10 Of Our Favorite New Yorkers Talk Their First NYC Apartment

My first apartment in NYC was a fifth floor walkup studio apartment in SOHO (before SOHO was super trendy). I brought my parents to see it before I signed the lease and when they finally got to the top, my mom cried thinking it was so horrible I had to live in such a tiny space facing a brick wall. I loved it. I had an old tin porch rocker I bought at the Grand Street flea market as a couch. It took four guys to get it up all those stairs. It was mine and mine alone. To this day it was one of my favorite places I have ever lived. It represented adulthood and freedom.