I moved to NYC on December 18th 1996. I had a $3,000 worth of palimony, a car I had left behind in Orlando and a black cat. I had a bunch of other shit too but that's not whats important here.
I had arranged to take over an apartment share in Sheepshead Bay. SHEEPSHEAD BAY. Little did I know that how disconnected living there would be. Seriously - I should have moved to Siberia..
But that's not what's important here.
Long story short.. and you can read some the the story here. I had to move out suddenly. I answered an ad in the Village Voice for a one room apartment in Downtown Brooklyn. The rent was $140 a week. Now that may not sound like too much money to YOU living in Brooklyn now in almost 2010. But I was a 28 year old aspiring ACTRESS from Florida. And $400 a month was more rent than I had ever paid in my life.
I always heard that apartments were small in NYC, but I never really believed it. Not that I thought people were lying when they were telling me that they had to pay $450 to sleep in closet and that it was literally a closet - and their feet were hanging out in the hallway - I just thought they were exaggerating. At least that's what I thought until I saw this apartment... if that's what you would call it.
I met my new landlord on a very cold December night outside a brownstone in Brooklyn. Someone was with me but he refused to show the apartment to anyone else but me. We walked up the creaky stairs on the second floor. It was one small room and to give you an idea of how small it was, I could stand in the center of the room, open my arms and rest each palm on either side of the wall. There was a single bed, a small refrigerator and an ar moire. There was not enough floor space to put down a litter box.
The bathroom was in the hall.
The landlord told me I was very lucky to have this apartment.
I don't remember much about my first night in this place. Only that it was very quiet, and I was pretty sure Rodney Dangerfield was living up the hall. I saw him walk to the bathroom in his bathrobe a few times.
I moved out the very next day.
Since then, I have lived in ten different apartments/shares mostly in Brooklyn. Rent has become the bane of my existence and stories about tenants rights, nyc landlords, housing laws all fascinate me. So as a side project. (and Lord knows I need a side project) I will be posting stories here.
Let's see how long this lasts.
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