So what does one do when you are bored in your free time and work at PlaceofMine.com? You plan for your next apartment search, of course. Even though my lease isn’t up for some time, I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to start looking. I also want to keep my options open in case I want to move, so I’m going to search around in several cities for just the right place.
I love where I live now. It is close to downtown, restaurants, and the grocery store. Why do I want a new place, you ask? I have a one bedroom apartment and one bedroom apartments are small; especially when you have a husband and a (very cute) cat. Wherever I want my new, bigger apartment, I want it to fit as many of my old criterion as possible. Some of you may despair because on most maps, you can’t tell what is what and where things are at a glance, but I don’t despair! I apartment search with flair! Behold the awesome power of the PlaceofMine.com’s Heat Maps!
I like living one minute away from food, so I thought that I would start my search with finding a place close to some grocery stores and restaurants. Right now I live right on the edge of the blue in this dark grey section on the restaurant heat map, which means there is a respectable number of places to eat close to me, but not too close. Based on that, I found some prospective places.
There are lots of restaurants near downtown St. Louis and the Arch! Looks like I have several nice apartment options!
San Antonio’s restaurants are centered around the River Walk. I wouldn’t mind a place close to there!
Chicago doesn’t seem to be lacking in restaurants, either, and this isn’t even the Loop!
If I decide to live in Chicago, I want to be a little further away from downtown, but not live out in the boonies. Lincoln Park seems like a great place to do just that.
Now to take a look at the grocery situation for each prospective city.
There’s not a high concentration of grocery stores around St. Louis.
That’s okay, though. I only need one and I already live in a dark grey area on the heatmap, so I’m not worried. There is at least one grocery store close to me.
Looks like Manhattan and Brooklyn don’t lack in grocery stores. I should have no trouble finding somewhere to shop for food in New York.
Chicago seems to be providing me with an abundance of grocery stores as well.
Looks like Lincoln Park is shaping up to be a great place to find a place close to the grocery.
After I narrowed down some prime restaurant neighborhoods in my select cities, I chose to look at how close the places were to downtown, so I looked at the nightlife heat maps for each city. Again, my current place was in a dark grey area, which is a moderate nightlife score, so I’ll be looking for something around that color.
Looks like I need to be right in downtown to have nightlife close to me in St. Louis. That’s ok though, as that is how it is for me in my current apartment.
San Antonio’s River Walk once again proves to be a hot spot, but for nightlife this time!
Looks like I may want something a little further south in Manhattan if I want to be close but not too close to New York nightlife.
After I narrowed down my prime area in each city, I did some clicking around and came up with some nice choices for future apartments. Alas that many are out of my budget, but a girl can dream, can’t she?
