Location is always crucial when considering a place to live. Is the neighborhood age appropriate, is it clean, is it safe, is it close enough to a job or school? It's normal to find yourself overwhelmed with everything you must consider.
Unfortunately, the summer of 2010 put me in a position where I had to scramble to find an off-campus apartment in Buffalo on a strict budget.
I was lucky enough to find an amazing two-bedroom apartment off Bailey Ave. and have been in heaven ever since. I live with only my best friend; I have a fully functioning apartment with laundry amenities and an enormous living room. I have the freedom to eat, sleep and wear what I want, when I want, and pay average, if not low, rent in comparison to my peers.
In conversations my eyes light up as I spout off endless stories about visitors or alcohol-induced nights. When I leave for Brentwood, Long Island I find myself missing my apartment soon after arriving at my parents' house. There's really nothing like it.
The only negative aspect about my living arrangements, however, would be the expression on my fellow classmates' faces when I tell them the location of my place.
"I can't walk there it's too far," "You're not worried about getting robbed?" "Isn't it dangerous on that side of town?"
The endless questions and assumptions normally irk me, but I've learned to get used to them. In fact, I make it a point to prove people wrong when given an odd look after revealing my neighborhood.
My neighborhood is at the border of University Heights, and what a born and bred Buffalonian would consider the east side of town, a neighborhood portrayed on the news as dangerous.
My classmates think of a stereotypically "ghetto" environment when they think of my neighborhood. This includes crime, raucous residents, and countless issues. But if you compare what goes on across Bailey Ave. in University Heights to what I've experienced on my side of town, I'd say I'm living better than you are.
For one, weekends in University Heights are chaotic. If I even think about cutting through Winspear Ave. on a Friday night I need my highlights on and music low because only God knows how many drunk and obnoxious peers of mine throw themselves into the streets.
Alcohol also contributes to the number of random brawls that break out in University Heights, between both students and locals outside parties.
Should I even bring up the fact that negligent landlords own many apartments in University Heights? I won't.
I understand that not everybody is lucky enough to have a car, or even consider looking outside University Heights for convenience sake, whether the convenience is proximity to Mojo's or the Health Sciences Library at UB South. However, don't squint and look at me as if I live in a sub-par part of the city.
With the recent turn in weather, I walk outside my house and see children playing with their parents and people walking their dogs. The occasional group of teenagers also walks by, but never yielding bats or guns as a lot of people might assume.
Granted, I wouldn't venture farther into the city alone, more based off my own paranoia growing up in a tough neighborhood. But to tell me I live somewhere horrible when you can't even study because your neighbors want to throw a party is absurd.
If I live in the "ghetto," I don't see it. I'm living good.
Email: elva.aguilar@ubspectrum.co
