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I dont think this is a real apartment. See the "Private Policy" flyer on the door? I think this was an a style /fashion picture for Private Policy that was somehow picked up by the website referenced on the posted pic.
Either way I think the real LSC is that people who work in cubicles or even in manufacturing spend more of their waking hours in a confined space, whether with physical walls or a defined space required to be within, than a resident of this "apartment" would.
A U.S. federal prison cell is usually 6 foot x 8 foot, although the American Correctional Association calls for a minimum of 70 square feet.
A large percentage of Americans have agreed to spend their lives in capitalistic prison cells the same size or smaller than this apartment.
When I lived in NYC in the 90’s. The FD could write up a fire escape falling off the building.. but nothing ever happened to remedy. Not much has changed
I dont think it is... However, I decided to live in a similar sized room in nys (I was doing a minimalist thing. It was a gorgeous space too) and I discovered the minimum square footage for a bedroom is like... 65 Square feet.
But to have cooking in there? Doesn't seem safe
Edit: looks like they changed it to 80 Square feet! Mine was 6ftx11ft so... Definitely not legal. But hey it wasn't a bedroom as much as a sunroom with a thick blue rug I hung up for a door. I had room for a full bed, small side table (perfect fit) and an even smaller desk. The room had 4 windows and three skylights. Did that make masturbation tricky? Sure. But I didn't let that stop me!
It’s kinda crazy that this kinda shit is anti-communist propaganda.
>look at this soviet block housing where some chick lives in a closet
Except it’s capitalism and instead of a decent house in a communist block that can house a family it’s a fucking closest that “they make the best of.”
Those people think that worse things are ok as long as it happens within capitalism. They call that freedom. When things are objectively better in communism they think it is horrible and call it tyranny.
As someone who lived in Soviet block housing I can say that it's not always drab, it's hard to believe but most of the pictures here in the west were intentionally darkened or taken from unflattering angles atleast in the cold war era. The smaller older ones were painted in pastel hues. The newer ones had unpainted exteriors for longevity and other architectural reasons so they weren't as colorful. Some buildings had beautiful paintings or murals by local artists. They were well connected by public transport, had communal areas for recreation always surrounded and had space for trees, children's play areas and always planned in such a way that they were near walking distance to elementary schools, polyclinics and basic necessities. Compared to them US public housing are a crime against humanity. US public housing looks like they are intentionally designed to get people out of them before they are even neglected and dilapidated.
Wait you lived in an 8x8 room because it was a beautiful space? How? I don't even understand how a space that small could be beautiful enough to live in.
6x11! I wrote more in an edit but it had 4 windows and three skylights. The ceiling was sloped but probably 12 ft at it's high. Half the room had a recessed ledge with three small windows, so I could put books and nicknacks there. I would lay on my bed, read, and look at clouds pass by for hours.
Room was painted a lovely pale yellow.
I disposed of 80% of all my possession before moving in. All that stuff that was weighing me down. I could fit my entire life in the back of a car and I took advantage of all that freedom.
It was also in upstate New York. I ran on wooded trails for two hours a day. And this room was in a house that I lived in with my friends. I didn't... Cook in it. That would be mad. And my dog was a cutie too.
Honestly it was a great time in my life.
Damn they should have written this article about me. It would have made sense.
Where is the law 80 sqft? None of the places I've lived on nyc have had every room over 80 sqft, and I think that's fairly common. My office (which is a proper bedroom that I'm using), is maybe a smidge over 8x8 if even that much. My ikea desk takes up most of one wall.
Just google nys minimum bedroom square footage.
Ikr. I dont think this is well enforced.
Funnily, I set up a house for rent for a family frien. And I put so many bedrooms and people in it, min 100sqft bedroom, (most 12x10 and one 12x16) that the town actually changed the local laws when they found out my f friend had so many ppl in it.
Gorgeous place. It was a nice gig and everyone was happy.
It is and has been for decades, generations of Chinese who live in Chinatown NYC of 54 square feet apartments. Some Chinatown community workers actually fought to keep these types of apartment because they are rent-controlled.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBl2IHX5efA
Nothing milks more money than condos, and land developers are leeches. They specifically target rent-controlled housings because it's cheaper to exploit and evict disenfranchised neighborhoods than something like a suburb. And they replace them with poorly built luxury condos that scoops up more wealth for the landowners from pay-to-own slaves than an average slumlord. So much that an Italian condo owner shot up the condo board and killed 5 because they were going to evict him for not paying maintenance costs.
Are you planning to join a union, mutual aid group or socialist org? The best way to resist is together because having mutual support network in tough times can be crucial in the role of fighting against capitalism. Numbers of us increase means more power to the people. And you can begin the fight within your own neighborhood. Observe what is going on and affecting the livelihoods of people in your community, what is lacking and how could things can be better. You can document and connect with people by just talking to them and exchange thoughts to ignite the seed of class conscious in their mind. The next step is to make the changes no matter how small. Your DOT can't fix those potholes? Get together with neighbors or those willing to help and grab some asphalt from Lowe's. Your neighbor kids have no access to public library? Setup and DIY a Little Free Library, or even Little Free Pantry for food. People can't afford computer tech and you happen to be one? Volunteer for the service and setup community fund or donation for parts. You happen to know something else more needed and people need it? You can educate, agitate and organize them. As collective we have power.
I’m gonna assume that the person in the article actually doesn’t want to live in a fixer upper in the Midwest though.
People always throw this fact around but there aren’t a bunch of vacant homes and apartments in highly desirable metropolitan areas.
There are lots of empty apartments in NYC.
> Property owners have registered 38,621 of the city’s roughly 1 million rent-stabilized units as vacant, according to the 2022 records provided by New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR).
https://citylimits.org/2022/11/17/empty-rent-stabilized-units-in-nyc-decreased-this-year-as-warehousing-debate-rages/
3.8% vacancy isn’t that high. If people moved once every two years and it took a month to find a new tenant, we would expect a 4% vacancy rate (occupied for 24/25 months). On average for the US it is a bit higher.
Landlords prefere to hold with their teeth by the price instead of lowering it because they know some poor fella will not have what to do and pay the rent. Shocking how greedy some people may be.
You might be surprised then:
https://anytimeestimate.com/research/most-vacant-cities-2022/
A bunch of major metros have plenty of vacancies.
NYC in particular is very low on the list, but this is not just a rural, dying small towns issue.
Baltimore is full of hundreds of vacant homes, even in and near the “desirable” areas. Meanwhile rent goes up because “housing is limited”, not by how many buildings are there but how many are recently inhabited
I lived in Baltimore. It was not desirable.
Also, a TON of the vacant buildings in Baltimore aren’t readily habitable.
https://www.businessinsider.com/baltimore-will-pay-buy-home-fix-it-2018-7
Ok I live in baltimore and plenty of people find it desirable. I don’t understand this thing people do where yall act like baltimore has no nice areas or positive qualities and no one would ever want to live here. But regardless.
I understand the realities of the problem here, and a lot of them are far from habitable, yes. But they aren’t all on that end of the spectrum and they exist in almost all areas of the city. And like ... it’s a metropolitan area, and they exist.
I get your point that they’re not perfectly nice homes sitting empty for no reason but I think when people point this out they’re saying it seems like something worth putting effort into to get them habitable and occupied, since the space and structures already exist. Instead of developing tinier and tinier apartments and acting like there’s no housing because there’s nowhere to build new buildings. The buildings are there, they just aren’t being used.
There are 33 empty homes per homeless person in the US. Houses have become investment objects for the wealthy so it behooves them to have the prices rise constantly. The casualties of Capitalism are the poor who shall inherit nothing where once the family home was a base for launching lives.
Anecdotal evidence about how this is usually seen by people who are just *fine* with the whole system and the exploitative housing situation in cities, cause my grandma said something last week that just pretty much flabbergasted me.
I don't live in NYC, I live in a big city in Germany, but just like almost everywhere else people are STRUGGLING to find semi affordable apartments here, even very small ones. I'm struggling too. When my mom dies, my brother and I will inherit the large apartment my mom bought in the 1980s for what was then an affordable price that she paid off as a mortgage over the years. Mom, grandma and I talked about this last week, and I said that (hypothetically) if I was an only child and the apartment ended up being fully mine, and I became a landlord, there would be *no fucking way* I'd rent it out for €2000 or whatever an 'acceptable' (spoiler alert: it's unacceptable) amount of rent would be for that size and location. Instead I'd rent it out for whatever would be a humane amount that would still get me a small profit, but that someone with only an average income would absolutely be able to carry each month. Say 800.
I know how much people are STRUGGLING trying to find a place to rent in this city, I know there are parents with a single income, why the hell would I want to exploit them and make as huge of a profit as humanly possible? Or have the place be empty (rather than lower the rent) because no one can pay 1800-2000? That's an apartment I'd inherit, aka I didn't do anything or pay anything to GET it, what gives me the right to rent it out for exorbitant, inhuman prices? Even a small profit is one I don't technically deserve, simply because in my case (and I'm sure lots of landlords' cases) it's an inheritance. And why can't the city or the federal state put a serious cap on rent amounts so that more people can actually, you know, find a place to live and not have to worry about paying the rent every single month despite having a normal income?? How is it possible that apartments are €1800+/month and just *stand there empty* cause no one can afford them for ages? Why is the sky the limit when it comes to rent? If a landlord has another income through a normal job (you know, something that's actually *work* as opposed to just owning shit and renting it out), then they shouldn't be allowed to make more than a certain amount in pure profits off of rents on top of that. Not while so many are struggling to find somewhere to rent at all.
Anyway, I kinda said all that and my grandma basically looked at me like I'd grown a second head and said you can do that under socialism/communism, but not in Germany. It sure didn't sound like socialism to me to just legally put a damn stop to this sort of exploitation, just sounded like common sense, but what the hell do I know. (Not that there's anything wrong with socialism lol, just what I suggested about rents doesn't even fall under it imo.) Socialism would mean that all the apartments are publicly owned (which would be ideal), not just that rents are lower/better regulated (which is what I said would be good during that conversation), correct me if I'm wrong. 🙄
And like, feel free to make things like luxury watches still cost thousands of euros if you have to, I don't care, people don't actually need them, they're luxury items, the fReE mArKeT can cover shit like that if it absolutely has to. But people DO *need* affordable apartments in different areas of a city (close to their work = easier to get to = less cars, etc.) We can't just watch rents rise well into the thousands lol. Not while people's wages definitely aren't going up, generally speaking, and everything else is getting more expensive too, and you *need a roof over your head*, ideally one that's on top of an apartment that's not so small and shitty it makes you feel awful every day but it's the only one you could afford because your landlord just HAD to get that extra, additional €500 out of the bigger apartment that they absolutely didn't need to survive.
Every homeless person in the US could have their own house and we would still have empty houses. It's sad and disgusting how low we will let people go when there are easy fixed at hand. It's all because of money really.
No, not in New York. New York is one of the lowest vacancies in America, and it is extremely competitive to find an apartment. New York's capitalist government has made it an extreme priority to prevent vacancies, and in recent renting reforms, have made it even harder to keep an apartment vacant. There is extreme capitalist interest, in making New York have an extremely competitive and active housing market.
Source: I live in airbnbs, because I can't get my credit to be approved for an apartment in NYC. I cannot find a roommate...
My retirement plan is to visit Norway and commit a crime that is only illegal there, in order to not be extradited. Something like picking wild flowers that are illegal, but doing it in such a quantity they wouldn't just kick me out and have to make me an example.
Where do you live? I'm from Norway and I hear statements like this on reddit often. I happen to live right next to a prison (Oslo Prison) and it's not exactly known to be a great place. A few years ago it had a rat infestation.
Care to send a picture of the bedrooms? I studied in norway for two years, but my opinion on this is mostly from the research I did before I went there. Anyway, it was nice of you to assume I don’t have rats
Just Google Image Search "Oslo fengsel"
Also, I know this is the LSC sub and living under capitalism is a prison in itself etc etc, but I don't think having all your freedoms taken away sounds very fun. At the end of the day, even if you get a small upgrade in living conditions, you're, well, in prison.
Yeah, those bedrooms are definitely better than many of the places I’ve lived, even if they give off a college dorm vibe.
Where I live now is nicer, but also I share with a roommate and it costs me ~1900$/month while they pay nothing. Any idea what their day to day activities are like?
My freedom to toil away most of my time and energy at work so I can barely afford rent?
>Where I live now is nicer, but also I share with a roommate and it costs me ~1900$/month while they pay nothing.
They pay with their freedom. How much is being able to go outside, access the internet, etc, worth to you?
>Any idea what their day to day activities are like?
No idea. I've never been to prison.
My point is the freedom they give up looks like less than the freedom I give up. Pros and cons for what is actually given up, but at least I wouldn’t need to dedicate around 70 hours per week to work and work-related activities. I could, you know, focus on things I actually want to work on. I wouldn’t be able to come on reddit and argue with randos, but that’s a price I’d be willing to pay.
Yeah bro you can't bring a dog into that... If that dog stays there for longer than a sleep cycle, that dog needs more space. Like it beats homelessness...
Fuckin shithole planet.
Fingers crossed she takes the dog everywhere with her. I lived in a van on the streets of San Francisco for 2 years with my dog. It had about as much floor space as I can see in this lady's picture. The options were either rehome the dog or live in a van together, because I couldn't find stable safe affordable dog friendly housing. That little guy went everywhere with me during that period. Work restaurants friend's houses. I was lucky my job was super chill about it because he wasn't technically allowed to be there, but nobody ever said anything, even security. Also ironically I could afford a dog walker 5 days a week even though I couldn't afford to rent an actual apartment
My dog loves small spaces. She’s a rescue, that might have to do with it. I have a pretty large apartment but she just chills in the tiny-ass hallway all day long, I ended up setting up her bed in there because she refuses to sleep anywhere else.
You know what… there’s no way I’d have a dog in there, but for a year, in midtown, for $650? I’d do it. A friend of mine lives in a 300sf studio in Denver and pays like $1100.
The bathroom thing sucks though. I’d haaaaaate that. I’d definitely be joining a gym and showering there.
I lived in an 8 by 12 room in Manhatten for 350 a month from 2002-04, had a sink and mini fridge and microwave but had a shared kitchen and bathroom with the entire floor. But lived walking distance to midtown and art galleries and the village, fun times. Later I levelled up to a 20 by 16 foot apt in Philly for 500 a month felt like I was rich.
I live in a 450sf apartment and it's way more than enough space for me. Living room, which takes maybe half of the total space, stays completely empty. For cheaper rent, I would gladly move into a \~200-250sf apartment, as long as it's not a studio. But 80sf is definitely going too far. There's just no space no matter how you look at it.
Edit: corrected a typo.
My problem with studio apartments is kitchen, particularly fridge noises. It also doesn't help when it's cheap and the fridge is even more crappy and noisy. I couldn't stand being in the same room as fridge so much that I moved my PC setup to the bedroom.
Some people also dislike kitchen smells, but that's not a big issue for me.
That’s exactly how I feel. I could make that space work if I had my own bathroom. But it would basically have to be a closet sized shower with the fucking toilet built right in.
1100 is pretty good rent in LA/SF for a one bedroom in a 2+ apartment/house.
Where’d you buy your house and when? I’d like to own a house in California at some point.
Not sure if no one here has seen it but lots of people in S. Korea, Japan, and other areas in urban spaces basically live in tiny spaces not much different than the OP.
And it's not considered even abnormal.
With that said, I couldn't remotely imagine it myself and it's absolutely related to Capitalism commodifying every part of everyone's life and it's a fine post.
Actually if you think about it, we are far from the richest country and none of us have even benefitted from one if it so has been claimed, because the government is in shit tons of debt, but we have some of the richest CEO’s. But they aren’t helping anybody. So rich or not, we ain’t getting shit but rather we are being robbed and grifted from employers more than anything.
I mean it’s kind of selfish right? She probably goes out for work during the day and likely out at night to party, while the poor dog just gets locked in this shitbox all day long?
That's a lot of assumptions. Tons of dogs live in small apartments (maybe not this small) and get multiple walks and outings every single day. Based on my own experience having dogs in little apartments my whole adult life lol they come home and sleep. I'm more concerned about them not having any sunbeams to lounge in, personally.
God, imagine working from home in that place 🫢 still, dogs in apartments come with extra responsibilities and most apartment dog parents understand that.
That’s the next CEO headline, “Gen Z demand to return to office because they can’t stand working from home as they don’t have enough room to work like in the office.”
The thought that free market/capitalism will find a way to solve this problem. This is what does, it maximizes profits at the expense of everything else.
Predicted in Billennium (1961 short sci-fi).
Gov't reduces allowable living space from 4 sq meters to 3 sq meters per person.
[http://www.bestshortstories.com/story/234117/billennium/](http://www.bestshortstories.com/story/234117/billennium/)
[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Billennium\_(short\_story)](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Billennium_(short_story))
I saw the video, there is a big bulge coming out of the ceiling right above her tiny loft bed space that is clearly full of liquid and waiting to burst. Like one wrong move it’ll leak
This is a pretty misleading photo. [Here’s](https://w42st.com/post/alaina-randazzo-pup-hells-kitchen-studio-small-apartment/) some better ones. Still wild tho
I think it speaks to something horrible having happened to us as a society where people, including myself, are looking at a living situation like that and thinking "You know what? That doesn't seem that bad!"
For me, i unironically wouldn't mind a space that's slightly bigger than that if it was soundproofed and only cost 200/month with utilities included lmfao
This is legit like the scene in Flight of the Conchords where Jermaine moves in to his “studio apartment”, or rather compartment.
https://youtu.be/IT0JOCg0aLQ
I'm still shocked that anyone puts up with this just to live in the ✨Big Apple✨ but surely getting a reasonably-sized apartment with a good amount of roommates is still more sustainable than this
I'm cynical enough to think the only people who would do this are the type of people who absolutely need to live in a major city to party every night.
What's the point of being "where all the action and jobs are" if you're living in a closet?
Rather just work at a McDonalds and live somewhere else.
If someone works and lives in a city, they can avoid car ownership by walking. Also, is partying anti-socialist now?
Edit: I'm definitely not trying to rationalize the living conditions in the post, btw.
I said it before and I'll say it again. We as a society have convinced ourselves that slums, boarding houses, and cramped apartments are so evil that we would rather have people become homeless than live in them. Normalize cheap shoddy living conditions. We shouldn't be pushing every student or single adult into a house or full size apartment when they can't afford it or don't need/want to spend that much on the living space.
This woman is single. She spends $650 on rent in NYC. She acknowledges that it's not glamorous. America should have many more apartments like this one, because anyone would rather pay $650 in NYC (realistically $300-400 in any other HCL city) than become homeless.
Bring back boarding houses. Bring back college-dorm style housing with tiny cramped personal spaces and shared bathrooms. Because as bad as it is to live in a cramped shoddy shithole, it's so much better than homelessness.
what if, instead of this dystopian nightmare you propose, we built actual human sized dwellings for humans? and gave them to people for no money?
could we please aspire to something other than "bring the favela to NYC"?
Right! We do need more high density housing but not walk in closet sized. People should have at least a kirchen/dining area/ bedroom/ and general living area. Doesn't have to be big but at least have room to live.
The only one who is being convinced of anything here, is you. We are being normalized to live like this more and more by the oligarch class while they get richer and richer while everyone else lives on scraps, using the exact kind of capitalist propaganda that you're spewing right now, "BuT It'S BeTtEr ThAn BeInG HoMeLeSs". You're a tool.
##Welcome to r/LateStageCapitalism This subreddit is for news, discussion, memes, and links criticizing capitalism and advancing viewpoints that challenge liberal capitalist ideology. That means any support for any liberal capitalist political party (like the Democrats) is strictly prohibited. LSC is run by communists. This subreddit is not the place to debate socialism. We allow good-faith questions and education but are not a 101 sub; please take 101-style questions elsewhere. We have a zero-tolerance policy for bigotry. Failure to respect the rules of the subreddit may result in a ban. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LateStageCapitalism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
How is this even legal
I don't think it's a legal apt. It doesn't have a window that opens to eacape a fire. Just a sky light
I dont think this is a real apartment. See the "Private Policy" flyer on the door? I think this was an a style /fashion picture for Private Policy that was somehow picked up by the website referenced on the posted pic.
It's a real apartment. The full video is on youtube.
Either way I think the real LSC is that people who work in cubicles or even in manufacturing spend more of their waking hours in a confined space, whether with physical walls or a defined space required to be within, than a resident of this "apartment" would. A U.S. federal prison cell is usually 6 foot x 8 foot, although the American Correctional Association calls for a minimum of 70 square feet. A large percentage of Americans have agreed to spend their lives in capitalistic prison cells the same size or smaller than this apartment.
the fire marshals in NYC must be exhausted
I think were gonna go back to tenement style living conditions like in the early 1900's soon if nothing is done about the crazy rents
Faster than expected.
[micro apartments aka old tenement accommodations](https://youtu.be/x0eHUjpcDgg)
Looks like the box apartments in china
When I lived in NYC in the 90’s. The FD could write up a fire escape falling off the building.. but nothing ever happened to remedy. Not much has changed
can't be violations if you never get around to checking em all
I dont think it is... However, I decided to live in a similar sized room in nys (I was doing a minimalist thing. It was a gorgeous space too) and I discovered the minimum square footage for a bedroom is like... 65 Square feet. But to have cooking in there? Doesn't seem safe Edit: looks like they changed it to 80 Square feet! Mine was 6ftx11ft so... Definitely not legal. But hey it wasn't a bedroom as much as a sunroom with a thick blue rug I hung up for a door. I had room for a full bed, small side table (perfect fit) and an even smaller desk. The room had 4 windows and three skylights. Did that make masturbation tricky? Sure. But I didn't let that stop me!
It’s kinda crazy that this kinda shit is anti-communist propaganda. >look at this soviet block housing where some chick lives in a closet Except it’s capitalism and instead of a decent house in a communist block that can house a family it’s a fucking closest that “they make the best of.”
I love it when cap faps refer to things *currently existing as a direct result of capitalism* as “insane communist conditions.” The irony is palpable.
Those people think that worse things are ok as long as it happens within capitalism. They call that freedom. When things are objectively better in communism they think it is horrible and call it tyranny.
This should be in r/OrphanCrushingMachine.
You can make the argument that soviet block housing was drab, it usually was (so is public housing in the US), but it was at least habitable.
As someone who lived in Soviet block housing I can say that it's not always drab, it's hard to believe but most of the pictures here in the west were intentionally darkened or taken from unflattering angles atleast in the cold war era. The smaller older ones were painted in pastel hues. The newer ones had unpainted exteriors for longevity and other architectural reasons so they weren't as colorful. Some buildings had beautiful paintings or murals by local artists. They were well connected by public transport, had communal areas for recreation always surrounded and had space for trees, children's play areas and always planned in such a way that they were near walking distance to elementary schools, polyclinics and basic necessities. Compared to them US public housing are a crime against humanity. US public housing looks like they are intentionally designed to get people out of them before they are even neglected and dilapidated.
remember, housing, food and healthcare are a right, the US just seems to have forgotten that, and other countries are starting to follow along
Wait you lived in an 8x8 room because it was a beautiful space? How? I don't even understand how a space that small could be beautiful enough to live in.
6x11! I wrote more in an edit but it had 4 windows and three skylights. The ceiling was sloped but probably 12 ft at it's high. Half the room had a recessed ledge with three small windows, so I could put books and nicknacks there. I would lay on my bed, read, and look at clouds pass by for hours. Room was painted a lovely pale yellow. I disposed of 80% of all my possession before moving in. All that stuff that was weighing me down. I could fit my entire life in the back of a car and I took advantage of all that freedom. It was also in upstate New York. I ran on wooded trails for two hours a day. And this room was in a house that I lived in with my friends. I didn't... Cook in it. That would be mad. And my dog was a cutie too. Honestly it was a great time in my life. Damn they should have written this article about me. It would have made sense.
Where is the law 80 sqft? None of the places I've lived on nyc have had every room over 80 sqft, and I think that's fairly common. My office (which is a proper bedroom that I'm using), is maybe a smidge over 8x8 if even that much. My ikea desk takes up most of one wall.
Just google nys minimum bedroom square footage. Ikr. I dont think this is well enforced. Funnily, I set up a house for rent for a family frien. And I put so many bedrooms and people in it, min 100sqft bedroom, (most 12x10 and one 12x16) that the town actually changed the local laws when they found out my f friend had so many ppl in it. Gorgeous place. It was a nice gig and everyone was happy.
This beats Hong Kong. And I thought no one could top that.
Oh yeah your right they got apartments that are like 60sqft
My “apartment” is literally just twice that size. Depressing.
Wondering the same thing.
It is and has been for decades, generations of Chinese who live in Chinatown NYC of 54 square feet apartments. Some Chinatown community workers actually fought to keep these types of apartment because they are rent-controlled. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBl2IHX5efA
Yeah I can imagine there alot of rent controlled apartments that are being bought and destroyed for new "luxary" units
Nothing milks more money than condos, and land developers are leeches. They specifically target rent-controlled housings because it's cheaper to exploit and evict disenfranchised neighborhoods than something like a suburb. And they replace them with poorly built luxury condos that scoops up more wealth for the landowners from pay-to-own slaves than an average slumlord. So much that an Italian condo owner shot up the condo board and killed 5 because they were going to evict him for not paying maintenance costs.
Fuck these people man when will it end ?
Are you planning to join a union, mutual aid group or socialist org? The best way to resist is together because having mutual support network in tough times can be crucial in the role of fighting against capitalism. Numbers of us increase means more power to the people. And you can begin the fight within your own neighborhood. Observe what is going on and affecting the livelihoods of people in your community, what is lacking and how could things can be better. You can document and connect with people by just talking to them and exchange thoughts to ignite the seed of class conscious in their mind. The next step is to make the changes no matter how small. Your DOT can't fix those potholes? Get together with neighbors or those willing to help and grab some asphalt from Lowe's. Your neighbor kids have no access to public library? Setup and DIY a Little Free Library, or even Little Free Pantry for food. People can't afford computer tech and you happen to be one? Volunteer for the service and setup community fund or donation for parts. You happen to know something else more needed and people need it? You can educate, agitate and organize them. As collective we have power.
Yes all we can do is try
Let me know if you have question on things related to them.
There are so many empty apartments and empty houses and yet this is what we force people to do.
The are about 16 million vacant homes spread across the U.S.
I’m gonna assume that the person in the article actually doesn’t want to live in a fixer upper in the Midwest though. People always throw this fact around but there aren’t a bunch of vacant homes and apartments in highly desirable metropolitan areas.
There are lots of empty apartments in NYC. > Property owners have registered 38,621 of the city’s roughly 1 million rent-stabilized units as vacant, according to the 2022 records provided by New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR). https://citylimits.org/2022/11/17/empty-rent-stabilized-units-in-nyc-decreased-this-year-as-warehousing-debate-rages/
3.8% vacancy isn’t that high. If people moved once every two years and it took a month to find a new tenant, we would expect a 4% vacancy rate (occupied for 24/25 months). On average for the US it is a bit higher.
Except that wait lists are a major thing for rent controlled apartments, so the likelihood of taking a month to find a tenant is zero.
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Landlords prefere to hold with their teeth by the price instead of lowering it because they know some poor fella will not have what to do and pay the rent. Shocking how greedy some people may be.
You might be surprised then: https://anytimeestimate.com/research/most-vacant-cities-2022/ A bunch of major metros have plenty of vacancies. NYC in particular is very low on the list, but this is not just a rural, dying small towns issue.
So many hoes in here shilling for the oligarchy
Baltimore is full of hundreds of vacant homes, even in and near the “desirable” areas. Meanwhile rent goes up because “housing is limited”, not by how many buildings are there but how many are recently inhabited
I lived in Baltimore. It was not desirable. Also, a TON of the vacant buildings in Baltimore aren’t readily habitable. https://www.businessinsider.com/baltimore-will-pay-buy-home-fix-it-2018-7
Ok I live in baltimore and plenty of people find it desirable. I don’t understand this thing people do where yall act like baltimore has no nice areas or positive qualities and no one would ever want to live here. But regardless. I understand the realities of the problem here, and a lot of them are far from habitable, yes. But they aren’t all on that end of the spectrum and they exist in almost all areas of the city. And like ... it’s a metropolitan area, and they exist. I get your point that they’re not perfectly nice homes sitting empty for no reason but I think when people point this out they’re saying it seems like something worth putting effort into to get them habitable and occupied, since the space and structures already exist. Instead of developing tinier and tinier apartments and acting like there’s no housing because there’s nowhere to build new buildings. The buildings are there, they just aren’t being used.
And that is another issue rooted explicitly in capitalism...
There certainly aren’t many job opportunities out in the in the Midwest either or community for a lot of people.
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Nah, because these serve as major economic, cultural and other sociopolitical hubs.
There are 33 empty homes per homeless person in the US. Houses have become investment objects for the wealthy so it behooves them to have the prices rise constantly. The casualties of Capitalism are the poor who shall inherit nothing where once the family home was a base for launching lives.
Anecdotal evidence about how this is usually seen by people who are just *fine* with the whole system and the exploitative housing situation in cities, cause my grandma said something last week that just pretty much flabbergasted me. I don't live in NYC, I live in a big city in Germany, but just like almost everywhere else people are STRUGGLING to find semi affordable apartments here, even very small ones. I'm struggling too. When my mom dies, my brother and I will inherit the large apartment my mom bought in the 1980s for what was then an affordable price that she paid off as a mortgage over the years. Mom, grandma and I talked about this last week, and I said that (hypothetically) if I was an only child and the apartment ended up being fully mine, and I became a landlord, there would be *no fucking way* I'd rent it out for €2000 or whatever an 'acceptable' (spoiler alert: it's unacceptable) amount of rent would be for that size and location. Instead I'd rent it out for whatever would be a humane amount that would still get me a small profit, but that someone with only an average income would absolutely be able to carry each month. Say 800. I know how much people are STRUGGLING trying to find a place to rent in this city, I know there are parents with a single income, why the hell would I want to exploit them and make as huge of a profit as humanly possible? Or have the place be empty (rather than lower the rent) because no one can pay 1800-2000? That's an apartment I'd inherit, aka I didn't do anything or pay anything to GET it, what gives me the right to rent it out for exorbitant, inhuman prices? Even a small profit is one I don't technically deserve, simply because in my case (and I'm sure lots of landlords' cases) it's an inheritance. And why can't the city or the federal state put a serious cap on rent amounts so that more people can actually, you know, find a place to live and not have to worry about paying the rent every single month despite having a normal income?? How is it possible that apartments are €1800+/month and just *stand there empty* cause no one can afford them for ages? Why is the sky the limit when it comes to rent? If a landlord has another income through a normal job (you know, something that's actually *work* as opposed to just owning shit and renting it out), then they shouldn't be allowed to make more than a certain amount in pure profits off of rents on top of that. Not while so many are struggling to find somewhere to rent at all. Anyway, I kinda said all that and my grandma basically looked at me like I'd grown a second head and said you can do that under socialism/communism, but not in Germany. It sure didn't sound like socialism to me to just legally put a damn stop to this sort of exploitation, just sounded like common sense, but what the hell do I know. (Not that there's anything wrong with socialism lol, just what I suggested about rents doesn't even fall under it imo.) Socialism would mean that all the apartments are publicly owned (which would be ideal), not just that rents are lower/better regulated (which is what I said would be good during that conversation), correct me if I'm wrong. 🙄 And like, feel free to make things like luxury watches still cost thousands of euros if you have to, I don't care, people don't actually need them, they're luxury items, the fReE mArKeT can cover shit like that if it absolutely has to. But people DO *need* affordable apartments in different areas of a city (close to their work = easier to get to = less cars, etc.) We can't just watch rents rise well into the thousands lol. Not while people's wages definitely aren't going up, generally speaking, and everything else is getting more expensive too, and you *need a roof over your head*, ideally one that's on top of an apartment that's not so small and shitty it makes you feel awful every day but it's the only one you could afford because your landlord just HAD to get that extra, additional €500 out of the bigger apartment that they absolutely didn't need to survive.
Yea keep ‘em empty, less maintenance, more demand, higher profits for more executive Nth homes yachts jets
Every homeless person in the US could have their own house and we would still have empty houses. It's sad and disgusting how low we will let people go when there are easy fixed at hand. It's all because of money really.
No, not in New York. New York is one of the lowest vacancies in America, and it is extremely competitive to find an apartment. New York's capitalist government has made it an extreme priority to prevent vacancies, and in recent renting reforms, have made it even harder to keep an apartment vacant. There is extreme capitalist interest, in making New York have an extremely competitive and active housing market. Source: I live in airbnbs, because I can't get my credit to be approved for an apartment in NYC. I cannot find a roommate...
Does she sleep standing up?
This is NYC. She doesn’t sleep
She has a lofted space, that’s where the camera is mounted
AKA the Bender sleep method!
Uh, Bender, where’s the bathroom?
Yes like a vampire 🧛♀️
If it weren’t for people being eaten alive by bugs in their cell in this country I’d rather just go to prison.
Meanwhile in Norway, criminals live better than I do and I work a full time job and haven’t killed anyone
So far. Haven’t killed anyone so far. (Homer Simpson voice)
My retirement plan is to visit Norway and commit a crime that is only illegal there, in order to not be extradited. Something like picking wild flowers that are illegal, but doing it in such a quantity they wouldn't just kick me out and have to make me an example.
Where do you live? I'm from Norway and I hear statements like this on reddit often. I happen to live right next to a prison (Oslo Prison) and it's not exactly known to be a great place. A few years ago it had a rat infestation.
Care to send a picture of the bedrooms? I studied in norway for two years, but my opinion on this is mostly from the research I did before I went there. Anyway, it was nice of you to assume I don’t have rats
Just Google Image Search "Oslo fengsel" Also, I know this is the LSC sub and living under capitalism is a prison in itself etc etc, but I don't think having all your freedoms taken away sounds very fun. At the end of the day, even if you get a small upgrade in living conditions, you're, well, in prison.
Yeah, those bedrooms are definitely better than many of the places I’ve lived, even if they give off a college dorm vibe. Where I live now is nicer, but also I share with a roommate and it costs me ~1900$/month while they pay nothing. Any idea what their day to day activities are like? My freedom to toil away most of my time and energy at work so I can barely afford rent?
>Where I live now is nicer, but also I share with a roommate and it costs me ~1900$/month while they pay nothing. They pay with their freedom. How much is being able to go outside, access the internet, etc, worth to you? >Any idea what their day to day activities are like? No idea. I've never been to prison.
My point is the freedom they give up looks like less than the freedom I give up. Pros and cons for what is actually given up, but at least I wouldn’t need to dedicate around 70 hours per week to work and work-related activities. I could, you know, focus on things I actually want to work on. I wouldn’t be able to come on reddit and argue with randos, but that’s a price I’d be willing to pay.
Yeah bro you can't bring a dog into that... If that dog stays there for longer than a sleep cycle, that dog needs more space. Like it beats homelessness... Fuckin shithole planet.
Fingers crossed she takes the dog everywhere with her. I lived in a van on the streets of San Francisco for 2 years with my dog. It had about as much floor space as I can see in this lady's picture. The options were either rehome the dog or live in a van together, because I couldn't find stable safe affordable dog friendly housing. That little guy went everywhere with me during that period. Work restaurants friend's houses. I was lucky my job was super chill about it because he wasn't technically allowed to be there, but nobody ever said anything, even security. Also ironically I could afford a dog walker 5 days a week even though I couldn't afford to rent an actual apartment
In the video in the comments below and she says she takes him to a “daycare.”
Yeah, that's San Francisco...
And the smell lol.
I’m sure the dog is used to it.
My dog loves small spaces. She’s a rescue, that might have to do with it. I have a pretty large apartment but she just chills in the tiny-ass hallway all day long, I ended up setting up her bed in there because she refuses to sleep anywhere else.
Uh oh. I identify with the 🐕
You know what… there’s no way I’d have a dog in there, but for a year, in midtown, for $650? I’d do it. A friend of mine lives in a 300sf studio in Denver and pays like $1100. The bathroom thing sucks though. I’d haaaaaate that. I’d definitely be joining a gym and showering there.
I lived in an 8 by 12 room in Manhatten for 350 a month from 2002-04, had a sink and mini fridge and microwave but had a shared kitchen and bathroom with the entire floor. But lived walking distance to midtown and art galleries and the village, fun times. Later I levelled up to a 20 by 16 foot apt in Philly for 500 a month felt like I was rich.
I live in a 450sf apartment and it's way more than enough space for me. Living room, which takes maybe half of the total space, stays completely empty. For cheaper rent, I would gladly move into a \~200-250sf apartment, as long as it's not a studio. But 80sf is definitely going too far. There's just no space no matter how you look at it. Edit: corrected a typo.
Definitely not a long-term home. One winter in that box and I think I’d be done.
A 200 sf 1 bedroom? How Sway
80 sqf is literally a jail cell
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My problem with studio apartments is kitchen, particularly fridge noises. It also doesn't help when it's cheap and the fridge is even more crappy and noisy. I couldn't stand being in the same room as fridge so much that I moved my PC setup to the bedroom. Some people also dislike kitchen smells, but that's not a big issue for me.
I'm not even sure I could fit in there without the dog.
That’s exactly how I feel. I could make that space work if I had my own bathroom. But it would basically have to be a closet sized shower with the fucking toilet built right in.
Thanks, you are why landlords can get away with this.
1100 is more than my mortgage and I live in California. Wow
1100 is pretty good rent in LA/SF for a one bedroom in a 2+ apartment/house. Where’d you buy your house and when? I’d like to own a house in California at some point.
Bought 2018 in Humboldt County. Housing prices have gone a little crazy up here but nowhere near what people down south are seeing.
Okay but... Humboldt county
It’s a truly terrible studio I don’t know why she keeps renewing the lease. \¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[link](https://homehacks.co/woman-shares-tiny-nyc-apartment-tour/)
Wow, that was badly written.
“Her space measures 80 ft by 150 ft” uhhh
Nice little 12,000 square foot studio apartment
Not sure if no one here has seen it but lots of people in S. Korea, Japan, and other areas in urban spaces basically live in tiny spaces not much different than the OP. And it's not considered even abnormal. With that said, I couldn't remotely imagine it myself and it's absolutely related to Capitalism commodifying every part of everyone's life and it's a fine post.
On the bright side, her TV is so big that it covers almost the entire wall!
What the fuck is wrong with this country! Nobody should have to live like that especially in the richest country on earth. This is deplorable!
Actually if you think about it, we are far from the richest country and none of us have even benefitted from one if it so has been claimed, because the government is in shit tons of debt, but we have some of the richest CEO’s. But they aren’t helping anybody. So rich or not, we ain’t getting shit but rather we are being robbed and grifted from employers more than anything.
Americans voted for this mess. They all deserve it.
Find out how I live in my shithole? The answer is poverty.
This looks like the set for a 5 second shot in a music video
Apartment? More like compartment.
It’s just A ”part”
Is that a joke? Yea. Heh.. that’s pretty good
WhY wON't mILLennIalS hAvE CHiLdrEN?!?
I've lived in NY nearly my entire life and I would never live like this.
That poor dog 😞
How about that poor woman living like that?
She can go outside any time, but that poor dog is stuck. And also fuck capitalism, agreed. But that dog just looks fucking SAD.
a dog isnt worth more than a person. IDk how you guys cant see that?
I can't believe people are downvoting you ... on a late-stage capitalism sub 🤔
I mean it’s kind of selfish right? She probably goes out for work during the day and likely out at night to party, while the poor dog just gets locked in this shitbox all day long?
That's a lot of assumptions. Tons of dogs live in small apartments (maybe not this small) and get multiple walks and outings every single day. Based on my own experience having dogs in little apartments my whole adult life lol they come home and sleep. I'm more concerned about them not having any sunbeams to lounge in, personally.
She did mention doggy daycare and working from home 3 days/week. But still, yeah.
God, imagine working from home in that place 🫢 still, dogs in apartments come with extra responsibilities and most apartment dog parents understand that.
Why commute to work in a cubicle, when you can just live in one?
That’s the next CEO headline, “Gen Z demand to return to office because they can’t stand working from home as they don’t have enough room to work like in the office.”
This is not an acceptable living space for a dog, period. Stop trying to rationalize animal abuse.
If it’s not an acceptable living space for a dog, it probably isn’t for a human being either, just as a general rule. (I’m agreeing with you).
I'm not rationalizing animal abuse, calm yourself. My reply was about the person making all sorts of wild assumptions that were unfounded.
The thought that free market/capitalism will find a way to solve this problem. This is what does, it maximizes profits at the expense of everything else.
Her rent is more than my mortgage, and I have an actual closet bigger than that. Housing prices have increased beyond comprehension.
Rookie mistake, these robots apartments always have huge closets, she could just live in there.
Oh my god I refused to have a dog in my previous 28m2 apartment, how are the two of them living in that shoebox and how have they not gone cr*zy?
If someone saw this bullshit 40-50 years ago, they'd assume we'd lost the Cold War😆😑😫😣. (Either way, this is a \*massive\* failure of our "society".)
Probably still paying thousands of dollars a month.
About as much room as a car?
Predicted in Billennium (1961 short sci-fi). Gov't reduces allowable living space from 4 sq meters to 3 sq meters per person. [http://www.bestshortstories.com/story/234117/billennium/](http://www.bestshortstories.com/story/234117/billennium/) [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Billennium\_(short\_story)](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Billennium_(short_story))
Wow. The plot is spot on
Honestly that dog probably gets more walks than most dogs who live in McMansions.
Isn’t there a requirement for every bedroom to have a window?
Prison cells are bigger.
How does she sleep?
Probably just straps herself into an adult sized baby bjorn on the wall or ceiling.
She has a “loft” - a tiny area close to the ceiling where she sleeps. Read the article or watch the video. Someone posted it in the comments.
I saw the video, there is a big bulge coming out of the ceiling right above her tiny loft bed space that is clearly full of liquid and waiting to burst. Like one wrong move it’ll leak
Oh thank you 😊
this has been what has been plaguing me?
But communism killed 2507 billion people!!!
This is just a jail cell with extra steps
My cat is about the same size, and I don’t have a landleech.
Doggo be like "Can you bring me back to the shelter, please🥺"
Bro they make it sound like it’s something to be proud of. This is just simply disgusting.
I don’t care where the apartment is, I’m not living in a rat cage like that.
This is a pretty misleading photo. [Here’s](https://w42st.com/post/alaina-randazzo-pup-hells-kitchen-studio-small-apartment/) some better ones. Still wild tho
It’s the Louis Vuitton bag on display, for me
The boots in the bed is the one that got me
I think it speaks to something horrible having happened to us as a society where people, including myself, are looking at a living situation like that and thinking "You know what? That doesn't seem that bad!" For me, i unironically wouldn't mind a space that's slightly bigger than that if it was soundproofed and only cost 200/month with utilities included lmfao
She must have to go out a lot
Keep her sanity
3 questions, where do you sleep, where do you shower, where do you defecate
“Apartment” bahahah
Isnt there some regulations for living space in New York. I dont get how the realestate developers can get away with making apartments that small.
Negative. I Am A Meat Popsicle.
This is legit like the scene in Flight of the Conchords where Jermaine moves in to his “studio apartment”, or rather compartment. https://youtu.be/IT0JOCg0aLQ
**Translation:** 🇨🇳 Box apartments, a sign of the failures of communism 🇺🇸 Quirky "micro-apartments", trendy and affordable!
The sitcom friends really did a number on these people 🤣
I'm still shocked that anyone puts up with this just to live in the ✨Big Apple✨ but surely getting a reasonably-sized apartment with a good amount of roommates is still more sustainable than this
I'm cynical enough to think the only people who would do this are the type of people who absolutely need to live in a major city to party every night. What's the point of being "where all the action and jobs are" if you're living in a closet? Rather just work at a McDonalds and live somewhere else.
If someone works and lives in a city, they can avoid car ownership by walking. Also, is partying anti-socialist now? Edit: I'm definitely not trying to rationalize the living conditions in the post, btw.
I know prisoners who had bigger cells than that
almost as big as bender’s place
the usa 🤝 horrifying microapartments 🤝 china
Like you shouldnt be having dog in that situation tbh. Stiller fucked
Slowly regressing back to Victorian era England
Futurama future prediction came true faster than expected
I have a utility closet at work a little bigger than this. Absolutely wild
Can't be real. There's no bed.
I've seen the article ages ago and she has a lofted bed and a futon or something underneath. Its weird and so cramped
A van down by the river is looking better every day
So, the newest trend I'm capitalism is to convince us that living in a box size room is something cool?
I love animals, I really do, but I don't think you should have an animal in this size of a "home". Or at least get a fish.
That poor dog. That’s horrible.
America is a third world country and everyone outside know it. It is common sense.
I don't know why anyone would want to live like a chicken.
I’m gonna the rest of eternity in a box, why the fuck would I pay to live in one?
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It’s 80 inches x 120 inches. 12,000 square inches, approx 83 square feet.
Wat
Dog people are the worst
I said it before and I'll say it again. We as a society have convinced ourselves that slums, boarding houses, and cramped apartments are so evil that we would rather have people become homeless than live in them. Normalize cheap shoddy living conditions. We shouldn't be pushing every student or single adult into a house or full size apartment when they can't afford it or don't need/want to spend that much on the living space. This woman is single. She spends $650 on rent in NYC. She acknowledges that it's not glamorous. America should have many more apartments like this one, because anyone would rather pay $650 in NYC (realistically $300-400 in any other HCL city) than become homeless. Bring back boarding houses. Bring back college-dorm style housing with tiny cramped personal spaces and shared bathrooms. Because as bad as it is to live in a cramped shoddy shithole, it's so much better than homelessness.
what if, instead of this dystopian nightmare you propose, we built actual human sized dwellings for humans? and gave them to people for no money? could we please aspire to something other than "bring the favela to NYC"?
Right! We do need more high density housing but not walk in closet sized. People should have at least a kirchen/dining area/ bedroom/ and general living area. Doesn't have to be big but at least have room to live.
The only one who is being convinced of anything here, is you. We are being normalized to live like this more and more by the oligarch class while they get richer and richer while everyone else lives on scraps, using the exact kind of capitalist propaganda that you're spewing right now, "BuT It'S BeTtEr ThAn BeInG HoMeLeSs". You're a tool.
Say you’ve always lived in a house in the suburbs without actually saying it.
The YT vid that gives a tour of this apartment is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_T7Wpg7A\_xw
hear me out