De Blasio was evicted from his first post-college apartment

Candidates share memories of their early NYC abodes

Clockwise from left: Bill de Blasio, Christine Quinn, John Liu, Bill Thompson, John Catsimatidis, Joe Lhota
Clockwise from left: Bill de Blasio, Christine Quinn, John Liu, Bill Thompson, John Catsimatidis, Joe Lhota

Mayoral candidate and former City Comptroller Bill Thompson only lasted three months in his first post-college apartment on Prospect Park West in Park Slope. A robbery forced him out. Current front-runner Bill de Blasio lived on the now-swanky Spring Street in Soho, along with his children and brother. But he was fuzzy about the details of the apartment, as, unbeknownst to him, it was an illegal sublet from which he was soon evicted.

And Joe Lhota, his rival in the race, lived across the street from a crack den on the Upper West Side while cutting his teeth as an investment banker. “You didn’t walk on that side of the street,” Lhota said.

The candidates – who recently discussed their views on the real estate industry  with The Real Deal — shared their warmest and scariest memories of their first apartments with the New York Times.

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Current City Comptroller John Liu lived in a studio in Woodside, Queens, sharing the small space with a cat christened Psst. And billionaire real estate mogul candidate John Catsimatidis started off in an Upper West Side two-bedroom apartment by himself, and then later brought his parents to live with him. Meanwhile, Anthony Weiner lived in a one-bedroom pad on Brooklyn’s Homecrest Avenue, which he described to the Times as “plenty big for a skinny kid.”

For less than $450 per head, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn lived on the Upper East Side with a friend from high school. The catch? Quinn didn’t have her own room, and was separated from her friend by a makeshift wall that didn’t quite reach the ceiling. [NYT] – Hiten Samtani