Beginning the apartment hunt

Earlier this year, as part of a University of Michigan push to get people off their lazy behinds, I got a pedometer. On a normal day, I did about 4,000 steps, which equates to about two miles.
Yesterday, I put 26,000 steps on my pedometer looking at apartments in lower Manhattan and exploring the neighborhoods after dark.
John and I looked at apartments at:
-- the Verdesian, a crunchy-granola environmentally friendly building with fantastic views of the Hudson River, west of Tribeca and just north of the World Trade Center site.
-- 22 River Terrace, the only building closer to the Hudson than the Verdesian
-- 99 John Street, where it would be very easy for us to remember our address. This financial district apartment had windows facing three directions, with some great views of the Brooklyn Bridge that make JT's heart go pitterpat.
-- 10 Hanover Square, which is so far south, it's even below Wall Street. The apartment was swank, but the health club was swanker, with a two-story climbing wall, a physical therapy room and a huge display of T-shirts, shorts, socks and such, in case you come to the gym straight from work and didn't bring your workout clothes.

We liked the feel of the financial district apartments better, but we ate dinner downtown so we could check out the neighborhood after dark and it felt pretty dead, not surprisingly. There's tons of residential redevelopment going on down there, so it could be on the cusp of becoming a great place to live ... but that's what we thought about our house in Ann Arbor, and that neighborhood still feels more redneck than we like.

To cut to the chase: on average, we looked at 800-square-foot one bedroom apartments for about $3,300. Gulp.

Nothing we love yet, so the chase continues today.