Kew Gardens or Kew Gardens Hills - Please help moving to NY!

amother

Wed, May 23 2012, 9:59 pm

Please help! We are moving to NY and I think queens might work for us. I am thinking KGH and I think maybe the Chofetz Chaim crowd could be good for us. We are moving from the midwest and are in our mid 20s. Any advice for a young couple moving to KGH or kew gardens? is either community better? What about housing, what are rentals like? Are there any areas where a lot of young couples live? Any advice as to where to find a house or apartment (ideally a house) for rent? What about shuls- I would assume there are lots of young people by chofetz Chaim. Anywhere else?

THANK YOU!

amother

Thu, May 24 2012, 4:31 am

I grew up in KGH and currently live in Far Rockaway so hopefully I can be helpful.

Kew Gardens is a lot more "yeshivish" than KGH. There are some young couples in KG that are associated with Shaar Hatorah. In KGH there are more young working couples as well as learning couples. There is also Lander college in KGH as well as Chofetz CHaim and Ohr Hachaim so the crowd is more diverse. There are (last I counted) 33 shuls in the neighborhood so I can't suggest one off the bat, but if you tell me what you are looking for I can suggest.
In terms of housing- I am not sure how easy it is to get an apartment near chofetz chaim. There are a lot of houses for sale near where my parents live (farther out in the neighborhood).

Far Rockaway- the main yeshiva here is Shor Yoshuv then there's also ZA and Rabbi Chait's. There are also many shuls and a somewhat diverse crowd. Apartments are available, I think houses are a lot harder to come by.

Let me know what other questions you have and I will tyr to help.

amother

Thu, May 24 2012, 4:56 am

I lived in both KGH and KG, and my husband did learn in Chofetz Chaim. I have 2 married sisters living in the Chofetz Chaim area now. The previous poster mentioned that Kew Gardens is somewhat more yeshivish, which is true. I also found that in KGH, the areas where a lot of young people lived were predominately young people, while the slightly older families tended to live on different blocks (obviously not completely, but certainly in the areas immediately near the yeshivos), while in KG each block tended to have more of a mix of young and old combined. I found KG had a bit more of an OOT feel because it is a smaller community that KGH.

In general prices are somewhat cheaper in KG than KGH. Centered around Chofetz Chaim it is VERY hard to get an apartment (unless you have some connections!), and virtually impossible to rent a house. But if you are willing to live a few blocks farther away there are plenty of great frum blocks where you can rent houses. In KG there are fewer apartments for rent, but there are many houses to rent. There are also many multi- family homes that you can rent in, which tend to be larger than apartments and the prices are similar to smaller apartments in KGH.

There are numerous shuls in both neighborhoods. Subscribing to the yahoo groups like the previous poster said is a good idea.

good luck!

amother

Thu, May 24 2012, 5:33 am

wow you guys have been really helpful!

Ok so we would be willing to live a few blocks away! And really a house or apartment is fine, just a house/townhouse is preferable. I subscribed to those lists!

Also, what is your take on far rockaway as compared with kgh. I know with FR it will be in apartment as I know houses for rent are basically non existent. Any advice on where to look for an apartment? How do you like it?

Can you be a part of a smaller "community" in either place. This is important to us as we will not be knowing ANYONE!

About us: we are pretty mainstream "professional" yeshivish and somewhat open minded. a little bit OOTish too. DH is a lawyer and middle of the road ner yisroel guy, learns regularly in the evenings, no jeans, hat on shabbos type of guy. we have a lot of friends to the left as well as to the right. I went to a very mainstream BY and I am also a morah in BY. stockings, hair covered, no tv etc... It sounds like we could fit in pretty well in either community. I don't know so much, but in FR we would got the darchei/tag route probably I don't know as much about queens schools.

thank you so much!

amother

Thu, May 24 2012, 5:36 am

amother wrote:

I also found that in KGH, the areas where a lot of young people lived were predominately young people, while the slightly older families tended to live on different blocks (obviously not completely, but certainly in the areas immediately near the yeshivos), while in KG each block tended to have more of a mix of young and old combined. I found KG had a bit more of an OOT feel because it is a smaller community that KGH.

But if you are willing to live a few blocks farther away there are plenty of great frum blocks where you can rent houses. !

To this another, where are the areas in KGH where a lot of young people live? Where are some of the "great frum blocks" where I might be able to find a house. Sorry I know NOTHING about the area. I've looked at a map, but that doesn't really help me.

Also what are rents like? Do you think we could get a house/th or 2 bedroom for under 2500?

amother

Thu, May 24 2012, 6:09 am

I'm the first amother- the way you describe yourself is exactly the way we are as well. Far Rockaway and KGH are similar in that respect. They are both really nice communities. I live in a one bedroom, I think to get bigger apartments you would have more of a chance of being in a two family house, so you would probably get that through the yahoo groups list. I think that each building in a sense is it's own community, so you will hopefully move near some people nad become friendly with them, far rockaway is not all that big so there are bound to be other couples around where you are.

amother

Thu, May 24 2012, 7:37 am

Another thing to consider is where your husband plans on working. If he has a job waiting for him in the city, the commute from Far Rockaway is significantly longer than from Queens. Queens has tons of public transportation while in Far Rockaway you are pretty much limited to the LIRR.