Saturday, October 10, 2015

Live like the servant you always dreamed to be

From Wall Street Journal:

Fifty-seven new residences under construction in Long Island City, Queens, are small apartments being billed as micro units, but with a twist.

While the city’s only other prominent project advertising its apartments as “micro” will offer only studios, the Queens units will have two or three bedrooms.

“Our concept is we can offer really high-quality public amenity space, and better value with smaller private spaces, and bring the rental cost down,” said Sheldon Stein, managing principal of Ranger Properties, developer of the project at 37-10 Crescent St.

The building’s two-bedroom units will be about 490 square feet, and the three-bedrooms 735 square feet. Most of the bedrooms will be 10 feet by 12 feet and may have built-in desks and Murphy beds, which fold into the wall, said Chris Fogarty, a partner at Fogarty Finger and the project’s architect.

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

3rd worlders will think they are spacious.

time to stop immigration both legal and illegal.

Anonymous said...

Behold the slums of tomorrow!

Anonymous said...

They have got to be kidding with this crap!

(sarc) said...

Why does the building department fine owners when they subdivide their apartments?

I guess that was before we knew about all the Syrian invaders coming...

JQ said...

Even SRO's are more spacious than this, and more dignified. Really now, murphy beds and murphy desks in the 21st century? It's easy to see that the saps that will tolerate these conditions are those who work in tech jobs and interns for the fashion and entertainment. It's like bringing the workplace cubicle home.

I knew some creeps were going to get some warped ideas for the neo-residents of Queens when I saw this.

http://inhabitat.com/nyc/photos-couple-moves-into-stacked-shipping-container-home-in-williamsburg-brooklyn/wburg-shipping-containerlea/

georgetheatheist said...

Where does one store the bicycle? (The bathtub?)

Anonymous said...

Where are the windows? I thought bedrooms had to have a window.

JQ said...

Where are the windows, Chris Fogarty, partner at Fogarty Finger (that's an unsettling name for a firm, it's like if the guy who sang Proud Mary was a sex offender)? I bet he has a nice home with the necessary amenities, coinicidentally windows and standing individual beds and furniture that we all take for granted.

If the D.O.B. was run like a true enforcement apparatus maybe they would have put the kibosh on this contract.

Where does one store a bike? No need to if you're some stupid fucking asshole commuting by skateboard or one of these stupid things I've been seeing lately on the streets and the bridge paths>>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G4yiO1Cmv4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg5O9Skjne8

We as a society are in big trouble if consumers like these are pricing common sense people out of the 5 boroughs.



Anonymous said...

hey george
have u met the hipsters - no bathtub required

Anonymous said...

I bet that in Scandinavia it's illegal to house criminals in cells larger than these.

Anonymous said...

This is the start of the conditioning of people to accept less-than-human living conditions, the better to train minds to accept the absurd levels of overcrowding, mostly by illegal trash, brought on by greedy developers and their political partners in crime.

Anonymous said...

If people want to live there, who cares what you think?

Anonymous said...

"If people want to live there, who cares what you think?"
(Surely written by a developer's minion.)

Acceptance of low standards like this lowers the standards for everyone.

I don't think anyone here is saying that all people are entitled to live like kings but, I DO think most people here would agree that a piece promoting these new rabbit holes as something positive and forward thinking is, at best, disingenuous.

This "cram 'em in" mentality is what reformers fought so hard against over 100 years ago because it resulted in unsafe living conditions, disease and crime.

This is where these "micro" units will lead. Anyone espousing the virtues of them is most certainly on the secret payroll of a developer.

Having briefly worked in the offices of one a few years ago, I observed that developers hate:

all civic/neighborhood groups (especially in the Lower East Side)
strong neighborhood community leaders (especially in the Lower East Side)
stable communities (they like ones that are transient)
government agencies with clout (that is, if they actually existed these days)
regulations of any kind (including ones forbidding the sale of tobacco to children)
public transit - the fact that it even exists (though Uber gets them wet)

So whenever you see somebody writing all giddy about crap like micro units, see the above. It was probably somebody who shares these sentiments.

Anonymous said...

Nice, if you want to live in a miniature doll house.
Maybe we need to reduce the size of humans to fit into micro housing.
What micro brain ever thought that this kind of living in a bee hive cell was mentally healthy?
These are twenty first century tight pack slave quarters.

JQ said...

So these are the ideas to install affordable housing for the meager 20 to 25 percent. It's clear they want people to suffer and suffocate if they want to live in the same tower with the treasured hipster demographic. These pads seem influenced by carpel tunnel syndrome from playing minecraft for 48 hours in depends.

What floor will these units be on? 7 1/2 maybe...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2Y7oo3iB40

Anonymous said...

Anon 13

Spot on with your comments. In Queens if someone does not follow the script the electeds betray the publc's trust by allocating public tax monies that take care of their needs - and the needs of their donors - not the community.

If you speak up in Queens - that is exercise your duty and right and indeed obligation to engage in civic activity your funding will be eliminated and they do everything possible to isolate you so that even if you speak out it will not be heard.

Bastards. But not to worry. Easy enough to punch through their paper bag and blogs like Crappy, that suddendly provide alternative info from their monopoly on info is a game changer indeed.

Anonymous said...

The problem here is that educational institutions that used to teach all those things on model communities and hard won advances in residential housing (from the Progressives, for example) themselves have been seduced into becoming developers - Colombia, NYC, Pratt.

The self styled citywide preservation organizations that give these places 'awards' in preservation only represent a tiny minority of very upscale communities where developers and academia from, say Pratt, live. So that scene is increasingly becoming inbred and out of touch, too.

We need to remind all those in the 'community preservation' mainstream that, for the most part, with few notable exceptions, they are not doing their jobs.

Community preservation efforts in NYC need a complete reset.

Anonymous said...

The pols live and breathe "diversity".

Except diversity of opinion.

JQ said...

The Final Solution...

http://www.adaptt.org/grfx/misc/ges-crates.jpg

Anonymous said...

They are for the servants/maids/babysitters for the people who live in the penthouses.

Joe Moretti said...

Isn't this the type of living quarters that was exposed awhile back in places like Chinatown. Now it is all of a sudden "chic".

Let's face this city sucks and is pretty much over for normal folks.

Anonymous said...

Maybe you didn't dream to be a servant but you are. Would you be better off homeless?

JQ said...

"Maybe you didn't dream to be a servant but you are. Would you be better off homeless?"

Fuck you and get cancer minion, or is this the actual architect?

These units should not be the alternative for living in a hotel room or a cluster shelter. It shouldn't even be a desirable place for the unargumentative frivolous spending saps of generation gentrification/entitlement(good one)



http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/12/the-health-risks-of-small-apartments/282150/

Anonymous said...

The hipster kids push for a million dollar dog run, but have no problem living in a $2500 a month dog house with 3 others.

As long as there is a craft beer place on the corner that features trivia night and loud music to 3 AM in the middle of a residential area where is the problem?

Anonymous said...

Are there any bathrooms? Kitchen facilities?

Anonymous said...

Noone has mentioned how much it costs to rent -- I read somewhere that "affordable" is starting at $2,500-$2,900 for these. Seriously? That's considered affordable?

Anonymous said...

Fuck you and get cancer? Jq, you truly are a piece of shit. All your talk of what 'should' be is fine for you, but you don't get to dictate how everyone lives.

JQ said...

" Jq, you truly are a piece of shit"


Who is really dictating here? So Anonymous you think people SHOULD live in what is the equivalent of a magician's lady separation trick box because that's all one or they can afford? And you think that the middle class and working poor or in your words servants looking for affordable housing SHOULD accept these deplorable conditions?

Cancer is too kind for you. May you get priced out of where you are and wind up in the pan american on queens blvd. Now find another blog to troll on.

Anonymous said...

I like the idea of micro units for places like Midtown Manhattan. It would be nice to have an affordable place to stay that's close to work, to cut down on commuting, but cheap enough that I could still have my apartment in Queens to keep my stuff and live in on the weekends.

But somehow I doubt these apartments will be anything close to affordable, unless they're built in great numbers. It would take a few hundred thousand of them to start making a dent in NYC's absurd housing prices.

Anonymous said...

JQ, you're dense as lead but see if you can follow: people should live where they want and can afford to. Your opinion means nothing to them.

And wishing cancer and disease on someone whose opinion differs from yours is simply vile - especially when their opinion amounts to 'freedom' but really anytime. Is that how you were raised? Are you that nasty in real life or just as a keyboard warrior? Don't answer here, answer these questions for yourself.

Anonymous said...

Uh oh, don't say you like these - they'll call you a developers shill and hope you get cancer!

JQ said...

Hey, I retracted my wish of cancer for that shill.

What's nasty is that the city is awarding developers for their piddling percentage of affordable housing and the ideas these vile people come up with are poor doors and micro-units, which are designed by architects who I am sure live in nice spacious condos and houses. This 421a ordinance as become as abused as the citizen's united decision.

And again if anyone thinks these are suitable abodes to live in, try living in one yourself.

Simplistic answers are pretty handy aren't they.

"Uh oh, don't say you like these - they'll call you a developers shill and hope you get cancer!"

How did a gothamist snark comment get here?

Anonymous said...

I didn't participate in the cancer tete a tete above. I wrote the following:

"Acceptance of low standards like this lowers the standards for everyone."

That applies not only to this micro unit concept but also to comments like wishing cancer on someone. Don't take the bait for stuff like this.

Stay on track.

Discuss the ISSUE.

The manipulators win when you don't.

JQ said...

got it

Anonymous said...

How about a portion of these micros to home some of the homeless living in shelters.
Seems like it might be cost effective in the long run.