Ever feel like you just don't have enough space to entertain guests or otherwise enjoy your New York City apartment? Well don't complain to this guy.
Meet Jack Leahy and his 40 square foot apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. According to the New York Times, Leahy pays $450 per month for his pad, or $11.25 per square foot. The apartment is 9 feet in length and 4.5 feet wide which is just enough room for a twin-sized futon mattress. And standing room is not included throughout with the ceiling measuring only about 5 feet high on one end of the apartment.
While $450 per month may seem like a bargain to most New Yorkers we think Leahy may have been taken for a ride. We found some "nice" 700 square foot pads just across the bridge in Greenwich Village for $9.25 per square foot and they even come with a bathroom. Though we suspect Leahy's not too worried about the math, he's just "happy to be in New York."
“I think I was happy to be in New York and that I actually had a place,” Mr. Leahy said. “It was just kind of comical. It is comical. Whenever I show people where I live, they always laugh.”
Leahy also loves hanging out with the 7 other "artists and creative types" in his building which is fantastic news given that he shares 1 kitchen and 1.5 bathrooms with them.
He awakens many mornings to the sounds of experimental theater: strange clanging, performers speaking in gibberish, chants. The space is ovenlike in the summer, cozy in winter.
And though he doesn’t see much of them, he likes his quasi-roommates: seven other artists and creative types who live in the warren of more traditional rooms at the back of the building. “Though I’m always jealous when I see them sitting on chairs in their rooms,” he admits.
We're not contractors, but something tells us that Leahy's apartment may not meet all of New York's building codes (e.g. the need for two exits in case of a fire) and he may have just sacrificed his living space for his 15 minutes of fame.
Poster Comment:
Immigration drove up rents. You have to bid apartments away from floods of immigrants.