Next stop, paper plates

You can learn a lot about different neighborhoods from what realtors tell you about why you should not bother looking for a dishwasher. Because they all say it's hopeless--and I get it, it is--but for a wide range of reasons. In the Village, and in Manhattan generally, realtors will explain that there are dishwashers, but (insert sneer) not in that price range. If you have to ask, and all that. In Queens (still not totally clear on the borders of neighborhoods), you will hear again that there are no dishwashers, but that a good woman doesn't complain about having to do the dishes. One realtor, his wife cooks for a large family, what am I doing complaining about doing the dishes for two? It was apparently a given that I do my boyfriend's dishes. I cook, he does the dishes (remember, two incomes, thus how we are capable of paying rent). But I decided not to explain this and just to agree that dishwashers are totally useless appliances. Because demanding a dishwasher is the very height of princessy uppitiness. Well, I don't go in for rhinoplasty or Manolos, door-manned buildings or hardwood floors, but I'm not afraid to admit this one materialistic dream.

After some investigation, I've learned that there do seem to be some apartments with dishwashers in the sad little price range that is ours. These apartments are all in the middle of highways, half-hour bus rides from subways, or in neighborhoods where getting shot veers from possible to probable. Turns out my old place had a dishwasher because although my rent was low and the block had only a moderate number of shootings, I shared with two roommates, putting the total price of the apartment in the big-numbers range at which dishwashers begin to appear.