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Saturday, October 13, 2007

The End of Happiness

posted by on October 13 at 9:44 AM

Today is my last day in Stuyvesant Square, Manhattan.
-1.jpeg I spent a week in a comfortable, one-bedroom apartment on the seventh floor of a complex. Here, each room is like other rooms; each building is like other buildings; each building is an island in the sun.

A description of Stuyvesant Square in the New York Times:

The Stuyvesant Square neighborhood is in every way unrelated to Stuyvesant Town, the rental complex not far away that recently sold, with its cousin Peter Cooper Village, for $5.4 billion. The rental communities consist of 110 uniform, nondescript brick buildings…
Because it is clean, efficient, and unified, Stuyvesant brought me as close as I have ever been to living in an ideal socialist society. Indeed, the complex is something of a socialist theme park for us dreamers and seekers of utopia.

RSS icon Comments

1

Just because I'm curious, how much is the rent in your socialist utopia?

Posted by Lee Gibson | October 13, 2007 10:06 AM
2

"The rental communities consist of 110 uniform, nondescript brick buildings…"

And that sounds like my idea of hell. According to this post, socialism is the ultimate in BOR-ING. At least the communists had some bitchin' propaganda art and architecture.

Posted by Anne | October 13, 2007 10:29 AM
3

I'm equally confused, if I'm looking at the correct link. Annual? Are those daily prices? Weekly prices? I'm still slightly drunk from last night. Help.

Posted by Mr. Poe | October 13, 2007 10:29 AM
4

Leave him alone, Lee, let him dream. Me, I know where he's coming from.

Posted by Timothy Hicks | October 13, 2007 10:29 AM
5

According to the NYT article the rents start at $1,800/month for a 2-bedroom without doorman. No mention of studios or 1-bedrooms. Of course that was a year ago. Condos start at a million.

Worker's paradise indeed!

Posted by larry | October 13, 2007 10:51 AM
6

I see now.

That is not a good deal. Just sayin'.

I also just realized I don't know where my wallet is. Holy fuck.

Posted by Mr. Poe | October 13, 2007 11:00 AM
7

Why do so many Stranger writers seem to hate Seattle?

Posted by lorax | October 13, 2007 11:14 AM
8

Charles, love your post. Like you I grew up in a home with several maids, a chauffeur, and a cook. But I'm a marxist/socialist now. I have a cousin who is an attorney who just bought a condo in Stuyvesant. It's a lovely neighborhood, and an example of how great Seattle could be if the racist, Christian Seattle locals would only tear down their single family homes a allow density, socialism and a real city to grow.

Posted by Issur | October 13, 2007 11:18 AM
9

Yeah!! Thats what I'm talkin' about. A clean snazzy Über-chic environ, where the posh proletariat can gather with his/her likewise fashionistas and plot the revolution(it never looked sooo good). Power to the Pea-coats.

Posted by gucci clad marxist | October 13, 2007 11:32 AM
10

not gonna be found on SLOG

Posted by your wallet | October 13, 2007 12:52 PM
11

$1800/mo for a 2-bedroom rental in manhattan is a steal. $1 mil for a condo is a rip off anywhere.

Posted by brandon | October 13, 2007 1:25 PM
12

I agree with #11. Two people sharing a clean, comfortable apartment in the heart of New York City for $900 each? Are you kidding? Worth every penny.

Posted by Irena | October 13, 2007 2:30 PM
13

My favorite memory about "Sty-Town" were the gigantic piles of trash that form on the small streets around the complex.

Posted by Paste Dogg | October 13, 2007 4:17 PM
14

Yet again I find that fun and socialism seem incompatible.

Posted by The CHZA | October 14, 2007 7:09 AM
15

Sounds like a theme park all right: a fantasy wold erected and maintained by thousands of unseen others who couldn't afford to live in the world they are paid to build for others, even assuming they would choose to.

Posted by torrentprime | October 14, 2007 11:25 AM
16

I loved living at Stuy Town! Good thing I loved it then, because now I'm broke and I live in Brooklyn.

Posted by bubbleT | October 16, 2007 7:49 AM

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