Making Room: Can Smaller Apartments Help New York City Grow?
New York City is notoriously crowded, and it's only getting more so. The city estimates it will have 1 million more people by the year 2030, many of them single. Where to place all these newcomers is a major challenge.
Mayor Mike Bloomberg has announced plans to put up an experimental building of micro-apartments that could be replicated throughout the city. And the Museum of the City of New York is looking at ways to make better use of the city's housing stock.
Walk around the back of a house in Queens and you'll find a dingy basement apartment no bigger than 600 square feet. Twenty-seven-year-old Hrishikesh, a cabdriver from Bangladesh, lives there with three other men — for $300 each.
Hrishikesh, who didn't want his last name used, says he likes having the company of the other men, but it gets really crowded. The men have to sleep in shifts: two people sleeping, two people working.
Small But Illegal Spaces
This neighborhood is filled with illegal apartments like this, carved out of basements and attics. Donald Albrecht, a curator for the Museum of the City of New York, says many are firetraps.
"Oftentimes, a small wall will be built," he says. "And this is a problem when if there's a fire, the fire department comes and discovers a wall that they don't think would normally be there. So it's illegal, it's uncomfortable and it's unsafe."
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