This is a great Upper West Side place. Excellent, very safe location. Within a few blocks you've got two of Manhattan's best grocery stores (Fairway and Trader Joe's) and more reasonable restaurants than you could try in a month. It's a perfect transportation hub: between the 72nd St. 1-2-3 subway station and the two nearby crosstown busses, you can efficiently get just about anywhere in Manhattan or beyond (including to and from the airports). And of course you're also already in the midst of things, a short walk to Lincoln Center, Columbus Circle, and Central Park, but still apart from that frustrating zone where everything is oriented toward theatergoers and the grotesquely wealthy, pricewise and otherwise.
Mary Sue was wonderful, helpful, and accommodating. She was friendly and engaging while also giving me my own space. The apartment itself is old school NYC, with endearingly creaky floors and and spacious but slightly awkward kitchen that brought me back to my post-grad-school UWS apartment situation, but this time with a dream roommate.