this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
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A Boring Dystopia

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The project is maybe not the worst idea, the $1400 rent a month though....

Oh and this was not the first plan:

“We were thinking of turning it into a WeWork space, a concert hall, a beer garden. We had no shortage of ideas on what to do with the space,”

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I'd have loved to see them make them low income affordable.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The whole story is oddly frustrating. The average rent in the area is $1189 FYI.

[–] givesomefucks 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, but they're also 150-200 more sq feet, with 12 feet ceilings and newly renovated...

Average rent includes shitty run down ones as well, which these days are most apartments.

The other community this was posted to was a "good news" community even.

This just doesn't really feel dystopian

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The literal only other time I have seen a school turned into apartments was for subsidized housing, they needed to all but gut the inside of the building to make it work. This was not done here, these are class rooms with extra plumbing.

The overlap of the good news posts and dystopian posts have always been oddly large.

[–] givesomefucks 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Your article says they had trees growing inside the building...

And that they worked with a parks department to maintain the original look.

So ironically, them trying to maintain the history is why you think they're overcharging.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

They wanted to make it a "we work" at first, its not the overcharging that is the issue. The issue (at least for me) is turning every thing into a business venture. This was once a public building for teaching kids and was bought on the cheap to turn into another trendy revenue source.

[–] lowEndLitt 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I wanted to disagree with you at first, because I love the idea of repurposing old structures instead of building yet another soulless, "modern" apartment building, but yeah, they're clearly doing this with the intent of turning a profit when it could have been another example of non-market housing, where the cost of rent simply covers the cost of building maintenance and actually helps to stabilize rent costs in an area.

TL;DR: Once again, a cool thing is made less cool by the profit motive.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 hours ago

Maybe that is why I got a "dystopia" feel from this more then anything, its almost a cool thing. I would be I think much more willing to go along with this if it was not put up as a "feel good" story that to me has very little good. I get more "we work" style hipster scam then a long term usable housing solution.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 day ago

Lol what a comment

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Depending on where you live, $1400/month is REALLY cheap.

[–] TommySoda 4 points 1 day ago

That's only a hundred bucks more than my studio that's in a bad neighborhood with drugged up neighbors that have not once, not twice, but three times hit the hood of my car with what looks like a metal bat or crowbar. I'll take an old school any day.

The good thing is I don't care about cosmetic damage and I have insurance, but it's the principle of the matter.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I'm paying that in Austin. It's great.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

it's pretty rare you get a developer who wants to enter the housing market at 'affordable.' more housing is good, people who can afford it will move to them if they're fairly priced, putting their older units on the market. if they're unfairly priced then the price will come down.