Open house for a 3 bedroom apt...that was really a big one-bedroom chopped up into tiny pods that could barely fit a twin bed. Sigh. The elevator opened up into the apt. You could tell this used to be a gem, but now it is an expensive dorm quad with a shared kitchen. One of the prospective renters quickly left. The rest of us humored the realtor for luring us with not-quite-accurate pictures. Oh well. I walked over to a pub for tacos. The guy who left early was sitting at the bar. He said the apt we just saw made him actively depressed. We started talking while eating.
He's a Turkish computer programmer paying $4k/month. He assured me that it was a nice apt. I laughed. It better be. Programmer said he has seen so many great apts chopped up and turned into joyless pods for maximum occupancy. But he assured me that NYC is not as bad as where he just moved from: San Francisco. He said he was paying the same price for a small room and would step outside onto syringes and bottle shards. Tourist stabbings would happen on his block. The programmer said that the homeless hated him. He was the gentrifier and he hated the area but he needed to live there for work. Neither side was thinking about the fact that they were getting screwed by greedy landlords. He was in this country eeking out a living writing code so he could have his bed in a postage-stamp sized apt while the homeless were the former tenants kicked to the curb. He said NYC was a lot nicer. Williamsburg had more trees and fewer stabbings than other places. I said maybe that should be listed in the amenities section next to exposed brick and central AC.
I gave him the listing of an apt I walked by earlier in the day. The price was too rich for me, but not for the non-stabbing apt budget of a programmer.
He's a Turkish computer programmer paying $4k/month. He assured me that it was a nice apt. I laughed. It better be. Programmer said he has seen so many great apts chopped up and turned into joyless pods for maximum occupancy. But he assured me that NYC is not as bad as where he just moved from: San Francisco. He said he was paying the same price for a small room and would step outside onto syringes and bottle shards. Tourist stabbings would happen on his block. The programmer said that the homeless hated him. He was the gentrifier and he hated the area but he needed to live there for work. Neither side was thinking about the fact that they were getting screwed by greedy landlords. He was in this country eeking out a living writing code so he could have his bed in a postage-stamp sized apt while the homeless were the former tenants kicked to the curb. He said NYC was a lot nicer. Williamsburg had more trees and fewer stabbings than other places. I said maybe that should be listed in the amenities section next to exposed brick and central AC.
I gave him the listing of an apt I walked by earlier in the day. The price was too rich for me, but not for the non-stabbing apt budget of a programmer.
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