Maria and I took Tess and Gigi to Kidville today. This is where all the nannies and a few parents take their children when not at the park. It's a small store front on Court St. with a front reception room about 9x10 where the parents park their strollers. On one side they have classes like "rockin railroad" with a real band and a singer, and in the other room is a padded childproof room for the children to climb, jump on a trampoline, swing on a rope, etc. We got there with Tess and Gigi and tons of toddlers with their Jamaican and St. Vincent nannies sitting around. There was a grandfather and grandmother with their grandchildren. The grandfather, Jim, it turns out was from San Jose and he wasn't watching the children. We started talking about East coast versus West Coast and the rents, etc. He said he and his wife, who originally was from Brooklyn, rented a place for the month for 3000, but he said nobody wanted to trust them because they were from out of town. His daughter was an attorney who worked in NY and his son-in-law was a chef.
"He thought of opening a restaurant in NY, but there would be about 300,000 in fees! It's crazy. This city is run by the attorneys. He's not going to do it here, he says he'll go to the west coast if he wants to open something."
I told him how provencial I thought it all was here.
He didn't know how much rent his daughter paid, but he said "I'm from the bay area which is supposed to be the highest priced area in the country, but it's nothing compared to here!"
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