Goodbye, All Our Apartments
A must-read: What the fuck is happening to Bushwick?
Says one real estate guy: "People in the neighborhood are ready to take their lives to the next level."
I'm so confused by that sentiment that all I can do is dribble green tea out of my mouth until my brain stops burning.
The crux of the problem is monetary, of course:
"It's happened so fast," says Roberto Marrero, a Legal Services attorney who has handled housing cases for the poor in Bushwick and Williamsburg for 10 years. "Rents were all around $600; that was what owners got. Then all of a sudden, in the last couple years, they doubled. Everywhere people looked, owners were asking $1,200—like that was the magic number all of a sudden." Even if the rent hike is well above the maximum set under state rent-stabilization guidelines, owners just take the chance that they won't get found out, Marrero says. "If no one challenges it for four years, it's legal."
Who's paying 1200 a month? Who? Where? ARGH.
The real travesty is that landlords don't listen to tenants, don't make repairs, and try to evict families if they think they can double rent. Read the article. It's astounding. (Thanks, Justin, for forwarding it.)
it's OK to pay that much if it's a two bedroom right?
right?
Well, I meant, "Who among us pays $1,200 (US) per person per month [to live in Bushwick]," realizing that apartments cost at least $600 (US) per person (or per room), and that other areas of the City have higher rent exactly because they are NOT Bushwick, home of riots, empty mills, arson, heroin, etc.
I realize now I should have been more clear, but the article had me all mind-blown, and I simply wanted to bring it to the attention of the class.
Good eye, though.
(Three to four of us, depending on GFinCs [girlfriends in the city], pay $1,850 [US] for a three-bedroom, so obviously that's a fuck-ton compared to people mentioned in the Voice who pay $600 [US] for two-bedrooms, though some of those are simply two ROOMS, which is a big difference and, sq.-footage-wise, could mean a much more cramped place than the Library.)
the grapes of caucasian co-option make bitter wine.
Ironically Caucasian co-option is always served with whine.
Ironically Caucasian co-option is always served with whine.
Ironically Caucasian co-option is always served with whine.