With 11-foot ceilings, exposed brick walls, piles of hardcover books and views of chimneys and water towers, Arnold Warwick’s apartment is a 1,200-square-foot monument to the Greenwich Village of our fantasies.

And at $331.76 a month, it might be one of the very best deals in New York City.

“I don’t plan on dying, because I don’t want to give up a rent-controlled apartment,” said Mr. Warwick, who is 80 and has lived in one of the apartments above the Cherry Lane Theater for half a century. “I pay so little I’m almost embarrassed.”

In New York, there is no shame in handing over thousands of dollars a month to live in somebody’s basement or crawl space. This unfortunate hiccup in the magic of the city makes the 16,000 remaining rent-controlled units in Manhattan mouthwatering in almost any context.

Cheaper apartments than the ones above the Cherry Lane do exist in the five boroughs, and a few of them even rent for less than three figures. But Mr. Warwick’s apartment, which has four small bedrooms built up around a wide-open living room, isn’t just cheap. It is also a fabulous apartment.