Location, Location, Location

The Times takes readers on a tour of the worst-located apartments ever:

Even if there were not pigeons roosting in a front-yard coop and Roma tomatoes ripening at the gate, it would be fair to say that, in an otherwise industrial section of Jamaica, Queens, Kathy Lebron’s home sticks out. The green shingled two-family home at 148-07 95th Avenue is the only house on the block.

Oh, and the giant cement tanks from the adjacent masonry yard that sit next door: those are not just the neighbor’s, they are the landlord’s.

“He’s a really nice landlord,” Ms. Lebron said about Gerardo Mastronardi, who owns Queens Ready Mix, at 148-01 95th Avenue, as well as 148-07. Still, she said, renting next to a cement yard is challenging, even for a house that otherwise looks like it belongs in the country.

“I don’t keep the windows open at all,” Ms. Lebron, 37, said. “There’s just a layer of dust over everything. It’s noisy from all the trucks. You have to clean constantly.”

The dust and noise might be a hassle (talking outside is impossible without pauses during truck traffic) but the Lebrons are paying private school tuition for Amanda and Alyssa. They have decided to put up with it for the time being. The landlord said the rent is $1,000.

“Something in Florida would be nice,” Ms. Lebron said wistfully.