Our Intention-Birthing Bungalow
July 29, 2016 9:39 AM Subscribe
Communal Living Is Alleviating Millennial Ennui
In the six months that Nissenbaum has lived in the defunct doll factory, her impression of life in the city totally changed. She told me she feels motivated and inspired every day. “I see people who are doing what they love, what they’re passionate about,” she said, gesturing to the dozen or so denizens bustling around the loft, “and it makes me feel more passionate about myself and my art.”
In the six months that Nissenbaum has lived in the defunct doll factory, her impression of life in the city totally changed. She told me she feels motivated and inspired every day. “I see people who are doing what they love, what they’re passionate about,” she said, gesturing to the dozen or so denizens bustling around the loft, “and it makes me feel more passionate about myself and my art.”
yeah that 100% sounds like it violates the geneva conventions
posted by poffin boffin at 9:42 AM on July 29, 2016 [23 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 9:42 AM on July 29, 2016 [23 favorites]
boy that is the single most boring description of a "sex dinner" I've ever read
posted by griphus at 9:46 AM on July 29, 2016 [13 favorites]
posted by griphus at 9:46 AM on July 29, 2016 [13 favorites]
Known as Pure House and situated in a former doll factory...
*shudders*
But in all seriousness, isn't this:
Another communal-living company, Common, raised $7.35 million in mostly venture-capital funding last summer, and is taking over real estate in historically black Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. Another, Stage 3 Properties, which promises a “holistic housing solution,” encourages tenants to socialize and bond in “play spaces” throughout New York, “an ever-expanding network of amenities spread throughout multiple Ollie properties.”
This microcommunity is not free, though. A room at Pure House costs between $1,500 and $1,800 per month. WeLive is even more expensive, with the smallest room costing more than the Dupont Circle studio I rented when I lived in D.C. On the basis of square footage of the private space, WeLive and Pure House cost more than most rental spaces in New York, too. Several tenants could split a comparably minimal loft for around $1,000 per person. So people are paying a lot to live in major cities like New York, and then, once there, paying even more to create a smaller community.
...basically "rooming houses" with lifestyle marketing attached?
Despite the increased cost of living, Pure House clearly plays to the starving-artist brand and those seeking the “creative-class” experience. At Stage 3, too, the company’s mission is “passionately disrupting the housing industry by reimagining its process, product, and price points, and curating an all-inclusive, cosmopolitan living experience designed for today’s creative class.”
Yep, rooming houses.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:47 AM on July 29, 2016 [33 favorites]
*shudders*
But in all seriousness, isn't this:
Another communal-living company, Common, raised $7.35 million in mostly venture-capital funding last summer, and is taking over real estate in historically black Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. Another, Stage 3 Properties, which promises a “holistic housing solution,” encourages tenants to socialize and bond in “play spaces” throughout New York, “an ever-expanding network of amenities spread throughout multiple Ollie properties.”
This microcommunity is not free, though. A room at Pure House costs between $1,500 and $1,800 per month. WeLive is even more expensive, with the smallest room costing more than the Dupont Circle studio I rented when I lived in D.C. On the basis of square footage of the private space, WeLive and Pure House cost more than most rental spaces in New York, too. Several tenants could split a comparably minimal loft for around $1,000 per person. So people are paying a lot to live in major cities like New York, and then, once there, paying even more to create a smaller community.
...basically "rooming houses" with lifestyle marketing attached?
Despite the increased cost of living, Pure House clearly plays to the starving-artist brand and those seeking the “creative-class” experience. At Stage 3, too, the company’s mission is “passionately disrupting the housing industry by reimagining its process, product, and price points, and curating an all-inclusive, cosmopolitan living experience designed for today’s creative class.”
Yep, rooming houses.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:47 AM on July 29, 2016 [33 favorites]
Whatever this is, I blame neoliberalism for it.
posted by Apocryphon at 9:49 AM on July 29, 2016 [22 favorites]
posted by Apocryphon at 9:49 AM on July 29, 2016 [22 favorites]
I lived in university housing for five years.
I am in no rush to go back.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:50 AM on July 29, 2016 [10 favorites]
I am in no rush to go back.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:50 AM on July 29, 2016 [10 favorites]
what are those wacky snake people up to today?
posted by indubitable at 9:51 AM on July 29, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by indubitable at 9:51 AM on July 29, 2016 [7 favorites]
At Stage 3, too, the company’s mission is “passionately disrupting the housing industry by reimagining its process, product, and price points, and curating an all-inclusive, cosmopolitan living experience designed for today’s creative class.”
Based on that mission statement, I suggest we leverage pitchforks and torches to spearhead our community goals moving forward.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:57 AM on July 29, 2016 [31 favorites]
Based on that mission statement, I suggest we leverage pitchforks and torches to spearhead our community goals moving forward.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:57 AM on July 29, 2016 [31 favorites]
"Millennial Ennui", bullshit. Like you Baby Boomer hippies didn't live in communes. Fuck right off.
posted by maryr at 9:58 AM on July 29, 2016 [24 favorites]
posted by maryr at 9:58 AM on July 29, 2016 [24 favorites]
More on WeLive and other communal living setups here [NYT].
Sounds really fetch.
posted by Mchelly at 9:58 AM on July 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
Sounds really fetch.
posted by Mchelly at 9:58 AM on July 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
At Stage 3, too, the company’s mission is “passionately disrupting the housing industry by reimagining its process, product, and price points, and curating an all-inclusive, cosmopolitan living experience designed for today’s creative class.”
If I ever wrote a sentence like that, I would break every single one of my fingers to make sure I never wrote again.
As I recall, some of these companies (Campus) are already shutting down. The key issue, I would imagine, is that they're not actually cheaper than other housing alternatives. So their market is (a) bourgeois snake people who have somehow not yet mastered the concept that corporations can't actually give your life creative purpose and (b) people really lacking in social connections in the market who would struggle to find roommates or to locate and furnish a place (from afar). Both those groups are bound to have high turnover. It's hard to stay that naive in a big city, and once you're established there, you'll feel more comfortable about finding a shared apartment.
posted by praemunire at 9:59 AM on July 29, 2016 [17 favorites]
If I ever wrote a sentence like that, I would break every single one of my fingers to make sure I never wrote again.
As I recall, some of these companies (Campus) are already shutting down. The key issue, I would imagine, is that they're not actually cheaper than other housing alternatives. So their market is (a) bourgeois snake people who have somehow not yet mastered the concept that corporations can't actually give your life creative purpose and (b) people really lacking in social connections in the market who would struggle to find roommates or to locate and furnish a place (from afar). Both those groups are bound to have high turnover. It's hard to stay that naive in a big city, and once you're established there, you'll feel more comfortable about finding a shared apartment.
posted by praemunire at 9:59 AM on July 29, 2016 [17 favorites]
“It’s not a commune,” Fix explains
Eating together, unification of group norms through public gatherings, enforced social and sexual practice groups, intentional physical and social design to require member interaction rather than allowing solitude.
But they pay rent, and it's all managed by a development company
It's not *just* a commune, it's a corporate one.
posted by bonehead at 10:03 AM on July 29, 2016 [49 favorites]
Eating together, unification of group norms through public gatherings, enforced social and sexual practice groups, intentional physical and social design to require member interaction rather than allowing solitude.
But they pay rent, and it's all managed by a development company
It's not *just* a commune, it's a corporate one.
posted by bonehead at 10:03 AM on July 29, 2016 [49 favorites]
I take it back, I had not read the entire fucking article, fuck these people in particular. Pure House sounds insufferable.
posted by maryr at 10:04 AM on July 29, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by maryr at 10:04 AM on July 29, 2016 [10 favorites]
what are those wacky snake people up to today?
To me, the thing here isn't about LOL millennials, but what happens when the "disruption" economy decides it's going to "disrupt" things like landlord-tenant legislation, building codes, and what have you.
Ryan Fix, the We Live guy is really saying in the video that "we're a for-profit business but we're dressing it up like we're not."
He's a landlord. Who owns rooming houses. Not that there's anything wrong with rooming houses - they fill a niche in the housing market for various reasons. But call them what they are.
And for fuck's sake, provide adequate temperature control:
During my visit, there was one small window air conditioner for the entire six-bedroom loft, and it was 90 degrees outside. Fix apologized—and part of the problem was that I always wear a wool suit during video interviews. But if I lived there, I could see something like the AC situation putting me off the idea of having 15 people cooking an enormous dinner in my kitchen that night. I’d just have to put up with it.
But following on praemunire's comment above, the thing about this working as a business over the long term is the amount of churn that's built into their revenue base - you need a constant pipeline of new tenants coming in, unlike, say, property management companies that have longer-tailed revenue through long-term leases.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:04 AM on July 29, 2016 [7 favorites]
To me, the thing here isn't about LOL millennials, but what happens when the "disruption" economy decides it's going to "disrupt" things like landlord-tenant legislation, building codes, and what have you.
Ryan Fix, the We Live guy is really saying in the video that "we're a for-profit business but we're dressing it up like we're not."
He's a landlord. Who owns rooming houses. Not that there's anything wrong with rooming houses - they fill a niche in the housing market for various reasons. But call them what they are.
And for fuck's sake, provide adequate temperature control:
During my visit, there was one small window air conditioner for the entire six-bedroom loft, and it was 90 degrees outside. Fix apologized—and part of the problem was that I always wear a wool suit during video interviews. But if I lived there, I could see something like the AC situation putting me off the idea of having 15 people cooking an enormous dinner in my kitchen that night. I’d just have to put up with it.
But following on praemunire's comment above, the thing about this working as a business over the long term is the amount of churn that's built into their revenue base - you need a constant pipeline of new tenants coming in, unlike, say, property management companies that have longer-tailed revenue through long-term leases.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:04 AM on July 29, 2016 [7 favorites]
Gen X never had the requisite disruptive ennui or the idealistic hippie-dom to do this kind of stuff, other than as happy experiments indulged in college.
There's the Greatest Generation, the Boomer Generation, and then there's us -- the Beige Wallpaper Generation.
posted by blucevalo at 10:04 AM on July 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
There's the Greatest Generation, the Boomer Generation, and then there's us -- the Beige Wallpaper Generation.
posted by blucevalo at 10:04 AM on July 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
Whatever this is, I blame neoliberalism for it.
You could sincerely make this same comment in any thread
posted by beerperson at 10:05 AM on July 29, 2016 [12 favorites]
You could sincerely make this same comment in any thread
posted by beerperson at 10:05 AM on July 29, 2016 [12 favorites]
Whatever this is, I blame neoliberalism for it.
You could sincerely make this same comment in any thread
posted by beerperson at 10:05 AM on July 29 [+] [!]
well to be fair it's also the fault of patriarchy and white supremacy.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 10:07 AM on July 29, 2016 [23 favorites]
You could sincerely make this same comment in any thread
posted by beerperson at 10:05 AM on July 29 [+] [!]
well to be fair it's also the fault of patriarchy and white supremacy.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 10:07 AM on July 29, 2016 [23 favorites]
This doesn't sound too different from a co-op house. More expensive and with crappy lease terms, though. I'm not going to hate on people for wanting to find a community, and I guess this works for the people who can afford it (which is true with a lot of things in life).
Also, I didn't read the byline, and I love that as soon as the author mentioned how he always wears wool suits for video interviews, I immediately knew it was James Hamblin.
posted by teponaztli at 10:07 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
Also, I didn't read the byline, and I love that as soon as the author mentioned how he always wears wool suits for video interviews, I immediately knew it was James Hamblin.
posted by teponaztli at 10:07 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
Another communal-living company, Common, raised $7.35 million in mostly venture-capital funding last summer, and is taking over real estate in historically black Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. Another, Stage 3 Properties, which promises a “holistic housing solution,” encourages tenants to socialize and bond in “play spaces” throughout New York, “an ever-expanding network of amenities spread throughout multiple Ollie properties.”Around 2004 I was living on the south side of Williamsburg ($500/mo for an 8x10 room in a 3-bedroom complete with broken futon and for some reason a file cabinet) which looks identical to how a lot of Crown Heights looks right now: not completely gentrified but definitely on its way. Except Crown Heights and Bed Stuy are gentrifying much, much faster than Williamsburg or Bushwick ever did. Back then, I was offered a room in a shared punk house in Bushwick for about $200/mo, which was absurdly low rent but also long before the gentrification of Bushwick was complete.
I can't believe I'm saying this but I kind of miss the Old Gentrification when first the punk houses and gay-friendly arts communes came in and then everything went to shit shortly thereafter. Now it just seems to be going to shit immediately.
posted by griphus at 10:08 AM on July 29, 2016 [10 favorites]
On their first date, they tried a two-hour eye gaze—a concerted effort to relate by sitting at arm’s length and silently staring at one another.
I feel like this would induce hallucinations somewhere around the 30 minute mark.
posted by figurant at 10:09 AM on July 29, 2016 [4 favorites]
I feel like this would induce hallucinations somewhere around the 30 minute mark.
posted by figurant at 10:09 AM on July 29, 2016 [4 favorites]
Whatever this is, I blame neoliberalism for it.
I think Apocryphon has stumbled onto another universal New Yorker cartoon caption.
Or maybe it'd work better when the Baffler or Jacobin start bunging cartoons into their articles.
posted by turbowombat at 10:09 AM on July 29, 2016 [14 favorites]
I think Apocryphon has stumbled onto another universal New Yorker cartoon caption.
Or maybe it'd work better when the Baffler or Jacobin start bunging cartoons into their articles.
posted by turbowombat at 10:09 AM on July 29, 2016 [14 favorites]
Live and let others choose to overpay to live in discomfort, I guess.
But can we PLEASE ban the use of "passionately" and "passionate"?
... “passionately disrupting the housing industry"... doing what they love, what they’re passionate about,” she said, gesturing to the dozen or so denizens bustling around the loft, “and it makes me feel more passionate about myself and my art.”
posted by jeff-o-matic at 10:14 AM on July 29, 2016 [8 favorites]
But can we PLEASE ban the use of "passionately" and "passionate"?
... “passionately disrupting the housing industry"... doing what they love, what they’re passionate about,” she said, gesturing to the dozen or so denizens bustling around the loft, “and it makes me feel more passionate about myself and my art.”
posted by jeff-o-matic at 10:14 AM on July 29, 2016 [8 favorites]
A room at Pure House costs between $1,500 and $1,800 per month.
To share a space with 19 other people with one window air-conditioner? I don't even want to know how many bathrooms there are.
posted by octothorpe at 10:15 AM on July 29, 2016 [5 favorites]
To share a space with 19 other people with one window air-conditioner? I don't even want to know how many bathrooms there are.
posted by octothorpe at 10:15 AM on July 29, 2016 [5 favorites]
Gen X never had the requisite disruptive ennui or the idealistic hippie-dom to do this kind of stuff
We/our parents generally weren't that well off. I remember a lot of squats and no-water flats.
posted by bonehead at 10:15 AM on July 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
We/our parents generally weren't that well off. I remember a lot of squats and no-water flats.
posted by bonehead at 10:15 AM on July 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
Some of us/our parents still aren't that well off. I don't like that my generation seems to be defined by the excesses of the rich kids who do expensive things.
posted by teponaztli at 10:17 AM on July 29, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by teponaztli at 10:17 AM on July 29, 2016 [7 favorites]
"Tenement-Sweatshop-Chic"
posted by jeff-o-matic at 10:19 AM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by jeff-o-matic at 10:19 AM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
I think Apocryphon has stumbled onto another universal New Yorker cartoon caption.
It's more of a catchphrase now. It used to be describing real things as cyberpunk, but at this point reality is more depressing/anger-inducing than amusing anymore.
posted by Apocryphon at 10:21 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
It's more of a catchphrase now. It used to be describing real things as cyberpunk, but at this point reality is more depressing/anger-inducing than amusing anymore.
posted by Apocryphon at 10:21 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
A room at Pure House costs between $1,500 and $1,800 per month.
To share a space with 19 other people with one window air-conditioner? I don't even want to know how many bathrooms there are.
Flush toilets are a bourgeois indulgence. True revolution requires pooping into holes in the floor.
I mean, it's not like it could make the smell any WORSE.
posted by Mayor West at 10:34 AM on July 29, 2016
To share a space with 19 other people with one window air-conditioner? I don't even want to know how many bathrooms there are.
Flush toilets are a bourgeois indulgence. True revolution requires pooping into holes in the floor.
I mean, it's not like it could make the smell any WORSE.
posted by Mayor West at 10:34 AM on July 29, 2016
Two people at the WeWork location I'm at live in a WeLive dorm. They've invited me over for free beer and networking but I have thus far declined. I think I should accept next time. For science.
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:45 AM on July 29, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:45 AM on July 29, 2016 [9 favorites]
Holy helll this is garbage. I really thought this was going to be about the inability of millennials to afford solo housing in major cities unless they won the job lotto and are raking in cash. I know it's more normal to have roommates in NYC, and that every article like this always focuses on NYC(ughhh) but in basically every other city it used to be completely normal to get a mediocre half ok or meh job and still afford at least a studio apartment. No longer.
That, would have been a decent article. Like people talking about having 5 roommates when they're 30 in fucking portland or something. But nah, it's this SV ~disruptive~ garbage.
A room at Pure House costs between $1,500 and $1,800 per month.
Wait, seriously? It is NOT hard to get your own apartment for that much in brooklyn. All the people i know living in crappy shared places with bad air conditioning where people are constantly doing stupid shit are paying $6-800.
This, like apodments, seems like a scam to reel in people who are either new to town and don't know any better or who don't really have many friends in the area in general.
Like, fuck this in general, but fuck that specifically. This is the corporate version of a guy selling fake merch next to a tourist trap destination in any big city.
posted by emptythought at 10:49 AM on July 29, 2016 [6 favorites]
That, would have been a decent article. Like people talking about having 5 roommates when they're 30 in fucking portland or something. But nah, it's this SV ~disruptive~ garbage.
A room at Pure House costs between $1,500 and $1,800 per month.
Wait, seriously? It is NOT hard to get your own apartment for that much in brooklyn. All the people i know living in crappy shared places with bad air conditioning where people are constantly doing stupid shit are paying $6-800.
This, like apodments, seems like a scam to reel in people who are either new to town and don't know any better or who don't really have many friends in the area in general.
Like, fuck this in general, but fuck that specifically. This is the corporate version of a guy selling fake merch next to a tourist trap destination in any big city.
posted by emptythought at 10:49 AM on July 29, 2016 [6 favorites]
Y'know, I also was looking at a generational motivation for this as well (and also a motivation for why the Gen-Xers I know would run screaming from this).
Gen-Xers were mostly latchkey kids and kids of divorce. We're used to being alone, and a lot of us have also had the experience of having to shuffle back and forth between two different parents' houses. The Millennials, meanwhile, were mostly the era of "helicopter parenting", when there was always someone around to validate what you were doing, or at least see it.
So that may explain why the Millennials are craving this kind of big group-living situation, where you do have autonomy but there is always someone there to lean on or cheer you on or just be there to witness your life; and meanwhile, the Gen-Xers are turning up their nose at having all those people around. The "month-to-month" lease thing is also probably driving Gen-Xers away because "AAAAAAAAAH I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO THINK ABOUT HAVING TO MOVE AGAIN I WANT SOMETHING STABLE".
I should note, though, that intentional living arrangements have always existed. Hell, technically a co-op unit is also a bunch of people who collectively own a building. There are a lot of more traditional "commune" type of arrangements - I knew someone 20 years ago who was one of a group of people who owned this big awesome house somewhere in Ditmas Park as a commune, and there's also an intentional community in Staten Island that's been going on for a while. I sometimes think of checking that kind of thing out, although I definitely skew closer to the kind of arrangement where it's like a little town where everyone has their own house and maybe once a month there's a town meeting where everyone votes on what color to paint the gazebo in the square but for the rest of the time you can do whatever the hell you want.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:49 AM on July 29, 2016 [17 favorites]
Gen-Xers were mostly latchkey kids and kids of divorce. We're used to being alone, and a lot of us have also had the experience of having to shuffle back and forth between two different parents' houses. The Millennials, meanwhile, were mostly the era of "helicopter parenting", when there was always someone around to validate what you were doing, or at least see it.
So that may explain why the Millennials are craving this kind of big group-living situation, where you do have autonomy but there is always someone there to lean on or cheer you on or just be there to witness your life; and meanwhile, the Gen-Xers are turning up their nose at having all those people around. The "month-to-month" lease thing is also probably driving Gen-Xers away because "AAAAAAAAAH I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO THINK ABOUT HAVING TO MOVE AGAIN I WANT SOMETHING STABLE".
I should note, though, that intentional living arrangements have always existed. Hell, technically a co-op unit is also a bunch of people who collectively own a building. There are a lot of more traditional "commune" type of arrangements - I knew someone 20 years ago who was one of a group of people who owned this big awesome house somewhere in Ditmas Park as a commune, and there's also an intentional community in Staten Island that's been going on for a while. I sometimes think of checking that kind of thing out, although I definitely skew closer to the kind of arrangement where it's like a little town where everyone has their own house and maybe once a month there's a town meeting where everyone votes on what color to paint the gazebo in the square but for the rest of the time you can do whatever the hell you want.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:49 AM on July 29, 2016 [17 favorites]
Lizzie Widdecombe wrote about this phenomenon for the New Yorker a couple of months ago, prompting Kate Santos of Los Angeles to pen a wonderful letter to the editor.
posted by Flashman at 10:56 AM on July 29, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by Flashman at 10:56 AM on July 29, 2016 [5 favorites]
"Millennial Ennui"
Yeah, sure, take the only thing Gen-X ever achieved. It's not like I care.
posted by octobersurprise at 10:58 AM on July 29, 2016 [44 favorites]
Yeah, sure, take the only thing Gen-X ever achieved. It's not like I care.
posted by octobersurprise at 10:58 AM on July 29, 2016 [44 favorites]
We're used to being alone
Yeah, I wouldn't venture to guess how pervasive this in our cohort, or causes for it, but I need an amount of solitude on the regular or I get into a weird headspace.
The living situation in the linked piece sounds hellish to me.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 11:09 AM on July 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I wouldn't venture to guess how pervasive this in our cohort, or causes for it, but I need an amount of solitude on the regular or I get into a weird headspace.
The living situation in the linked piece sounds hellish to me.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 11:09 AM on July 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
Me seeing the headline and thinking of poor young kids helping other poor young kids get housing and sharing food and resources.
Me after I rtfa.
posted by FirstMateKate at 11:09 AM on July 29, 2016 [11 favorites]
Me after I rtfa.
posted by FirstMateKate at 11:09 AM on July 29, 2016 [11 favorites]
Um. Out of college, I once lived in a house that had up to 22 people sleeping in it and as few as 7. We brewed beer, made a hot tub out of a Ford Tempo, Ripped apart all kinds of random electronics, Deathmatched, watched the fireworks together, generally drank together, threw large parties, went to movies, rode bikes, actually cleaned the bathroom together (which involved scraping off the nastiest soap scum you could imagine), and otherwise lived in communal housing. This was the summer Mikes Hard Lemonade became a thing, and we realized you could drink a case at home for $24.00 with 60 of your closest friends OR you could go out to a bar and drink a case for $120.00 plus tip...
Then the annual rent from $25K to $41.5K a year thanks to a weasley Boston realestate agent... and the house broke up.
posted by Nanukthedog at 11:10 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
Then the annual rent from $25K to $41.5K a year thanks to a weasley Boston realestate agent... and the house broke up.
posted by Nanukthedog at 11:10 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
Oh, man, for years I was under the impression that Gen X preferred to live alone because they needed the extra space to store their OK Soda cans and K Records tapes. Egg on my face!
posted by griphus at 11:10 AM on July 29, 2016 [15 favorites]
posted by griphus at 11:10 AM on July 29, 2016 [15 favorites]
we realized you could drink a case at home for $24.00 with 60 of your closest friends
Wait, you shared 24 cans among 60 people?
posted by Mental Wimp at 11:14 AM on July 29, 2016 [6 favorites]
Wait, you shared 24 cans among 60 people?
posted by Mental Wimp at 11:14 AM on July 29, 2016 [6 favorites]
Man, white people are the worst.
posted by lumpenprole at 11:32 AM on July 29, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by lumpenprole at 11:32 AM on July 29, 2016 [4 favorites]
Y'know, I also was looking at a generational motivation for this as well (and also a motivation for why the Gen-Xers I know would run screaming from this).I don't know. I'm a Gen Xer, and right out of college I rented a room in a group house with a bunch of other 20-somethings. I think we would run screaming now because we're no longer in the stage of life when this sounds appealing. But I think what's new is that communal living situations have gone corporate, not that communal living situations for young people exist.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:32 AM on July 29, 2016 [4 favorites]
Man, white people are the worst.
Speaking of universal New Yorker captions...
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:38 AM on July 29, 2016 [15 favorites]
Speaking of universal New Yorker captions...
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:38 AM on July 29, 2016 [15 favorites]
Okay but.... whatever happened to joining a club? or like.... playing softball? or going to a seminar at your local library? Like, yeah, people need community. But volunteering with a local charity is a HELL of a lot cheaper than paying an extra $1,500 in rent to live in a crap apartment that offers no privacy or stability whatsoever.
posted by Deeleybopper at 11:38 AM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Deeleybopper at 11:38 AM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
It's only a commune if there's an argument about the dish schedule, or whether or not someone should wear clothes in the common areas.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:42 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:42 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
Man, white people are the worst.
posted by lumpenprole at 2:32 PM on July 29 [1 favorite +] [!]
I love yt people jokes, but can you not? One of the founders is Asian, last name Liu, and erasing her identity is uncool. It hits too close to the "acting white" trope/
posted by FirstMateKate at 11:44 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by lumpenprole at 2:32 PM on July 29 [1 favorite +] [!]
I love yt people jokes, but can you not? One of the founders is Asian, last name Liu, and erasing her identity is uncool. It hits too close to the "acting white" trope/
posted by FirstMateKate at 11:44 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
People make all kinds of crazy lifestyle choices. Like spending an unnecessary $700/mo on cocaine, for example. I just cannot see the appeal of this. Is Brooklyn SO vastly cool that it can bend spoons and control the human brain? I've never been.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 11:44 AM on July 29, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by jeff-o-matic at 11:44 AM on July 29, 2016 [5 favorites]
And they can vote you out.
So it's like Big Brother, but without the cameras.
Except everybody is facebooking and instagramming all the time, so there's the cameras.
They all want to live in Big Brother.
posted by yesster at 11:45 AM on July 29, 2016 [4 favorites]
So it's like Big Brother, but without the cameras.
Except everybody is facebooking and instagramming all the time, so there's the cameras.
They all want to live in Big Brother.
posted by yesster at 11:45 AM on July 29, 2016 [4 favorites]
The impulse is very similar to cohousing setups, which I'm sure we've had posts about before. The implementation is the issue.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 11:46 AM on July 29, 2016
posted by vibratory manner of working at 11:46 AM on July 29, 2016
Commies.
posted by jonmc at 11:47 AM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by jonmc at 11:47 AM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
flashman: Lizzie Widdecombe wrote about this phenomenon for the New Yorker a couple of months ago, prompting Kate Santos of Los Angeles to pen a wonderful letter to the editor.
Her letter is fantastic. But so are all the other ones in that link.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:48 AM on July 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
Her letter is fantastic. But so are all the other ones in that link.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:48 AM on July 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
Okay but.... whatever happened to joining a club? or like.... playing softball? or going to a seminar at your local library?When I lived in a group house, I had a totally erratic work schedule, and I couldn't have committed to anything more than a week in advance. That makes it rough to build a community through activities. It's not like I could just join a softball league.
I was not these people: I had a crappy service job, and I was paying ridiculously low rent. But I understand the appeal, even though it wasn't a great set-up for me, personally.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:52 AM on July 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
Back in the last century, less-well-off young people on their own in the city would often live in rooming-house-style arrangements. Some of them were run by charities, like the YWCA. There was plenty of poverty and misery and social control in those places, too. But the loss of those options (due in part to real estate values and in part to the pressure cities reasonably ended up putting on some of the shadier SRO operations) has made it harder on the kids. I wonder if non-profits could run such places sustainably, perhaps with a time limit on residence to make sure they served people new to the city.
posted by praemunire at 11:53 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 11:53 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
I understand the appeal, even though it wasn't a great set-up for me, personally
I think you're thinking of the much more honest and organic (though probably stinkier and roachier) options of earlier decades, though. It's hard to imagine getting much creative stimulus or real camaraderie in these soulless high-turnover setups which substitute a big TV for community and think having a Facebook page means neighborliness.
posted by praemunire at 11:56 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
I think you're thinking of the much more honest and organic (though probably stinkier and roachier) options of earlier decades, though. It's hard to imagine getting much creative stimulus or real camaraderie in these soulless high-turnover setups which substitute a big TV for community and think having a Facebook page means neighborliness.
posted by praemunire at 11:56 AM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
Just reading the first few paragraphs of that makes me want to immediately send everyone involved a copy of Samuel Delany's The Motion of Light in Water, which is about his experiences with communal living in NYC in the 60s. The rest of you should read it too.
I was a young adult in the 80s, and lived in co-ops that had been started in the 60s and were still attracting us alternative types. I had friends who lived in a vegetarian co-op, and other friends who lived in a lesbian co-op. I knew people who lived together and were also doing art-as-activism performance stuff together.
I just found it interesting that the guy in the article is comparing himself to this idea he has that cooperative living is all about isolated communes. I know I was guilty of the same thing, but young people so often imagine they've invented something. They don't wonder if there's a history they don't know and maybe should. I'm not saying that the filthy, mouse-infested, patchouli-scented, nude-sunbathing-on-the-roof model of communal housing is the right model, or better than this one (except it was cheaper, that's for sure), but it seems like if you're trying to create something, it would be good to know what people have tried in the past, how it worked and how it failed to work.
Now on to Paragraph Four.
posted by not that girl at 12:04 PM on July 29, 2016 [15 favorites]
I was a young adult in the 80s, and lived in co-ops that had been started in the 60s and were still attracting us alternative types. I had friends who lived in a vegetarian co-op, and other friends who lived in a lesbian co-op. I knew people who lived together and were also doing art-as-activism performance stuff together.
I just found it interesting that the guy in the article is comparing himself to this idea he has that cooperative living is all about isolated communes. I know I was guilty of the same thing, but young people so often imagine they've invented something. They don't wonder if there's a history they don't know and maybe should. I'm not saying that the filthy, mouse-infested, patchouli-scented, nude-sunbathing-on-the-roof model of communal housing is the right model, or better than this one (except it was cheaper, that's for sure), but it seems like if you're trying to create something, it would be good to know what people have tried in the past, how it worked and how it failed to work.
Now on to Paragraph Four.
posted by not that girl at 12:04 PM on July 29, 2016 [15 favorites]
we realized you could drink a case at home for $24.00 with 60 of your closest friends
Wait, you shared 24 cans among 60 people?
I would guess that each of the 60 people were drinking a case.
posted by skyscraper at 12:08 PM on July 29, 2016 [5 favorites]
Wait, you shared 24 cans among 60 people?
I would guess that each of the 60 people were drinking a case.
posted by skyscraper at 12:08 PM on July 29, 2016 [5 favorites]
We don’t meet unlikely strangers in bars because we meet algorithm-endorsed matches through apps.
This is a striking point. When I think about Delany's memoir, or some of my own co-op housing experiences, they're marked by a breaking down of barriers. Especially in Delany's case—he lived in NYC communes, in The Village before it became The Village, and was connected with other group housing that included squats with and without plumbing. There was a lot of drug use and abuse, and the sort of sexual license you'd expect, as well as a really vibrant creative community. Even as co-ops were a way for like-minded people to band together (the lesbian co-op! the vegetarian one! the politically lefty one!) the low cost of entry meant that you'd get your share of eccentrics, people who found fitting into society challenging, and transients, people who needed a place to crash for a few weeks or months before they moved on to the next thing. My own experience of this was pretty narrowly lefty and white, while Delany's was much broader, but it still introduced me to a lot of people I wouldn't have met if I'd made more conventional housing decisions during those few years.
When you create a cooperative living experience that costs more than it would cost to get a loft with a few friends and acquaintances, you're isolating yourself in a different way than if you bought an old farm upstate. The "small town" you create within New York is a very comfortable small town populated by people who can also afford to pay that premium. It insulates you from the vibrant and kind of scary (for some people) economic and racial diversity of the city.
I found the phrase, "communal living industry" jarringly oxymoronic. I'm usually a person who supports people's right to have different goals and values, and to do what they can to meet those goals, even if they're not my goals, but I'm finding it hard not to judge these people.
posted by not that girl at 12:15 PM on July 29, 2016 [9 favorites]
This is a striking point. When I think about Delany's memoir, or some of my own co-op housing experiences, they're marked by a breaking down of barriers. Especially in Delany's case—he lived in NYC communes, in The Village before it became The Village, and was connected with other group housing that included squats with and without plumbing. There was a lot of drug use and abuse, and the sort of sexual license you'd expect, as well as a really vibrant creative community. Even as co-ops were a way for like-minded people to band together (the lesbian co-op! the vegetarian one! the politically lefty one!) the low cost of entry meant that you'd get your share of eccentrics, people who found fitting into society challenging, and transients, people who needed a place to crash for a few weeks or months before they moved on to the next thing. My own experience of this was pretty narrowly lefty and white, while Delany's was much broader, but it still introduced me to a lot of people I wouldn't have met if I'd made more conventional housing decisions during those few years.
When you create a cooperative living experience that costs more than it would cost to get a loft with a few friends and acquaintances, you're isolating yourself in a different way than if you bought an old farm upstate. The "small town" you create within New York is a very comfortable small town populated by people who can also afford to pay that premium. It insulates you from the vibrant and kind of scary (for some people) economic and racial diversity of the city.
I found the phrase, "communal living industry" jarringly oxymoronic. I'm usually a person who supports people's right to have different goals and values, and to do what they can to meet those goals, even if they're not my goals, but I'm finding it hard not to judge these people.
posted by not that girl at 12:15 PM on July 29, 2016 [9 favorites]
ComYouN®
posted by jeff-o-matic at 12:22 PM on July 29, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by jeff-o-matic at 12:22 PM on July 29, 2016 [4 favorites]
A room at Pure House costs between $1,500 and $1,800 per month.
Yes, rubes that are new to the city will often find themselves being taken advantage of in housing. It's the cycle of New York. Later on, when you wise up and score a rent-stabilized 2-bedroom from a friend that's moving to Albuquerque, you're only paying $1000 for a bedroom!
posted by Automocar at 2:16 PM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yes, rubes that are new to the city will often find themselves being taken advantage of in housing. It's the cycle of New York. Later on, when you wise up and score a rent-stabilized 2-bedroom from a friend that's moving to Albuquerque, you're only paying $1000 for a bedroom!
posted by Automocar at 2:16 PM on July 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
It's only a commune if there's an argument about the dish schedule, or whether or not someone should wear clothes in the common areas.
And a handwritten sign above the sink that starts out, "I wish people would..."
posted by Mental Wimp at 2:22 PM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
And a handwritten sign above the sink that starts out, "I wish people would..."
posted by Mental Wimp at 2:22 PM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
Don't worry, the corps have a option for the anti-social curmudgeons among us too! Pods!
NYC's micro-modular, Minecraft-era building rises in 1 month (~10 min Youtubery). Yes, it's kind of an ad/profile.
We've stayed in similar sorts of things for vacations. They're moderately comfy in a disposable Swedish sort of way.
posted by bonehead at 2:44 PM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
NYC's micro-modular, Minecraft-era building rises in 1 month (~10 min Youtubery). Yes, it's kind of an ad/profile.
We've stayed in similar sorts of things for vacations. They're moderately comfy in a disposable Swedish sort of way.
posted by bonehead at 2:44 PM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
Just reading the first few paragraphs of that makes me want to immediately send everyone involved a copy of Samuel Delany's The Motion of Light in Water, which is about his experiences with communal living in NYC in the 60s. The rest of you should read it too.
I skimmed the entirety of it at Openlibrary where you can borrow it in browser. I quite regret it.
posted by yoHighness at 4:14 PM on July 29, 2016
I skimmed the entirety of it at Openlibrary where you can borrow it in browser. I quite regret it.
posted by yoHighness at 4:14 PM on July 29, 2016
Like you Baby Boomer hippies didn't live in communes. Fuck right off.
It's not like the talker iteration of conning didn't have people making fun of them. Usually from people who lived in them, or the kids of commune members. I remember a lot of sarcastic Gen X and Gen Y memoirs that included "my parents were part of a commune."
posted by happyroach at 4:37 PM on July 29, 2016
It's not like the talker iteration of conning didn't have people making fun of them. Usually from people who lived in them, or the kids of commune members. I remember a lot of sarcastic Gen X and Gen Y memoirs that included "my parents were part of a commune."
posted by happyroach at 4:37 PM on July 29, 2016
I lived in shared housing until I was in my mid-20s. It was actually pretty great and I liked it most of the time, but hard to maintain stability. Once most of us found footholds in better parts of the job market, everyone spread out into places where they had fewer housemates, or lived alone. The parties were great both when we had crowded houses, and for the next ten years or so as people got into bigger places and could host more lavishly. But eventually a critical mass of my friends were parents and that way of life evaporated. I miss my housemates, my housemate's friends, and the way I could just make a big pot of soup and people would accumulate in my living room.
Several people I know from those days moved to the same cohousing community. It's great. The condo units are comfortable, people sit outside and visit in the summer evenings, there are meals in the common house, movie nights, house concerts, etc. I seriously considered joining them there, but it's expensive. This sounds like that, except it's cohousing prices for too-many-roommates type housing.
posted by elizilla at 7:46 PM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
Several people I know from those days moved to the same cohousing community. It's great. The condo units are comfortable, people sit outside and visit in the summer evenings, there are meals in the common house, movie nights, house concerts, etc. I seriously considered joining them there, but it's expensive. This sounds like that, except it's cohousing prices for too-many-roommates type housing.
posted by elizilla at 7:46 PM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
It wouldn't be for me, but I can see the appeal for some folks. If you're just coming to the city from a smaller community, if you're working a lot and you don't have the time or the connections to create a social life for yourself that's both away from work and away from home, if you're too tired to go out at the end of the day, if you want to be immersed among people with similar ideas to your own, if you really depend on your family and need a surrogate family right away, if you can't stand coming home from an empty house but don't want to play the Craigslist roommate Lottery - things like that. Yes, in a lot of ways it is like a boarding house, but it's got both practical and philosophical improvements on that model.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:32 PM on July 29, 2016
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:32 PM on July 29, 2016
This, like apodments, seems like a scam to reel in people who are either new to town and don't know any better or who don't really have many friends in the area in general.
As someone who is new to town and doesn't have all that many local friends yet, I really wish there were more housing options that had some community-ish aspects built in. The rooming house thing sounds like my idea of hell, but there are a lot of possibilities between that and the usual apartment complex.
posted by Dip Flash at 10:05 PM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
As someone who is new to town and doesn't have all that many local friends yet, I really wish there were more housing options that had some community-ish aspects built in. The rooming house thing sounds like my idea of hell, but there are a lot of possibilities between that and the usual apartment complex.
posted by Dip Flash at 10:05 PM on July 29, 2016 [1 favorite]
Sounds really fetch.
stop trying to m
oh wait I see what you did there
posted by tivalasvegas at 1:12 PM on July 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
stop trying to m
oh wait I see what you did there
posted by tivalasvegas at 1:12 PM on July 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
As someone who is new to town and doesn't have all that many local friends yet, I really wish there were more housing options that had some community-ish aspects built in. The rooming house thing sounds like my idea of hell, but there are a lot of possibilities between that and the usual apartment complex.
Interestingly, to my cynical ass, i noticed that several of the new apartment complexes in my neighborhood have a whole host of community features. Organized events, a large "hang out space" with tons of perks/activites in addition to the typical new building stuff(gym, etc) and all manner of stuff like group bike rides and whatever.
The catch is that these buildings are HEINOUSLY expensive for tiny units with sort-of-nice design-y interior finishes. Like, basically 3x what i'm currently paying.
So i guess that's a cool option if you're moving to town with a properly high income job... but then again, that's all anyone moving to seattle seems to be doing anyways now... so they're probably right on the money. ugh
posted by emptythought at 6:19 PM on July 30, 2016
Interestingly, to my cynical ass, i noticed that several of the new apartment complexes in my neighborhood have a whole host of community features. Organized events, a large "hang out space" with tons of perks/activites in addition to the typical new building stuff(gym, etc) and all manner of stuff like group bike rides and whatever.
The catch is that these buildings are HEINOUSLY expensive for tiny units with sort-of-nice design-y interior finishes. Like, basically 3x what i'm currently paying.
So i guess that's a cool option if you're moving to town with a properly high income job... but then again, that's all anyone moving to seattle seems to be doing anyways now... so they're probably right on the money. ugh
posted by emptythought at 6:19 PM on July 30, 2016
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this sounds like actual hell
posted by burgerrr at 9:41 AM on July 29, 2016 [62 favorites]