Elizabeth Griffin

While most New York parents would sooner scrimp and save, move to far-flung locales, or squeeze into fewer bedrooms and less space than forgo a building without an elevator, psychologist Elizabeth Cohen has been raising her kids in a walk-up for almost a decade now. Below, she recounts the problems she's faced, as well as the unexpected upsides—​proving that it can be done, and how. My husband and I are raising two kids—a son, 9, and a daughter, 7— in a third- floor walk-up in Harlem and, while the stairs (there are about 30 of them) can be challenging at times, we wouldn’t have it any other way.