We stayed in Roberta's apartment for 5 days. We arrived around 11pm due to the flight and the storm that day, which is very late. But Roberta's friends have met us at the door and showed the apartment and everything in it. They were great and very friendly! The first thing we noticed is that the apartment is actually way bigger than we expected from the pictures. It also looks better than in the pictures.
In the morning we found fruits and coffee, which was great, since we had nothing to eat for 12 hours or so. Thanks again Roberta!
Concerning the neighborhood, we didn't find it that great as previous reviews mention. For the first couple of days we (2 guys) felt a bit unsafe walking to and from the metro - later we got used to it and felt fine. It is about 45 minutes to manhattan during the day and about 1-30 minutes late at night.