Crafty hobos are turning the Manhattan Bridge into a veritable shantytown, complete with elaborate plywood shacks that are truly “must see to believe.”
One of the coffin-sized living spaces — which have been built into the bridge frame near the Manhattan entrance — is secured with a flimsy bike lock and bolted to a metal beam by its inhabitant.
The pods are built into the underside of the upper deck, below car traffic but above the subway and bike lanes.
To reach his makeshift studio, the bridge dweller — a stocky, neatly dressed Chinese man in his 40s — climbs a chain-link fence to a nook above the bike lane, witnesses said.
He unlocks the red bike lock with a key, slides a plank of wood back like a door and crawls in.
Several yards away, another vagrant spends his nights in a similarly rustic abode, sleeping on a roll-out mat and stashing belongings in a red tote bag.
His bathroom is a milk jug, his decor a scrap from a magazine.
The 10-by-1¹/₂-foot shacks are cramped, but the rent-free homes sure beat the cost of living legit in neighborhoods nearby — like Brooklyn’s trendy DUMBO, so named for its location “down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass.”
The owner mentioned in this article says the cops destroyed his first shanty, so he had no choice but to build here.
2 comments:
let's get these low-end developers to construct some cool pads under the viaducts on the belt and that bridge by Jamaica Bay.why aren't these resourceful scamps not being vetted by the EDC,eh Blaz?
these pads seem roomier and sturdier than these gentrification towers,and best of all,no glass.
"No speaky English." How did this hobo make it past airport customs?
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