

Micro-Apartments: Boston’s Housing Solution Or Developers’ Cash Cow? - samkline
http://www.wbur.org/2014/02/17/micro-apartments-boston

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mal-2
The housing situation in Boston is at crisis level already with no signs of
improving. This city has some of the best schools in the country and attracts
some of the most ambitious and passionate young people in the world but can't
figure out how to house them or transport them.

Busses and trains are invariably packed beyond capacity, no one can afford
their own place, and landlords aren't held accountable for property quality.
Blame decades of zoning laws and historical fetishism that prevented high
rises from being built and kept us all in buildings with single pane windows
and only three bedrooms. At least they have pretty old bricks outside....

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205guy
The micro-apartment in this story seemingly includes large common areas,
including a reservable conference room. That's a great idea, I'm not sure I've
seen much of that in SF.

But then, each unit has its own clothes washer/dryer. That seems really
inefficient in terms of unused space and appliances (not to mention added
water and drain infrastructure throughout the building). Putting a laundry
room in the basement, or mabye one on every floor, with coin-op machines seems
like a much better idea all around. Most older apartment buildings have this
arrangement, so it's not something unusual.

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curiousquestion
people in Boston, or any major metropolitan city are (to be politically
correct) mentally handicapped thinking that $1700 per month for 450 sq ft of
space is ok.

I have my own consulting business out in the midwest. All my clients are
remote, and in January I paid around 33% (utilities included) of that rent
figure for my housing, for approx. 4x's the sq ft, and made almost 15x's the
above figure last month.

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astrodust
It's expensive, but there's culture there you can't replace.

You can live in a shack in the woods for next to nothing, but do your peers
live there? Are you comfortable remoting in? Can you meet with investors who
work in or near Boston on a moment's notice?

The solution here is not to push people out of the cities but to make the
cities more livable for those that want to live there.

You have a great consulting business, but living way outside of an urban area
is a lifestyle is not for everyone.

