But Tara Averill, 43, the founder of RepresentationCo., a talent agency, and of Splitsville, a community-centered app and website about divorce, sees no need to divide the city as if it were a marital asset. She and her ex-husband, who preferred not to be named, live about four blocks away from each other in Brooklyn and share custody of their two children, Fiona Averill, 10, and Liam Averill, 7.
“I love that we have our same spots,” Ms. Averill said. “We go to 67 Burger. We go to Junior’s for both of the kids’ birthdays. We kept a lot of traditions.”
Before the divorce, the couple rented a townhouse for $3,500 a month in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, and spent four months experimenting with a “bird’s-nest” arrangement, divorce lingo for a child-centric practice in which the children remain in one home and the parents rotate in and out of the space. Ms. Averill and her then-spouse took turns living in a $2,000-a-month studio in the East Village.
“It was tricky,” she said. “You have to always think — do you have the clothes you need, do you have the stuff you need? You’re in your own home, but it feels temporary.”
After realizing the nesting idea wasn’t for them, the couple gave the marriage another go, moving together to a three-bedroom duplex in a Fort Greene brownstone. But Ms. Averill soon realized she wanted to be on her own and found a two-bedroom for $3,900 a month at One Hanson Place, the former Williamsburgh Savings Bank, also in Fort Greene. The children’s father stayed put; his rent is $3,500 a month.
“I kind of made it an adventure moving into this apartment,” she said. “I told the kids, ‘It’s a high-rise. You’re going to have the experience of living in a brownstone and living in a high-rise!’ ”
Both homes are only about a 15-minute walk from the children’s school.
Ms. Averill is comforted by being able to see her ex-husband’s house just by looking out her living room window.“I can see the kids’ bedrooms,” she said. “I had this idea we would learn Morse code. We never figured it out.”
A few years ago, when Terrence Harding and Sara Momii Roberts decided to end their marriage, they knew they wanted to stay within walking distance of each other. Their son, Sebastian, was then 2. Ms. Roberts, 37, a teacher, left the two-bedroom in Park Slope, Brooklyn, that Mr. Harding still rents, now at $2,700 a month, and moved just a few blocks away to a $1,600-a-month studio.
“Cost was not a factor,” Ms. Roberts said. “It was all about proximity. I went way over my budget to be there. I tutored a lot to afford that apartment. It was also close to one of my best friends, and I needed that support as well.”
Ms. Roberts and Mr. Harding, 43, a salesman for the Corcoran Group and a former member of the rap group Junior M.A.F.I.A., came up with a strategy that kept them — and their son, who is now 8 — connected to their neighborhood.
“It was important for me to stay close to Terrence, for Sebastian’s sake,” Ms. Roberts said. “I wanted him to have the same neighborhood, the same commute to preschool, enjoy the same playgrounds that we frequented, be able to see his neighborhood friends, have the same subway stop. It benefited Seb not to go too long between seeing either one of us. Since I didn’t have a car, living close to Terrence was a necessity, given our parenting schedule.”