Small apt bldg, where landlord and family also live. Tenants are all friendly.
Pros
Overall it's a nice building. Apartments are pretty nice, especially considering it's not a 'luxury' building. It's a walk-up building with three floors. But for a walk-up building, it's nicer than most such buildings. Kitchens ('kitchenettes', really) are small, but have sufficient cabinet and counter space, along with a small dishwasher and microwave. Bathrooms are quite small, and fixtures are somewhat 'old school' (though I happen to like old-school bathrooms). The immediate area is quiet, particularly if you live in one of the apartments facing the back side of the building. Within a 5-10 minute walk, you have access to coffeeshops, restaurants, bars, gyms, supermarkets, yoga, etc. 12-minute walk (at a fast pace) to the N/W train. The landlord and family live on the ground floor. They are very friendly, and it's nice that it feels like a real 'family' building. Many residents have lived here for over 10 years, and tenants in the building have varying levels of 'friendships' with each other, some watering one another's plants when out of town, sharing extra food, etc. Tenants are allowed to have cats, but dogs are not allowed (no matter how small). All apartments have super nice Mitsubishi A/C units high up on the wall in both the living areas and in the bedrooms. The units operate really well, have remote controls, and are super quiet.
Cons
The particular block that the building is on is not the prettiest or nicest, as far as Astoria goes. It's a very small block with an oil company on one corner and a bodega on another corner. In between are just a few private homes, but people on this block aren't as friendly with each other as on some other blocks in Astoria. Starting with this block, heading Northward, Astoria suddenly gets much more industrial, and at night can feel a bit 'sketchy', particularly along Steinway and the streets in the 40s, up by 20th Ave, and certainly 19th Ave. The building used to be rent-stabilized, but that status ended around 2022. Thus far, the landlord seems to be continuing to increase the rents (automatically, and every single year), but only as high as that year's rent-stabilized guidelines/levels that were approved by the NYC Rent Guidelines Board (or whatever it's called), for rent-stabilized apartments. Some folks might consider it to be a bit of a walk to the N/W subway. (It's a 12-minute walk, and that's at a fast pace...) Anytime there is an issue with something electrical, or plumbing, etc., most repairs seem to be done either by the landlord or otherwise a non-professional (i.e., a 'patch-up job'), so sometimes something that was 'fixed', has to be readdressed within a short period of time. Sometimes it can therefore be tiring, to keep asking for the same thing to be fixed. Either way, I think the landlord means well but just sometimes forgets to fix things...or believes that using non-professionals somehow saves them money (even though things then have to be 'fixed', repeatedly). Exterior walls don't seem to be well-insulated, and balcony door is not well sealed, so heating costs can be high during the winter as the warm air doesn't stay well, inside the apartment.
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