll have this all settled within the next week or two.
Otherwise, back to FFXIV. Taking my time with the new Dawntrail expansion.
any chance you can give up the car? $120/month is outrageous to me. if my city had better public transit (subways!!!), i'd be all over ditching my car.
Definitely outrageous. In my current city, I've only ever paid for parking access at one place. And it was only like $50/mo. Which I still fought! I think only in the final year did they actually start making me pay for it, but at a reduced rate, like $25/mo.
I've definitely been thinking about getting rid of my car. I did ask the leasing agent if monthly parking was annual commitment or not. And they said it's not. Or rather, it could be easily removed from the lease with no lease-change fee.
So maybe I stick with the car for the first 6mo to a year, learn how to get around, explore, see if I can go carless and fully rely on the public transit system (which I'd done before over in Chicago). I'd hate to get rid of the car ASAP and then realize that I do need it more than I thought.
Car is not even 4yrs old and it's held it's value remarkably well, according to KBB. So I'd potentially get like 95% (or more) of my money back if I did sell.
i mean, i think paying for parking should happen, especially in places with decent public transit, but wowee.
Oh for sure. Like in my current city (Kansas City), public transportation is so pathetic. A person has to have a car here. There's just no way to survive without one. And I live in the city, in the urban core.
While I fought paying even $50/mo for parking on apt property, I always thought it was funny when people complained about the price for parking garages/lots downtown. At one point not that long ago, it was like $2-5 on nights/weekends. There are barely any parking meters around. And, as far as I know, there's no parking permits required for street parking. And it's plentiful. But people still bitched and moaned about "not enough free parking." Because they didn't want to pay and/or have to walk more than a block from their car to their destination. Sheesh.
But in my soon-to-be new city, DC, it looks like someone could get away without having a car? I won't be living in DC proper, but pretty close. So I'll see.
I think if I had to pay the city to park on the streets, I'd strangely be more OK with that? But having to pay my landlord for parking privileges seems ridiculous because I'll already be paying them out the nose for rent and such.
Oh well, such is the price for owning a car.
D.C. Metro runs from about 5am-midnight on weekdays, but on weekends it doesn't start until 7. In the suburbs, you can drive to a commuter parking lot and leave your car for the workday. You are generally expected to drive your car home each night from there and they DO charge a pretty serious fee (especially given that you'd also be paying for the commute).
Thanks for that! I'm definitely hoping to take the Metro in most of the time. The first time I drove in DC back in 2010, I vowed, "never again." I've driven in many cities, even in Puerto Rico once, but I thought DC was the worst.
Obviously moving there, there will be times I have to drive around, but to the extent I can avoid doing so, I will.
I live in SF and 120/month would be cheap compared to what it is up here lol
another place i’d probably do without a car, if at all possible. i went car free in seattle for a year, another three years in athens, georgia. wasn’t until i moved to atlanta (and later the city i’m in now) that i had to go back to owning one.