So you're moving...to New York!

              A lot of water has gone under the bridge since the Algonquins took the rocky island they called Manhattan and unloaded it on Peter Minuit at a special discount price. For forty years the Dutch called it New Amsterdam. Then the British took it from them and called it New York. Since then this same rocky old island has been called a lot of things by a lot of people.
The city that Washington Irving referred to as "the renowned and ancient city of Gotham" drew less eloquent appraisal from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who dryly stated that "New York is a sucked orange." In one of the kinder physical allusions to the city, Christopher Morley called New York "the nation's thyroid gland" And although O. Henry sometimes referred to his favorite city as "noiseyville-on-the-subway," he could also wax romantic about it with phrasing like: "Far below and around lay the city like a ragged purple dream, the wonderful, cruel, enchanting, bewildering fatal, great city.'
Hiding somewhere within this broad spectrum of feeling must be the initial reaction of a typical H&S accountant upon hearing that he has been asked to transfer to New York. Each year the Executive Office invites a number of principals and senior accountants to New York so that they
can advance in their profession by engaging in more specialized work than they would encounter in a practice office. Usually this service in the Executive Office will be limited to two or three years, during which time the transferee may work with the research department, computer auditing group, auditing procedures group, practice furtherance group, the tax department, the SEC department, or the professional education and development section. Certainly, from a career standpoint, the advantages of making such a move are many
In some cases, the accountants coming to New York have requested transfer to the Executive Office and have been looking forward to the many cultural and recreational activities to be enjoyed in the city and surrounding area. On the other hand, there are those who have been adversely conditioned by newspaper and TV accounts of such problems as drugs, crime and air pollution, or by pessimistic predictions by friends. For these people, the thought of moving to the New York area might evoke a smattering of colorful expletives.
But whatever the initial response to the invitation or however distorted the image of the city may be, the record shows that most of the people transferring to EO agree that once the move is made and the family has
weathered a few months in the new environment, things seem to work out pretty well. In fact, most are soon enjoying the new surroundings and new friends.
Predictably enough, the most common complaints of H&S people moving into the New York area are about the high cost of living and that pet peeve of native and newcomer alike, commuting and public transportation.
Housing is scarce and costly in the city and in many of the closer suburban communities. A number of accountants who have transferred to the New York area in the past year or so said that they had heard beforehand that apartments and homes were expensive but they were surprised to find out just how expensive. Senior Dave Goldman, formerly of Los Angeles, says that a house in the San Fernando Valley, a very popular middle class residential area, would be $4,000 to $5,000 less than a comparable house in thesuburban areaaround New York City. Perhaps even more startling to recent arrivals was the price of a Manhattan apartment, in many cases at least $200 a month more than they had been paying and often twice the going rate in other cities.
But while the high cost of living in the New York area might have come as a shock, the Firm recognizes
So you're moving...
10