From the NY Times:This is life in what some refer to as the McKibbin “dorms,” a landing pad for hundreds of postcollegiate creative types yearning to make it as artists, and live like them too, in today’s New York.
Newcomers marvel that such a place exists: two sprawling, almost identical five-story former factories filled with mostly white hip young things, smack in the middle of a neighborhood that has little in common with Williamsburg proper, its cocktail-mixing neighbor to the west.
Perhaps 300 people live in each building, which face each other and sit, respectively, at 248 and 255 McKibbin Street. Between one and eight people live in each loft. Few were born before the mid-1980s. Rents can range from $375 for one person to roughly $800 for a space. Perhaps not surprisingly, there have been citations for more than a few housing violations at one of the buildings.
After the honeymoon stage comes denial when, say, one gets woken up by someone’s band at 3 a.m. or mugged on one of the tough surrounding streets. Next comes anger, usually after someone hurls a 40-ounce beer bottle from the roof and then urinates outside your door. Then comes acceptance and, finally, departure.
Warrenlike as the loft spaces may be, they are, for the most part, legal. No. 248 is zoned for residential use. No. 255’s owners were given a permit to convert the space into artist lofts, though according to the Buildings Department, the required work was never done. Repeated violations have been issued. One came after a vacant second-floor apartment in 255 exploded three years ago, possibly because wood sealant combusted.
They are also a hotbed for crime...
16 comments:
It looks more like incarceration!
Where's the prison warden?
Everybody wants to be an accomplished "artiste" in NYC these days.
Better to remain in Des Moines.
Hey at least we know where all the "Artist" are ! Match anyone?
To each their own. live and let live.
Hipster morons!
Not only that, i STRONGLY suspect they are dozens of thousands of dollars deeply into debt over worthless degrees. It's actually much harder to be a accomplished "artist" with a degree. It's pathetic actually if you REALLY need a degree to be an Artist.
I hope they all get stabbed in the throat.
“The community is a microcosm of artists, musicians and D.J.’s,” said Kevin Farrell, who is 29 and works in video production. “You don’t have to leave this building, with the exception of food. I don’t really speak to the locals.”
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And that right there is why they are hated so much. Why would you move somewhere and then not want to deal with the environment you moved to?
I mean, i know that anyplace is better than Ohio, but still.
The late, great Doc Pomus was born and raised on McKibbin Street.
And his musical prowess will be long remembered after all the faux-hemians are gone.
It's official - white people bring trouble wherever they go.
I suppose some folks would do just about anything to live in NYC. Long live Queens Crapper! Long live Israel! Death to the treasonous Palestinians!
How interesting that all fines on multiple violations, some even hazardous, were "adjusted" to $0.
before the legal C of O was issued.
How even more interesting simply by changing the corporate ownership name, although same individual owners, they can avoid hefty fines.
Oh owned by hasidics jewish fellow, never mind.
At least in Paris the "artistes" of old...traditionally lived in garrets along the "rive gauche" (left bank).
Very picturesque...just a brief walk to sites like Notre Dame, the Sacre Cour, The Louvre, etc. !
Here they live in squalor on the east bank of the polluted East River in the wake of asthma alley in cages.
The "art" they create better be worth it!
this is a racist article. what if black residents were called black young things?
because it's white people no one makes a ruckus. as long as it's only whites who are being trashed.
white people need apartments and places to live too. not just illegal immigrants.
All "Artists" are required to suffer in their youth (And into middle age in some cases) Living in a shithole like the McKibbin street factories adds to their qualifications, and looks good on their portfolio resume. Does anyone know artists who live in Flatbush or Middle Village? I'd wager not.
bedbug ground zero
It's too bad that this article is a top google result when it is filled with a lot of misinformation. As a former resident of 248, I can sympathize with the annoyance of young naive artists but I also know that some pretty smart and resourceful people have lived in the building, as well as some longtime tenants who have made it their home for a decade. Let's try not to throw out the baby with the bathwater. The isolated incidents of bedbugs are well in the past and the place has also cleaned up its at considerably, has an on-site super who is also super-nice and noisy attentive, and noisy parties are few and far between. Thanks for keeping the information on the Internet true to life and only speaking from first-hand experience! My understanding that 255 may still have many of the issues mentioned here but I don't know that for a fact.
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