help me find a new york times article about gross apartments in brooklyn

January 1, 2009 7:37 PM

help me find a New York Times article -- it was about semi-illegal VERY small apartments within two warehouse (?) buildings in brooklyn....

i've been searching google fruitlessly for at least 45 min -- here's what i remember the article was about:

tiny tiny cramped/cheap/gross apartments, hipsters, bad insulation, kind of illegal run down building, mostly 20 somethings live there but the article did talk about one older couple who had moved in because the husband was following some life dream (and therefore had lost his source of income).

posted by nanhey to human relations (15 comments total)

this one? (full disclosure: i used to live there.)
posted by youcancallmeal at 7:43 PM on January 1 [2 favorites]

also, in defense of 248: they weren't that small. the lofts themselves are huge, some just have too many people in them. our four person loft allowed me the biggest bedroom i've ever had.
posted by youcancallmeal at 7:50 PM on January 1

thanks!! that's it! my friend and i were curious about this place and we want to go check it out tomorrow --- can you get inside to see apartments up for rent?
posted by nanhey at 7:51 PM on January 1

First, youcancallmeal's link HAS to be the one in question.

Second, I hadn't seen this story (and its related slideshow photos), so:... Thanks! Fascinating stuff.
posted by Ike_Arumba at 7:51 PM on January 1

Not really...your best bet is to call the management company (sadly, I think I've since lost the number) and set up an appointment. Openings are rare and get snapped up fast. You might have better luck getting into an existing loft as roommates, actually. Hit up Craigslist for that. If you have questions about the place, feel free to MeMail. It was a good time, but it definitely wouldn't suit everyone.
posted by youcancallmeal at 7:54 PM on January 1

Wow. I suppose its better than many parts of the undeveloped world. But, just, wow.
posted by Gerard Sorme at 7:59 PM on January 1

Haha, I was just about to chime in with the link as well. I lived there (how embarrassing that I've now outed myself as a could-be hipster) in 2002, and as youcancallmeal points out, they weren't that small and segmented then. I shared the space with one (completely insane) roommate. This was way back when I guess. At the time, a very sketchy illegal strip joint had opened up in the basement of one of the buildings. Also, we were forever having film crews for some television emergency rescue show filming scenes up on the roof and crashing firetrucks in the middle of the block. Good times!
nanhey, there always used to be sublet and room for rent flyers posted on the doors outside. I really don't think you'd want to live there, especially now. The dividing walls between the untits were paper thin and had gaps big enough to slide your fingers through where they butted up against the wall of windows.
posted by stagewhisper at 8:02 PM on January 1

nah, we didn't really want to live there -- we kind of just like checking out crazy stuff in NYC haha. we've found some potential listings on craigslist that we might follow through on....
posted by nanhey at 8:04 PM on January 1

I used to hang out here (some friends lived in the lofts) quite a bit back in 2003. The rooms were not small, but they were extremely DIY and the walls were, yes, paper-thin. Bedbugs everywhere and generally a sense of free-floating hipster chaos.

Funniest part is, those lofts are in no way the most cost-effective way to live in the city, but I'm sure most people who lived there also enjoyed the experience itself.

Have fun. Don't catch crabs.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:05 PM on January 1

FWIW, I lived there until October of 2007. I guess that puts me firmly in hipster territory, but like I said...the place was big, my roommates were nice and it was chill. The walls are thin and I heard tales of bed bugs (but never got any), but otherwise it was a pretty good experience for the cheap rent.
posted by youcancallmeal at 8:05 PM on January 1

For those wondering what the real, non-NY Times version is like.... this was my room.
posted by youcancallmeal at 8:07 PM on January 1

Jesus, I grew up in Brooklyn (Marine Park). No one should have to live like that.
posted by cazoo at 8:08 PM on January 1

I think a band I was in may have played a show in one of those lofts in 2003 or 2004.
posted by drezdn at 8:36 PM on January 1

No one should have to live like that.

I don't know. Youcancallmeal's flickr photos are lovely, and I especially like the windows. I wouldn't want to live there right now, but I can definitely envision staying a year or so there sometime. I wasn't aware that there was that much racial homogeneity, but the NYT makes it sound pretty homogeneous. Is this true?
posted by suedehead at 9:30 PM on January 1

BE CAREFUL - all those buildings at Morgantown have bedbugs. All of them. Those were on my rental beat until the bug problem started and then I utterly refused to show anyone those places out of conscience.

I wouldn't recommend living there. They're cold, drafty, paper thin walls, the subway station makes you a mugging magnet (they will never ever change the zoning in that area as it's a business improvement district with preferential tax arrangements, etc. for businesses who open there, so there's more chance another cement factory will open before the neighborhood gets zoned residential). It's like a hipster ghetto. It isn't an actual neighborhood, just a random grouping of repurposed industrial buildings filled with 20 something white kids who just moved to NYC and think they're in "Rent". I can't think of a less interesting place to live.

The management company is not going to give you a tour just because you're curious. They barely answer the phone for tenants who have actual problems. Just go hang out at the coffee shop near the subway and strike up conversations with folks, that's your best bet.

If you want to live there, my old broker still handles the buildings, memail me if you want a reference/number. And there are other loft buildings in that area that are better quality/better constructed/no bugs.
posted by micawber at 8:23 AM on January 2