The Times, of "I'm not trying to start shit" journalism, wrote about the McKibbin lofts in East Williamsburg yesterday, warehouses at 248 and 255 McKibbin Street, inhabited by around 300 people each. For $375 a month/person (if you chose to share "a four-by-six cubby") or $530 to 800 a month (for a "cubby" of your very own), "artistically"-inclined twenty somethings get to rest their heads in spaces that one resident generously described as looking "more like doghouses than rooms", and another described as one big "public bathroom," where there's zero privacy and music blaring at all hours of the night. Other amenities include bedbugs, having your shit stolen, and being judged for watching TV, which is too commercial and inhibits the creative flow. Though most people love it at first (how could they not?), some say that after a while, the being woken up by the band practicing at 3 am, and the being mugged, and the having a 40 thrown at your head start to get old. But! It could be so much worse. According to poet Eirehan Failte:
“Even when it’s really loud, it’s still better than some terrible stock-trading roommate listening to Fox in the next room.”
Are you people going to take that? The insinuation that YOU WATCH FOX?
Young Artists Find a Private Space, Only Without the Privacy [NYT]
Posted by guest, May 08, 2008 12:53PM
Personally, this does sound preferable to my hedge fund analyst roommate who plays Guitar Hero III until 2 in the morning.