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Dorms For Grownups: a Solution For Lonely Millennials?
HughPickens.com writes: Alana Semuels writes in The Atlantic that Millennials want the chance to be alone in their own bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens, but they also want to be social and never lonely.That's why real estate developer Troy Evans is starting construction on a new space in Syracuse called Commonspace that he envisions as a dorm for Millennials. It will feature 21 microunits, each packed with a tiny kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and living space into 300-square-feet. The microunits surround shared common areas including a chef's kitchen, a game room, and a TV room. "We're trying to combine an affordable apartment with this community style of living, rather than living by yourself in a one-bedroom in the suburbs," says Evans. The apartments will be fully furnished to appeal to potential residents who don't own much (the units will have very limited storage space). The bedrooms are built into the big windows of the office building—one window per unit—and the rest of the apartment can be traversed in three big leaps. The units will cost between $700 and $900 a month. "If your normal rent is $1,500, we're coming in way under that," says John Talarico. "You can spend that money elsewhere, living, not just sustaining."
Co-living has also gained traction in a Brooklyn apartment building that creates a networking and social community for its residents and where prospective residents answer probing questions like "What are your passions?" and "Tell us your story (Excite us!)." If accepted, tenants live in what the company's promotional materials describe as a "highly curated community of like-minded individuals." Millennials are staying single longer than previous generations have, creating a glut of people still living on their own in apartments, rather than marrying and buying homes. But the generation is also notoriously social, having been raised on the Internet and the constant communication it provides. This is a generation that has grown accustomed to college campuses with climbing walls, infinity pools, and of course, their own bathrooms. Commonspace gives these Milliennials the benefits of living with roommates—they can save money and stay up late watching Gilmore Girls—with the privacy and style an entitled generation might expect. "It's the best of both worlds," says Michelle Kingman. "You have roommates, but they're not roommates."
Co-living has also gained traction in a Brooklyn apartment building that creates a networking and social community for its residents and where prospective residents answer probing questions like "What are your passions?" and "Tell us your story (Excite us!)." If accepted, tenants live in what the company's promotional materials describe as a "highly curated community of like-minded individuals." Millennials are staying single longer than previous generations have, creating a glut of people still living on their own in apartments, rather than marrying and buying homes. But the generation is also notoriously social, having been raised on the Internet and the constant communication it provides. This is a generation that has grown accustomed to college campuses with climbing walls, infinity pools, and of course, their own bathrooms. Commonspace gives these Milliennials the benefits of living with roommates—they can save money and stay up late watching Gilmore Girls—with the privacy and style an entitled generation might expect. "It's the best of both worlds," says Michelle Kingman. "You have roommates, but they're not roommates."
There will be a few people that will completely ruin the shared living space for everyone, and if there's no one to police it, the whole place will go to hell.
Millenials are poised to be the richest generation the U.S. has ever seen.
You know, "Millennials" - that word we invented when we realized that although we taught our children to apply logical thinking and not make fallacious generalizations about arbitrary groups of people, and not to be bigots, we are ourselves unable to adhere to that standard, so we have labeled them and leveled our bigotry at them.
The most egregious thing is that they accuse US of things like racism, when they wouldn't even know what the word MEANS if we hadn't taught it to them [by example]!
So like assisted living for old people.
These sorts of projects either go *really* well. Or *really really* badly. It just depends on who owns everything, who is responsible for fixing/cleaning, and what sort of people you get in there.
So if you get a bunch of people who are really into 'lets fix everything' and 'here let me help you do that' you may do OK. If you get a bunch of slack ass jerk offs it will end badly.
Don't get me wrong, I like this idea, I've had similar ideas myself. It's when it becomes mandatory that I'm going to have a problem with it.
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Still too much for 300 square feet. That's a luxury apartment in Japan, and they still don't charge 700 to 800...ok maybe they do in some areas, but still.
I wish him luck, but I sure as heck wouldn't want to live there. Based on current dorm/apartment rent, I also don't believe for a second that he'll be renting them out at that price. I expect that the rent will actually be a fair bit higher when all is said and done.
This sounds like a traditional SRO -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_room_occupancy
Someone will apply, get rejected, and sue, because they were turned down due to age, income level, number of children, political affiliation, type of job - or any of the other hundred reasons to sue for housing discrimination.
"Highly curated" is just another term for "we don't want your smelly kind here, peasant!"
I had an interview with a young writer a few weeks ago and, after mentioning I designed retirement facilities for a living, remarked that she had just recently written an article on a newly opened facility in our area. She was fascinated by the place - it was just like being back at college. They had their own rooms plus common rooms, entertainment centers, activites and weight rooms, a pool, several cafeterias/restaurants, and busses to take you to the mall and on day outings to interesting places.
I'd never really thought of it like that, but it's true. I suppose it might be how a lot of people would live their entire lives if they weren't required to work.
Called an apartment complex. If the corporate owner slapped on a coat of exterior paint, added new landscaping and jacked up the rents, it's called an luxury apartment complex. An apartment complex next door to a college university isn't that far removed from a dorm.
This sounds ideal, until "that guy" moves in. The one that doesn't shower. The one that has loud sex. The one with no social skills and bad hygiene. He's go ta right to be there just as much as you do. Then what do you do? Ask him to leave? That's bullying. Put up with him? That's intolerable. Accept him? Ugh, I guess. Resentment builds, relationships fray. The communal paradise envisioned here seems perfect... until you add people.
They used to have adult dorms very similar to what's described...state mental hospitals. :-)
Seriously. I somehow doubt this catching on. Every Millenial portrait I've seen/heard/read is a caricature...I have seen very few people who fit what are cemented as unshakable models of the generation. Outside of San Francisco hipster startup culture, I doubt anyone actually wants to live in a college dorm past their early 20s. I graduated in the 90s, so I was just before the generation that had all sorts of crazy dorm amenities like private bedrooms...my brother who is 6 years younger than I got to experience apartment style living.
Just because people grow up with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter doesn't make them all narcissistic social butterflies. It seems to me that if someone actually wanted this kind of experience, they could choose to live in a densely populated urban core and talk to their neighbors more often.
What a wonderful euphemism for "no privacy at all." Have you ever lived in an apartment? I'm sure you could give a quite accurate account of everything your neighbors do in all three axis.
Excuse me? A room full of people staring at their phones is "social" now? I'm old? ( turned 30 in june )
A dorm is a place to got to sleep. If you want to get stuck with the same people stay in your parents house, is cheaper!. Go out, meet different people
No thanks. It was fun for about two weeks, then I made friends with people I actually wanted to spend time with, and they weren't my dorm mates.
21 microunits, each packed with a tiny kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and living space into 300-square-feet
I don't get it... Why are they calling 300 square feet "microunits"? Sounds like a relatively normal size to me... Of course, I live in midtown Manhattan, so for $2,200 a month my wife and I get a 350 square foot place in a building with 20 of them (though I think unit 1D, by the stairwell might be smaller). We have a nice kitchen...
> for lonely millenials
"If there's a hanger on my door knob, don't come-a-knockin' because I am busy making sweet love to my palm."
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
This is a great idea. It's hard to meet people and make friends after college, especially if you move to a new area. Sure, there's meetup.com, but they tend to be more activity focused than about making real friendships. Unless you have something like my parents did like getting involved in a church community, there's not much that bonds you with other people that live around you.
I don't think I could afford that.
FTFY
The one in New York has short contracts, I believe less than 6 months. I imagine they're targeting people new to the city and/or who haven't lived on their own before that think this idea, the way it's marketed, sounds amazing and then realize within 6 months it's a miserable way to live when they can find a slightly bigger space with fewer roommates for the same price. Even living like that is miserable and many people move off to other cities where they can afford more space for the same price.
I don't think this is a bad idea at all, but when I moved out of the dorm one thing I actually missed was the cafeteria and meal plan.
I remember disliking the food a lot, but although I ate better living in an apartment, eating better was a burden in terms of shopping, cooking, times where food got tossed because plans and schedules change, etc. I actually found myself missing the sheer convenience of food service. Even though I didn't always love what the hot choices were and opted for yet another salad and sandwich bar sandwich, all I had to do was show up.
The shared area around the rooms would be interesting (I remember the common areas being popular), but I would worry it would be too noisy and chaotic. They'd have to do something clever with architecture and flow to make it so that individual rooms remained quiet.
Why can't they create their own jobs by finding what people want, making it, and selling it to them?
What millenials REALLY want is affordable practical realistic proper housing.
This kind of reminds of me of Intentional Communties.
Co-ops or "Cooperative Houses" like this have existed forever, and they're still very common now. Usually they're older mansions converted into small apartments with communal bathrooms, kitchens, libraries and living spaces. This isn't a new idea, but of course Millennials have to re-invent everything under a new name so they feel like it's theirs and only theirs.
Reading the description, I was actually finding the idea appealing. I don't have many physical possessions as I travel/move a lot and I don't use much space, so a micro-apartment kind of makes sense. But the price is insane. My two-bedroom apartment in the suburbs is $700 and they want $700-900 for a micro-apartment that would fit in my living room. How does that make financial sense?
Even if they include electricity and Internet my two-bedroom apartment is still about on par with their dorm room cost-wise.
If this is anything like a university dorm, an RA will be around to connect such a tenant with an occupational therapist who can provide training in basic hygiene and social skills.
I see we have a selfish noise-maker here. Fuck you too. And use headphones you fucking asshole.
A dorm is a place to got to sleep.
True, reflecting the term's Latin roots.
If you want to get stuck with the same people stay in your parents house, is cheaper!
However, dorm life can be worth the expense if jobs near the dorm pay more than jobs near the parents' residence, be it in money or in career-relevant experience.
With 21 twentysomethings sharing space, I can only imagine the sheer amount of drama and bullshit that will occur on a daily basis.
Also, 21 people sharing a common space? This is Slashdot, I don't need to repeat the story of "the tragedy of the commons".
I can guarantee at least one, if not many slobs will live there. You (assuming you're not a slob) will be tasked with twice daily cleanup of doritos bags, half-eaten bowls of Kraft Dinner, and 40s. Occasionally vomit and bodily fluids, too. When you stop, they will buy paper plates and the place will be overrun with mice and cockroaches because unlike at college, there's nobody there to kick them out, and due to how tenancy agreements work, the landlord sure as hell won't be able to do it no matter what verbiage is in the worthless tenancy agreement.
The best part will be once you finally have the damn place clean and your friends come over, only find the weird neighbour busy pleasuring himself to porn. At least that might get the police to force him to stay in his room, mostly. Maybe... I mean, he'll just tell the judge he can't find anywhere else affordable to live (remember, these are cheap apartments!) and it's a human right to be able to cook his food.
Enjoy hell.
The reason you have these things separated in apartments is if you neighbour lives like a slob, it mostly doesn't affect you (the roaches might, hopefully shit doesn't get that bad... ...then again, bad neighbours are why fully detached homes are superior).
This was my dads old law office, he moved out a couple months ago... crazy. On a side note, Syracuse has seriously gone downhill since I lived there ~10 years ago. I wouldn't even consider moving back let alone to live in a community like this. No jobs, run down, the only thing there is SU and the mall.
The problem with this idea is that people will be fine with it for a year or two post-graduation, but it's going to start to suck fairly quickly after that.
It's not unusual for people to cling to elements of their student life after they graduate and get their first jobs. I did the same myself; moved into a shared house with a few people I'd known at university and tried to keep a student-ish lifestyle running alongside a full-time job.
It lasted 18 months. Then I gave up and rented a place on my own.
The demands of being a full member of the workforce are very different to the demands of being a student. When you're having to get up at a set time every morning (and generally pretty early), find yourself getting older and needing a regular sleep-pattern, needing a quiet space to do work that actually matters (rather than essentially being for your own benefit, as your work as a student was) and so on, the whole shared-living thing breaks down pretty rapidly. Irritations about your cohabitees different body-clocks, cooking smells, personal hygiene and expectations of reasonable noise levels all start to feel much more important than they did when you were still studying. And as you get more and more irritated with them, they are getting more and more irritated with you.
On top of that, this is generally the time when many people are going to be getting into more lasting romantic relationships, which might eventually lead to marriage and kids. This is not easy when you're sharing accommodation with a bunch of other people and personal space is a scarce commodity.
I guess they might make this work as a commercial proposition if it's a short-term rental affair. The problem is that if you get longer-term residents who age significantly past the incomers, this is going to turn into a vision of hell pretty fast.
What this certainly isn't is an alternative to providing sufficient quantities of decent quality new housing suitable for long-term occupation and family life. That's what we're very short of here in the UK. The issue here for Millennials is that whether or not they want to live like this, they may well have no choice. The option of renting my own place that was open to me more than a dozen years ago (let alone buying one, as I later did) is a lot less accessible now, due to rising rents.
At least the price is right unlike college where they cost more then renting ON YOUR OWN for not even full year round.
Framing microapartments as a solution for millennials is cute, but these are really designed to maximize the real estate developer's profit. These crammed spaces create other problems, namely parking (not just for residents, think visiting friends and family). In cities with extensive public transit, they may work better. For Syracuse, what is the point? The city council should think twice about allowing this type of housing.
Let me off.
Why are they calling 300 square feet "microunits"?
Because such an apartment is smaller than the smallest single-family dwellings that some city building codes allow. This has forced some supporters of the small house movement to mount a house on wheels to avoid regulations that apply only to permanent structures.
A highly curated community of like minded individuals sounds like the opposite of diversity. Or maybe they'll have a few tokens allowed in so they can point with pride to their open-minded brand of like mindedness.
Even Russia got rid of them.
When they reject my application because I'm 45, will that be discriminatory?
Co-ops or "Cooperative Houses" like this have existed forever, and they're still very common now.
That depends on the zoning code in effect where you live.
but of course Millennials have to re-invent everything under a new name so they feel like it's theirs and only theirs.
Or they may have to find a way to legally distinguish a slightly tweaked idea from an older idea prohibited by existing zoning codes.
The problem isnt the fact that we've destroyed the economy and rendered every student a walking debt calculator. Its certainly not the fact that we've turned every job into minimum wage, outsourced even the most remotely skilled work, and turned the modern housing market into a golden calf the likes of which no one can afford. No, child, the problem is, because I dont have grandchildren, you are in fact very lonely. you need to live in a tickytacky mansion of refurbished section 8 high-rise alongside your peers! people you love to 'face book' with would be just the cure for your lazy do-nothing attitude and inability to buy 3 televisions and a luxury sedan. Take it from me-- a housing developer from a generation of people who graduated highschool during the era of segregated drinking fountains -- Living "la vidah locah" in cramped squalor with shared showers, rampant athletes foot, unreachable building maintenance, single pane windows, cots made by prison labour, and unavoidable domestic violence around every hall is the way to go!
and whatever you do, dont pay attention to the housing surplus. profiteering speculators who pedaled the worlds financial institutions to the precipice of ruination know best. In short: keep that social security money and medicaid flowing.
Good people go to bed earlier.
"...Millennials want the chance to be alone in their own bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens,"
while Generation X wants to be alone in their mom's basement, but alas, their brothers and sisters came back home too.
Rule through fear instead of through idealistic government agencies.
lucm, indeed.
Co-op living have been around for a long time. Maybe they're trying to give it a more mainstream or upmarket image, but it's not really new.
Back 20 years ago 3 or 4 people would buy a hose or large apartment together and split the rent with each taking a bedroom. It was way cheaper than 3 or 4 single apartments and you would share the common space. Does that still exist?
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
So people want the headaches of dealing with potentially completely unknown strangers to have conflicts with? I used to work for a college and the dorms were dominated by conflicts between roomies 90% of the time from the sound of it... Regardless of how well they tried to find similar people to put together with surveys and other measures. That's also with thousands of people to work with each year as well.
These sounds like serious headaches.
we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
Assuming that their baby boomer parents bothered to leave anything for them. Millenials might be the first generation in a long time to get the shaft by their departing parents.
"Ask not what your parents can do for you – ask what you can do for your parents"
- Paraphrasing someone wiser and less entitled than you
lucm, indeed.
Seeing how Slashdot has gone down in quality, I'm not surprised some people still think U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M is a random string.
I'm way too old to directly relate, but I work with plenty of people in the millennial generation and can still remember what life was like for me in my 20's.
Off-hand, I can see the attraction for a certain segment of the population, but don't know that I'd call it a "trend" just yet? In a way, this reminds me of those restaurants (most often the Japanese Steakhouses) where they purposely seat you at a table next to a number of strangers. Some people really enjoy the encouragement to socialize it creates, but others simply find it uncomfortable and even if they had a good time trying it once, aren't eager to repeat it.
Just because the younger generation likes to stay in constant contact/communication via the Internet doesn't necessarily mean they desire the same thing in daily life, out in the real world. IMO, a lot of people who constantly chat online are the same ones who aren't that comfortable in traditional social situations. The Internet is their social outlet BECAUSE they don't find it so easy to casually chat with random people if they're placed in the same room with them and have to be judged by their clothing choices, facial expressions, etc.
With the 20-somethings I encounter at work, I see a lot of them pairing up as roommates with friends, but not so much interested in communal living arrangements.
...and Melrose Place seemed like a truly awful place to live.
Oblig...
My neighbor knocked on my door at 2:30 am? You believe that? 2:30 in the morning!
Lucky for him I was still up playing my drums.
Stop polluting the commons with your comment adverts. I hope you see the irony.
How is the implementation of the very things spelled out in the paper of Agenda 21 off topic?
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Millennials by and large generally suck. Narcissistic boobs.
How about finding an even longer term, beneficial solution.
Instead of finding ways to make a profit in this fucked up economy, why dont we fix it??
Why cant we as a society find a way to lower the cost of living??
I seem to remember a mention of living versus sustaining.
Well instead of these less than small studio's why not work on the bigger picture??
I mean, this sounds like a new way to edify, and appetizer shitty living..
Look up the Hotel Anaconda..
I mean, i see these places out in california, going for 400$/month. Ya they are shit bags, but its a roof over your head.
With the homeless rates up so far in both the east and west, wouldn't ya think a longer term solution would benefit society instead of fucking asshole shithead investors..
I love how at the bottom, after being insulted repeatedly about what I and my generation like, and are like (generalizations all of them), then I'm called entitled! Apparently, the one thing I am entitled to is brash generalizations about who I am and what I want.
I don't understand why this gets such negativity. I for one welcome the change in our stiff way of life. Living in a community makes people responsible and accountable. What happens when you take that away? Big city people. Have you met them? Everyone hates New Yorkers, Parisians, etc. Why? Because they don't live in a community, they're just another 'anon'.
In Capitalist US, the commerce controls the Government.
Looks like someone polishing the turd of diminished expectations forced onto millenials.
When will the Boomers finally have enough and stop raping their children?
First they stopped state funding of higher education and replaced that with "easy money" student loans.
Then they created and crashed the real estate bubble so their kids can't afford a house or even find a job that would pay enough to cover a mortgage.
Then they reneged on their pension obligations, substituting investing your retirement funds 401K in a rigged market.
The Baby Boomers - the Greatest Generation's greatest failure.
I'm not hearing your better idea, even after re-reading your post twice. There is, however, a lot of bitching. Which doesn't do 1 bit to fix the problems you're whining about.
sad...
like seniors apartments. Different amenities, but those can change as the overgrown children age
All the downsides of a small rural community (everybody knows everything you're doing and they all gossip so you live inside a potentially absurd reputation maintenance loop) combined with all the downsides of city apartments (you don't really own anything and are subject to the arbitrary decisions of the owners and politicals).
America was for many immigrants a chance to escape the tenements of Europe and carve a new life out of the American Indian...
But if you hate and fear the challenges of freedom, and want to live your life in a totally safe space, maybe tenements are perfect? I dunno.
I'm sure this is a desirable setup for some people, the main problem I see is that you will have roommates, and not roommates of your own choice.
Grab ten random people and just try to get them to agree on anything, say for example the dish washing schedule, or the reasonable time to turn down the volume on the gaming system. The more people you live with the more problems you have to deal with.
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
... the age of adulthood just increased from 27 to 35.
The concept sounds similar to the terrafoam welfare dorms from Marshall Brain's Manna:
http://marshallbrain.com/manna...
At least this building would have individual bathrooms, and the building's small enough that there are windows for everyone...
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
If they are provided by the land lords, you can mitigate that to a large extent by having underpowered bass and focusing on clarity over volume for the speakers. Also, the bedrooms are insulated from the common areas by the internal living room and bathroom.
They are wise not to buy them. I have never made a worse financial decision in my life than becoming a home owner, I discourage everyone I meet from ever purchasing real estate. Renting an inexpensive place and spending the difference on hard drugs is a far better idea.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Jesus christ, my studio apartment is 350 sqft with kitchen & bath. This isn't new, this is called "living within your means" in an expensive city.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
I recently completely my Ph.D. and despite my advanced education and skill I still don't make enough to realistically afford $700 for rent. I understand that majoring in the Evolution of Sanskrit probably wasn't the best choice, but it is what I am passionate about and in spite of my $150K in student loans (mostly because there is only one, very private, very expensive university in the entire country with Faculty well-enough versed in Sanskrit to act as advisors to me), I am happy with my choices.
Fortunately for me, my student loans will be forgiven over the next 5 years so then I'll be able to make more headway. I'm not sure what to do in the meantime, though.
I suspect that hotels operate on a different set of tenant laws (depending on state), where eviction is likely a whole lot easier to accomplish. I recall that, for instance, Oregon tenant laws allow for faster evictions of (and less stringent laws concerning) 'temporary' tenants (e.g. those who live in a hotel).
In most US states, law splits at 30 days. Under 30 days, it's transient accommodations (e.g., hotels, retreats, crisis centers, etc), over 30 days, it's a rental. Typically you can evict a "guest" (aka boarder or lodger) if they...
* can't pay
* overstays the contract period or otherwise violates the terms (e.g., smoking in a non-smoking room, having too many people in the room)
* safety risk (drunk/disorderly, infectious/contagious disease)
* violating the law (e.g., drugs, prostitutes, etc)
There generally is no appeals process for eviction from transient accommodations. The proprietor can simply change the locks (easy to do with common electronic keycards) or call the police and have the people and their belongings immediately removed for trespassing (just like a restaurant). That would be illegal for a landlord to do to a tenant.
The only catch is that if the hotel cannot simply throw a persons' belongings in the street if the person is not present, but generally has the duty to safeguard the personal belongings until the person returns for them (if they need to rent the room out again, the general procedure is to take a picture of all the crap, pack it up into a bag and put it in a locked closet). Generally, if it is unclaimed after 6 months, the hotel can dispose of the items.
There is also an in-between situation where you can be legally classified as a boarder/lodger even if you stay over 30 days. The distinction is if you occupy part of premises but whose occupation/residency is still under the control of the owner. For example, if you rent a room in someone's private house that doesn't have its own entrance. Or maybe the owner still vacuums your room periodically or provides laundry services for you or free breakfast, you might be a classified lodger/boarder instead of a tenant and sacrifice most tenant rights even though your stay is over 30 days...
The same people pushing these are the ones that have 50 percent of millenial workers being outsourced without benefits.
They're not your friends.
They're not your allies.
But they do embrace National Socialism.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Instead of a collection of itty-bitty bedrooms, co-op living is actually pretty damn good. I lived in the Co-op at UC Berkeley during my 3+ years there. I made some truly life-long friends there. You can't live comfortably in that unless you are social enough to accept the requirement to get along and do your part. Doing your part is essential in a co-op. Your mother doesn't live there anymore. If you don't do it, it doesn't get done.
It's also dirt cheap. Currently in the Berkeley Co-op, it costs about $700 for room and board. And just across the bay in San Francisco, 1 bedroom apartments are renting for $3500 to $4000/month.
It strikes me that creating a community without your "fatal flaw", that is, with the ability for the group to throw person(s) X out of their living space, is a lifestyle end game that will magnify political correctness, mommyism, retribution, and groupthink to their maximum level of imposition.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
College dorms run pretty well but there is a good reason why. Any problems in a dorm can bring down the wrath of Khan upon you. Getting tossed out of college without any refund or even a willingness to credit you for past semesters can come to roost in your gut over a single problem. A thrown punch meant expulsion. In some colleges one beer was enough to get you expelled even if you had that beer at home on New Year's Eve. A dorm run with a lower level of control may not work at all. And by the way $800 a month rent is far too nasty anywhere for any dwelling.
They are basically renting 300 sq-ft apartments with a nice common room. All the rest is bullshit.
How it will work will depend entirely on the rent price.
They are trying to push some "interesting" concept, but in the end it doesn't matter. What matter are the basics : price, size, location, ...
Says the guy bringing more attention to the posts he claims to hate, and ensuring that more of them will be made by engaging their poster.
Honest question. Have you recruited anybody from /. with that link?
I've been meaning to give it a try, but unfortunately I will be scrubbing the ref part when signing up.
Oy. That's like trying to fit your entire life into a room 17.3 feet on a side. Bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, everything. Not counting any walls that might subdivide that space. Even with terrific use of vertical space (unless far more abundant than horizontal space), that's pushing it unless your mode of "living" is similar to a monk's. Perhaps even then. Plus, in this case, you have common areas where you can't escape people you are very likely not to get along with. And very, very close neighbors. You'll end up living in noise-cancelling full-earcup headphones.
What this really says is you poor kids just don't realize how truly disadvantaged you are and how badly your preconceptions have set you up to tolerate suffering. I live in a home with one other person where we have about 5,000 (or 6,500 if you want to count some of the non-environmentally controlled spaces like the deck) square feet. That is what you can have. I really cannot understand why anyone other than a monk would think that trying to live within 300 square feet is anything but a punishment regimen. Not to mention the cost of $8000+ per year, which is like paying a premium to be abused.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
At least the price is right unlike college where they cost more then renting ON YOUR OWN for not even full year round.
Part of that cost is the convenience of being on campus at all times and not needing to commute. My university had a few buildings of single dorms for older students that were efficiency apartments and while they did cost a bit more than living off campus they were in no way ratty plus you were close to the classrooms, labs, libraries at all times.
I live in a home with one other person where we have about 5,000 (or 6,500 if you want to count some of the non-environmentally controlled spaces like the deck) square feet. That is what you can have.
If you live in 5,000 square feet for $700 per month, you're either in a very sparsely populated area or in a one-star town like Detroit. There's nothing wrong with that, but that's a lifestyle choice that has nothing to do with being a millenial or not. In any event I doubt that someone who would consider moving in a tiny bedroom in a shared living space because they enjoy the social aspect would be interested to live on a cottage in rural Idaho.
lucm, indeed.
Are you 4212163? If not, sorry. You looked just like 4212163 to me, Mr.U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M .
Should fill up quickly.
Isn't this just called apartments?
Local councils across the UK already do this. Small apartments for the lonely elderly and communal areas for them too. They also supply a member of staff who keeps everything running smoothly, deals with issues and check in on the tenants daily to see if they are ok.
Sounds just lovely.
This is fucking creepy as hell.
Jobs went away due to automated mass production.
On top of that outsourcing to other countries for products made in bulk.
The problem is the younger generation doesnt have money.
Most things already have companies making things people want.
And those companies have economies of scale.
The individual who would start out would find themselves quickly in the red!
I imagine they have quiet hours or whatever. In my dorm it was like 8pm - 8am. And since they already have an RA type person..
Sounds similar to the communal housing in some of Asimov's stories.
But more than anything, it reminds me of an ad for a retirement home. Your own limited room, and lots of common areas. But without the 24 hour nurse on duty.
Your parents severely fucked you up, kids.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
in the future, everyone is broke so we have to huddle together in ghettos known as dormitories
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
This is an old idea - and it is TERRIBLE. (Oregon Experiment) I lived in one for a while, and viewed many others, as they were the cheapest thing on the market in that area. Horrible, horrible places.
Imagine a shared apartment where you can't chose your roommates. You can't kick out a roommate who is abusive, noisy, or just a slob. Very high rates of depression amongst the inhabitants - the only ones that weren't, were never there (which is the only way to cope in that kind of space) The sane ones basically hibernate in their private unit (hence increased depression from isolation, which these.units claim to be a solution for). There really isn't any real privacy either. The worst of both worlds.
It's a shame, because as an architecture student at the time, I had heard about this and thought it sounded great (the other two books in the series are great). It only slightly works for student-age population where everyone is flexible enough to cope at least somewhat, but unless everyone has some sort of shared 'communal' ideology, it is an absolute nightmare for everyone - especially once people are adults launching careers (or even just working a day job - or worse yet, a night shift), or are old folks who should be in a retirement home, or are single parents, or meth-heads or junkies...
This is all hype to sell undersized units in a crashing economy.
Fuck off.
The space is pretty much the norm, by Asian standards. So basically they've taken an idea from East Asian (e.g. Japan but also including the less developed countries of South-East Asia and the non-ghost cities of China) countries with high urban densities and marketed it for Americans who don't want to live in the suburbs. The big difference is that they forgot to add additional stacks, since the typical configuration is packed both horizontally and vertically (i.e. high-rises).
Even though I didn't RTFA, even though I'm making fun of the part I quoted, I actually think it *could* be a decent idea.. if the bedrooms are relatively sound-proof (and don't read anything into that other than wanting to be able to sleep at any time).
But "their own bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchens" really IS most of a house, to me. (e.g. my sole TV is in my bedroom.)
Having some other shared areas would be reasonable, IMHO.
As someone who loves solitude 24/7, I can't see myself living like this.
" - Paraphrasing someone wiser and less entitled than you"
Wiser not so much - less entitled NOT BLOODY Likely.
He was a KENNEDY. Born with a silver bootlegger spoon in his mouth, and TONS richer than most of us.
This living situation has advantages but not as a manefestation of greed. I live in PDX and rents being as they are moved to suburbs. I can get a 2 bedroom apt for that!! There are buildings that get bought and rent hiked, new buildings filled in 6 months, raised the rent 30%.. So fuck greed and fuck paying >50% of income for rent. AT REASONABLE PRICES a good choicez.
411 Y0UR 8453 4R3 8310NG 70 U5!! -NSA
As a lonely 30-something this sounds horrendous. No thanks.
Rents in those areas are hilariously high, and they don't need space for more than the 4 S anyway (sleep, shit, shave, and shower). So you can get the space you need, save money on rent without having to spend the money on commutes. The social side is just basic condo perks.
Now, here's hoping they don't skimp on the soundproofing...
Yeah, but this Syracuse, NY we're talking about. I'm a local in the area and it's hardly a thriving metropolis as you're making it sound. I don't understand where the demand for this millenial housing is, especially being a millenial myself who lives at home in a nearby suburb. (I'm an employed engineer, so I'm at least not a complete waste of space like those communications majors).
A lot of industry has moved out, leaving only Lockheed Martin, SRC (Syracuse Research Corporation, a defense contractor), Sensus (who designs commercial radars for airports), and a handful of medium-sized companies. More and more are slowly leaving the area. While there are still some companies which are still in the area, you'd be better off in more conveniently situated cities like Buffalo, NY if you're looking for work. Carrier Corporation of United Technologies (UTC) used to have a large site here, but it's largely decommissioned and only acts as a research and training location now. Bristol-Myers Squibb long moved out and our local automotive plant for Chrysler parts was closed around a decade ago. Because of that, not much money is coming into the area.
The arts scene is frequently overshadowed by nearby cities like Rochester, NY and the last attempt at infusing money into the area was a crony construction mogul who got the rights to expand our local mall, "Destiny USA." It's built on large foam blocks situated on wastebeds from our nearby lake, once one of the most polluted lakes in the world due to industrial dumping in the early 1900s. The mall was an attempt to revitalize commerce, but it's plans were cut short when they found that excessive expansion would cause the mall to slowly sink into the lake. (Honeywell bought the company that was responsible for some patents, so it's slowly being cleaned up. Before, there were severe concerns over organic mercury content in the water and you would be kept overnight in the hospital for monitoring if you fell into the lake.)
There are some theater groups, but nothing unlike those in nearby cities. I have a friend who works in the stagehands guild and the HQ is in Rochester. That means we mostly have local production and only get the occasional larger shows on tour when combined with the clought of our three local universities.
It's downtown scene consists of 3 blocks with about 10 bars, most of which are not anything too special. Hardly a "happening" place. It's only a few blocks from the ghetto, so you get homeless that wander around during Friday nights pan-handling while people are trying to get into the bars. Go too far and you're in the bad neighborhoods of gangs and drugs. Police even dispatch a few cars every weekend during the nights to help keep the order (and to watch for disorderly under-age alcohol consumption).
The only things to our credit are our central location in the state, so we host the state fair every year. That and Syracuse University has some good sports team, although I don't follow enough to know which sportsball team is the best (college basketball, I think?).
We're effectively a massive college town that subsist on our former industrial inertia and some minor tourism money. Who are the millenials that would fill the housing? Kids who finally want to move out of their parents' homes? College kids who don't like campus housing and would pay for effectively the same thing far away from campus? I saw friends post on social media about it and most were saying that the price was way too high for a place in Syracuse (and most of my friends are engineers, with above average pay relative to the typical income in the Syracuse area). If situated in another city, I can see more merit in the idea...
Yeah, but this Syracuse, NY we're talking about. I'm a local in the area and it's hardly a thriving metropolis as you're making it sound. I don't understand where the demand for this millenial housing is, especially being a millenial myself. The pricing is not that good, especially when you can find cheape, larger apartments with a regular roommate. We're talking prices downtown in the most eventful locations. These apartments are not located that closely. So then there must be something about Syracuse which warrants the price... right? Otherwise, you'd be better off doing this type of living arrangement somewhere else.
A lot of industry has moved out, leaving only Lockheed Martin, SRC (Syracuse Research Corporation, a defense contractor), Sensus (who designs commercial radars for airports), and a handful of medium-sized companies. More and more are slowly leaving the area. While there are still some companies which are still in the area, you'd be better off in more conveniently situated cities like Buffalo, NY if you're looking for work. Carrier Corporation of United Technologies (UTC) used to have a large site here, but it's largely decommissioned and only acts as a research and training location now. Bristol-Myers Squibb long moved out and our local automotive plant for Chrysler parts was closed around a decade ago. Because of that, not much money is coming into the area. That means low employment growth and not much money to fund a thriving scene.
The arts scene is frequently overshadowed by nearby cities like Rochester, NY and the last attempt at infusing money into the area was a crony construction mogul who got the rights to expand our local mall, "Destiny USA." It's built on large foam blocks situated on wastebeds from our nearby lake, once one of the most polluted lakes in the world due to industrial dumping in the early 1900s. The mall was an attempt to revitalize commerce, but it's plans were cut short when they found that excessive expansion would cause the mall to slowly sink into the lake. (Honeywell bought the company that was responsible for some patents, so it's slowly being cleaned up. Before, there were severe concerns over organic mercury content in the water and you would be kept overnight in the hospital for monitoring if you fell into the lake.)
There are some theater groups, but nothing unlike those in nearby cities. I have a friend who works in the stagehands guild and the HQ is in Rochester. That means we mostly have local production and only get the occasional larger shows on tour when combined with the clought of our three local universities.
It's downtown scene consists of 3 blocks with about 10 bars, most of which are not anything too special. Hardly a "happening" place. It's only a few blocks from the ghetto, so you get homeless that wander around during Friday nights pan-handling while people are trying to get into the bars. Go too far and you're in the bad neighborhoods of gangs and drugs. Police even dispatch a few cars every weekend during the nights to help keep the order (and to watch for disorderly under-age alcohol consumption).
The only things to our credit are our central location in the state, so we host the state fair every year. That and Syracuse University has some good sports team, although I don't follow enough to know which sportsball team is the best (college basketball, I think?).
The weather is among the worst, barring any natural disasters. We get similar precipitation to the Pacific Northwest (think Seattle, WA) and some of the highest snowfalls in the country. If you like gray skies most of the year and gray skies plus two feet of snow every week, then that's Syracuse.
We're effectively a massive college town that subsist on our former industrial inertia and some minor tourism money. Who are the millenials that would fill the housing? Kids who finally want to move out of their parents' homes? College kids who don't like campus housing and would pay for effectively the same thing far away from campus? I saw friends post on