Sunday, September 14, 2008

Times gets laugh out of illegal loft conversion

Aw...the NY Times has one of those cutesy stories about Three Men and Their Baby, the baby being a shower that had not been installed. That's not all...

From the first day, the conversion of the loft was a job in itself, and much of the money they made during the day went toward supplies — paint, wood and innumerable tools — that would turn the loft into a nice, livable space.

Lacking beds, they slept on the floor, and on cold nights they lay near the windows in expectation of eventual sunlight. There was no kitchen, and after a while the women at the local Polish deli started giving the young men funny looks when they came in twice a day and asked if the women would please put their borscht in the microwave.


Not once in this story does the Times question why this "living space" came without any of these things. Nor did they mention the fact that converting an industrial space into a residence without permits is dangerous and illegal. The thinking is something like: As long as you can publish a funny hipster fixer-upper story, who cares if they die sometime later? It will be just be more news to cover!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

how cutsie because the hipsters are not agitating in rent controlled/rent stabilized apartment buildings. The intellectuals are not bonding with the unwashed worker tenants and educating them about their rights. And why should they? They're just not in the same class as the illiterate lower class renters.

These hipsters will have no time to go to court for things like heat or hot water as long as their little studio is designer and color coordinated. confrontation is so uncool and not serene anyhow.

They are the advance troops of yuppification/gentrification, next to come are film festivals, yoga classes, doggie day care and a Starbucks near to every new bank. How many banks do we really need or will they all go belly up too?

Organizing , getting what you pay for, consumer education are all so passe, so old school. Pass the mocha latte I'm late for my Landmark seminar. So what if there's no gas to cook on? I've decide to become a raw foodist.

The Times gets a laugh because it does not report on the housing Hurricane so many New Yorkers are being devastated by. Dealing with a slumlord and being made homeless is not a joke.