This place is MONEY. The location is the best you can get for Lower Manhattan - right on St. Marks, but facing the rear of the building so it's ridiculously quiet. The building doesn't have an elevator, but there's only one set of stairs to go up.
I love that the AirBnB was "lived in", so I had access to some leftover food and implements that belonged to Cesar himself, like scissors. This is what AirBnB used to be like!
The downsides are all typical of prewar buildings - some finicky heating, cold air coming in through the air conditioner, not-so-nice hallways, etc. but if you've been to New York City, you've probably dealt with them, and they pale in comparison to the various upsides of this place.