Jackson Heights Life

does the Colonials have a reserve fund? I remember hearing they didn't, which is a concern for such an old building with fewer units.

Oh and Eddie, each of the six buildings in the Colonials is independently managed so the presence or amount of a reserve would depend on the building.

Agree that stairs are good exercise--the problem comes when you develop arthritis or bad knees and are stuck having to walk many stairs up and down. When we moved to JH we were in our 50s, and it seemed crazy to consider a walkup building unless it was a ground floor apartment. As you get older, the chances increase that you might have trouble negotiating stairs at some point.

I agree. I ended up in a non-weight-bearing cast on my leg for a month and I really don't know how I would have managed without the elevator. I guess it would have technically been possible but very difficult.

we also have parents who want to visit ... the stairs would have been a big issue for them.

Exactly what I was thinking -- I had to work pretty hard not be annoyed/offended by the following post (but decided to assume abcdefghijk wrote it without thinking too much):

I find the irony of folks happy to pay money to a gym to use stair-climbing machines... and yet adamantly avoiding walk-ups to be hilarious.
 

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I want my parents to live forever! and to keep visiting me! And I plan to stay here as long as possible myself. Plus, I broke my knee last year -- and the elevator was a godsend (6th floor apartment).

well, most of the youngsters paying $3000 a month for one BR walkups on the LES will be safely ensconced back in Summit or Rockland County by the time they actually need elevators

moved here when i was 17. in 1983, lived in the one standing building on 6th between C and D, and paid $125 for my share of a heatless ground floor three-bedroom. wouldn't trade the experience for the world.

Amused by the conversation I started here. When you are young, you don't even think about this sort of thing and you assume that things like painful joints, or broken bones, or surgeries will never, ever happen to you. In fact, you don't think about it till it happens and then it comes as a shock that such a thing COULD in fact happen to forever-young you. I already had that in mind when shopping for our JH apartment, but later it was underlined when I met a new neighbor who told me she moved from the Greystones because she had broken a bone or something and no longer wanted to live in a walkup. I'd feel the same if I were to move to a house--I'd want minimal or no stairs at this point in my life, now in my 60s. And yes, I do work out at a gym, but that's entirely different from having to deal with stairs on a daily basis no matter what the state of my body.

at the prices we're seeing these days I wouldn't buy a walkup higher than 2nd floor.

It's just an inconvenience, not only for yourself, but for deliveries and guests and if you have kids, a bike, stroller, groceries... moving in and out...etc.

and of course when you're older it poses more issues.