If you're familiar with HOAs, a co-op is basically an HOA for an apartment building.

Technically you don't own the unit you live in, you buy shares in the co-op which entitle you to live in the unit you live in, but there's not much of a practical difference.

The practical issues come in with respect to how you use the apartment. Co-op rules usually prohibit subletting and require getting approval before doing renovations (and also time restrictions on renovations) and approval to eventually sell your unit down the road.

Generally speaking, they aren't terrible. Unlike HOA horror stories, co-ops usually don't care about superficial stuff like how you decorate your unit. The rules are primarily there to prevent you from negatively affecting the units around you (i.e., you can't hire some fly-by-night plumber to smash a hole in the wall and install a jacuzzi that ends up flooding the unit below you).

But maybe this is stockholm syndrome talking because there's almost no alternative to co-ops in NYC.

Some units are condos where you do actually own the unit. And that generally comes with a higher purchase price, fewer restrictions, but still some use restrictions because, again, you can't do stuff that would damage the units around you.

The last alternative is buying a house but it sounds like that's not a good fit for you given that you're considering studios.

There's no villain (arguably not even any bad people) despite plenty of characters that could easily have filled the role. There's no sudden setback to create tension. No relationship drama.

It's just such a fun movie. I love using it as an example that a story doesn't need conflict to be interesting. Not all journeys are about scaling Everest. Sometimes a walk in the park is exactly what you need.

It doesn't match your details but your post gave me the vibe of Tekkonkinkreet (perhaps a jumbled dream version).

Even if you believe all creatures are equal - which they are not. Biodiversity has value in and of itself and invasive creatures threaten to reduce biodiversity by wreaking havoc with the ecosystem.

Whenever anyone asks me about de Blasio I tell them that there's so very little to like except that the man did probably the best thing for the city in my life time by pushing through universal pre-K and 3-K.