I'm off to Manhattan to get my teeth cleaned, get library books, edit a manuscript (to be sent off my desk like yesterday?) and be uber productive. And avoid heat stroke, as it will be 90 today and likely hotter in midtown. I thrifted this summer weight sweater knit top a while ago, and I decided that it might work in today's weather.
Thank you for your kind words about the dress. I will try styling it a bit tonight when I have a chance some free moments. I flaked out on a few things last night because I've been having housing anxieties. Our landlord is selling her brownstone, and groups of 10-12 people traipse in here every few days, looking our apartment. A few thoughts on this:
1) Someone once accused me of being a hipster gentrifier for moving into a "transitional" neighborhood. I replied that I was merely on object, not a subject or agent of any gentrification process, since I had the choice of very small places in "gentrified" neighborhood, or a more moderately sized apartment in a transitional one, (and for a work from home type, this is a no-brainer). We had a heated discussion at the Tip Top Bar (a dive bar turned white kid joint in Bed-Stuy), which was probably ironic, but I continue to hold my stance. Likely, Blokey and I will get chased out of our building by someone "making investment," falsely advertised that he can make 90K a year in rentals (our landlord does not make this much for 4 units), and end up possibly displacing many of the families on our block. Or this ambitious property owner will find, to his disappointment, and he can only charge what we are currently paying, but it will be too late for us. We'll already be kicked out/have left in a huff of anger.
2) I hate this sense of insecurity, and while I am loathe to join the mortgaged classes, I spent too much time doing so last night.
3) Condos have gone down the NYC boros and surrounding areas. But many are still "douchebag living" steel and glass monstrosities, environmentally unsound, and eyesores (and the result of really crap politics).
Ah, the marginal urban living dilemma. Blokey and I can continue to get outpriced (or out ambitioned) out of various neighborhoods for a while, since we need extra space, but to what end? Will we be forced to become rental pioneers in increasingly further out and marginal neighborhoods?
Thoughts about the urban non-rich living dilemma?
Hope you have a great Monday.
Top: Jcrew, thrifted
Skirt: originally dress, thrifted and turned into a skirt DIY
Belt: Not Just Vintage (Brooklyn)
Shoes: BC Footwear
Monday, July 12, 2010
Summer sweater
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How about you move back to Mpls where you could actually afford to buy? Seriously, Rad, we've got room!
ReplyDeleteYou look fully prepared for sweltering heat in that darling skirt.
Ugh, that's some not-fun news. I was worried about that when our landlord moved to Las Vegas last year, but thankfully he decided to keep the building and let us stay, presumably forever.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this is what you're asking since my head's a little cloudy right now, but personally, I'm okay to continue renting for a while. Condos in Chicago are outrageous if we bought in any neighborhood we'd actually want to live in, but more importantly, I just don't want to own a condo. If I buy, I want a house with a yard for Jude and my hypothetical kids to run around in.
Anyway, nice styling of the summer sweater. I love all the colors you paired with a neutral :)
Obviously the Twin Cities housing market is a lot different than NYC, but my husband and I had to do a lot of settling when we bought our current house. I like my neighborhood, but our house is tiny and needs work. We'd like to have something larger eventually, but can't afford something better in our current area. If we move to a larger place we’ll probably end up in a transitional neighborhood, since I don’t want to move to the ‘burbs, which then runs into the whole gentrification debate.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Brooklyn I lived in Bed Stuy (right around the corner from Tip Top, actually) and though I sometimes felt glares from people, I lived there for the same reasons they did. I could afford it.
ReplyDeleteIt is a touchy subject, because it encompasses so many other issues, but gentrification seems like something that cannot really be stopped. Middle class people get pushed out of neighborhoods too.
Now I live in an upscale neighborhood, and sometimes I feel guilty for living in too nice a place. I guess you can't win.
1. You look great for heading out to the city and keeping cool.
ReplyDelete2. Ugh - about the housing situation. Bay area prices are pretty ridiculous maybe just as bad as NYC's. WE live in ateeny place in a "good neighborhood" what that means is that we live in a low-crime very gentrified part of town. But, Piedmont has been that way since the early 1900's. While we would love a bigger palce- moving to a transitional 'hood. Is not an option.Not for us anyway as just a couple of years ago Mario was muggued/beaten by three guys in broad daylight - in our old neighborhood. While yes rent was much cheaper and you get more space - you also get more crime. WE would like to buy a house- but it's hard since 1 bedroom houses in neighborhoods we likea are over half a mil. and it's hard to save much money when you're paying high rent.
*sigh*
We have given up for now and have decide to revisit the idea of buying in a few years. And crossing our fingers that in the meantime a cheaper place becomes available in our part of town.
I wish you the best of luck in your housing search.
You look great in this outfit and I hope you were able to stay relatively comfortable despite the heat.
ReplyDeleteRegarding affordable rents, transitional neighborhoods, and gentrification, I think people prefer to make the process of a neighborhood transitioning sound much simpler and more black and white than it is. But I say this as a person who has only lived in fully transitioned neighborhoods in DC or in a rust belt city so inexpensive because of depopulation (resultant from deindustrialization) that my relationship with it has never been close to home. In Pittsburgh fears and cries of gentrification are often met by bookish urban studies folks with skepticism because the same neighborhoods are accused of being gentrified over the course of decades during which the actual evidence of this gentrification never comes to pass. I do see what Already Pretty is saying about the lure of less expensive urban spaces in that regard. I own a home here (well sort of... I am paying a mortgage here) with my grad student partner. Two grad student stipends in pittsburgh can yield property ownership. Not the fanciest of new upscale condos, but single family dwellings in solid shape in great neighborhoods. I know we academics don't get to pick where we live but perhaps if things end up moving in the direction of non-nyc job once you are on the market, then you can view that as a relative silver lining? In the meanwhile, hang in there and know that there are immense benefits to being located where you are despite the serious and legitimate material reality of being financially less advantaged than your level of education belies.
1) I enjoy this look
ReplyDelete2) I hear you. I would even take the "douchebag living" condos if I could afford them. Honestly I said that to my boyfriend when we were walking around the other night. I don't even care what the outside looks like any longer as long as something would be mine and I could work with the insides. However, I am picky about remaining in "Greenwood Heights" because of my feral cats (and I've been there 7 years and consider it home). And chances are I'll never be able to afford a mortgage here.
Sometimes I think about whether I'd move to a "smaller" city. But I don't think I'd want to live elsewhere - I just don't want to leave Brooklyn. I don't care how nice the houses are elsewhere or how pastoral it looks. I actually envision being totally depressed and disconnected elsewhere. Maybe if it were a small city with cheap housing and I had actually seen it but I don't know.
I don't know anyone in NYC who's purchased a home without help from family - $10k, $20k, 40-50k help from family!
I think I'm destined to rent forever. I'm trying to build up my savings and my credit score in the event there's a right time to "strike" but I'm not that hopeful.
Hey friends, thanks for your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI think more than anything, I was moaning that despite being a decently paid, well educated person committed to urban living (in the most annoying way possible- like I made my mother-in-law get blisters because I insisted that we walk everywhere), I have a series of unideal and precarious choices. I like my current living situation. I pay a lot in rent but I can still sock away money for emergencies and "the future." I am cheap but I have fun, occasional eat out, buy some thrifted clothes, and travel. I don't care if other make more money- they work hard and earned it (if not, there are enough hard things with being from a rich family that I don't envy). I just don't like knowing at these forces of urban (re?) gentrification will likely push me and Blokey around our fair city a lot, and no one intends to displace us, but that's the reality.
And the crazy thing is that I have a lot more agency than most in my neighborhood. I have good credit, savings, almost no debt, etc. I don't want to buy, but if I did buy, it would be a lot of money for not much, and I'd have to give up my urban dream.
I know that other parts of the country are not dreamscapes eithers.
@LaFille d'Or: I am so sorry to hear about what happened to Mario. That is awful. I understand that living in "transitional" neighborhoods is not for everyone. I've been there, too.
@JessPHG: I almost took a job in a post-indust city in the Midwest. A non-NYC job would be interesting, but I like urban places, and you know how it is in "the industry." Plus, I kinda love my rude mouthed, rough and tumble students, even when they piss me off.
@pineapplemint: That's an interesting idea, but I wonder if gentrification is really an unstoppable one way process? Some large scale PPP fail, and we know that NYC declined like crazy in the 1960-1980s. Who knows if a similar process is at play? A mortgage lady whom I spoke to claimed the bottom is far from out, and I don't believe there is a "recovery." But then again, I am an economist pessimist.
@Sal and Rebecca: MPLS is such a pipe dream, but the jobs are so good, that professors don't leave often. I am glad that MPLS is so underrated. I don't want it to become hip and inaccessible; I prefer it to be hip but unpretentious and accessible.
JAO: Blokey and would take douchebag living too. But then we'd be confused, probably end up wearing cargo shorts, calling eachother "brosef," doing high-five windmills, and ICE'ing eachother. Maybe.
great outfit today. I especially love the skirt.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry to hear about your living dilemma. The hubs and I were seriously considering moving to the city after I graduated but the cost of living just couldn't justify a move. So we just visit when we can! I'll keep my fingers crossed that everything will work out for you.
Oh, the owner selling the building dilemma. I'm sorry, it is no fun. I have been through it a few times. I will share my experiences if you'd like. Hang in there, bitch and moan, keep your fingers crossed, and have a back up plan.
ReplyDeleteThe added belt looks great. Hope you were uber productive today, despite the heat and the threat of displacement. Stay cool
Rad, when we moved to Brooklyn, it was to Park Slope--then (and this dates me) just being gentrified, and ending at 10th Street. Two years later we wanted more space & couldn't find an apartment we could afford in P.S. Friends who moved to Carroll Gardens about then (a dicier neighborhood) were able to buy a place, which they still own & it's now worth a fortune & since they've been there a long time, it's now paid for. They've been able to fix it up over the years & it's a great space. (We ended up moving to San Francisco, then to NC, finally to PA, but that's another story.) Buy "down-neighborhood" if you have to, but buy when you can afford to. Sometimes we entertain ourselves with "what-if-we'd-bought-that-place-on-11th-Street-and-PPW" scenarios.
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine you referring to anyone as "brosef"!
ReplyDeleteGreat color mixing and I love the shape of the top! Luckily MPLS is not NEARLY as bad as other urban areas, but our mass trasit kinda sucks for anywhere outside the city (as I'm sure you know!) I bought a condo in St Louis Park, as it was 1/2 price and twice as big as anywhere in Uptown (which KEEPS putting up high-rise douchebag glass and stainless steel etc places, despite the crap housing market) Luckily it's still close enough I can bike to my job downtown when it's nice out, or bus if I can get my ass out the door on time (if I miss the ONE bus, another one doesn't come for 50 mins)... So I can't complain too much but I know what you mean!
ReplyDeleteYou look great in this outfit and I hope you were able to stay relatively comfortable despite the heat.
ReplyDeleteRegarding affordable rents, transitional neighborhoods, and gentrification, I think people prefer to make the process of a neighborhood transitioning sound much simpler and more black and white than it is. But I say this as a person who has only lived in fully transitioned neighborhoods in DC or in a rust belt city so inexpensive because of depopulation (resultant from deindustrialization) that my relationship with it has never been close to home. In Pittsburgh fears and cries of gentrification are often met by bookish urban studies folks with skepticism because the same neighborhoods are accused of being gentrified over the course of decades during which the actual evidence of this gentrification never comes to pass. I do see what Already Pretty is saying about the lure of less expensive urban spaces in that regard. I own a home here (well sort of... I am paying a mortgage here) with my grad student partner. Two grad student stipends in pittsburgh can yield property ownership. Not the fanciest of new upscale condos, but single family dwellings in solid shape in great neighborhoods. I know we academics don't get to pick where we live but perhaps if things end up moving in the direction of non-nyc job once you are on the market, then you can view that as a relative silver lining? In the meanwhile, hang in there and know that there are immense benefits to being located where you are despite the serious and legitimate material reality of being financially less advantaged than your level of education belies.
How about you move back to Mpls where you could actually afford to buy? Seriously, Rad, we've got room!
ReplyDeleteYou look fully prepared for sweltering heat in that darling skirt.
When I lived in Brooklyn I lived in Bed Stuy (right around the corner from Tip Top, actually) and though I sometimes felt glares from people, I lived there for the same reasons they did. I could afford it.
ReplyDeleteIt is a touchy subject, because it encompasses so many other issues, but gentrification seems like something that cannot really be stopped. Middle class people get pushed out of neighborhoods too.
Now I live in an upscale neighborhood, and sometimes I feel guilty for living in too nice a place. I guess you can't win.