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[jaydub]

Landlords taking advantage of gullible white folks?

[wombat]

I would be interested to see a map of how far away keepers at the Bronx Zoo have to live to find apartments on their salaries.

[theinevitable]

I was going to say that $2k is probably the fair market price for these apartments, but at this point it's probably fair anyone who moves to NYC "gullible." Unless you are making beaucoup bucks

[pmcd9]

I don't know how anyone except the super wealthy can afford to live there.

[KeithHernandez]

No, no!  The musical styles complement each other really well..especially when they're self aware enough to pull in some Country riffs (on account of Scots/Irish Appalachia).

I was just talking shit.  I mainly dislike it cause I dislike Irish pride in Americans, but my best friend and dad both do that, so like, not judging?

[theinevitable]

I don't know how anyone except the super wealthy can afford to live there.

Lots of roommates.

Also, urban planning/public policy trivia: according to the US government, "affordable" housing means you spend 1/3 of your total income on it. But a pretty enormous percentage (maybe over half??) of NYC residents spend more than 1/2 their income.

[theinevitable]

I would be interested to see a map of how far away keepers at the Bronx Zoo have to live to find apartments on their salaries.

You know I couldn't let this slide.

A "Provisional Wild Animal Keeper" at the Bronx Zoo starts at $37k.

This is above the median income in the census tracts that are the lightest color in this map (not the white ones, the lightest yellow that is most of the south Bronx-- the white means "insufficient data"), and about the same as the median income in the orangey ones to the east of the zoo/botanical gardens.


So it looks like they can live pretty close to work. The census publishes average rent numbers but they don't work on the handy dandy internet mapping tool. So I just went with median income. The median household income in Bronx County as a whole is $34,284.

I can make you a fancy version of this with a title that says "neighborhoods where a provisional wild animal keeper at the bronx zoo can afford to live" when I'm at the computer lab.

Whoa, what!? The little corner of the Bronx above Inwood (Spuyten Duyvil?) has a median income of $100,000.
There are a few tracts in Brooklyn where it says the median household income is $11,000!? Insane. East Flatbush is some serious shit.

And to put that in perspective, several of the tracts surrounding my old job were around $10,000 too. Yikes.

(This internship is making me think I picked the right profession. Although I would like to go to more community meetings and spend less time clicking the computer c*ck. Also... I spent 8 hours making maps like this today but just made another one for fun.)

[wombat]

That's interesting. My experience at National is that it seems like a lot of people live really far away and I assumed NY would be worse. On the other hand I wonder if a lot of them choose to live farther away because those neighborhoods are cheap because they are not nice places to live? My experience of that part of the Bronx is like decades out of date. I know someone who worked there fairly recently - I should ask her. It could be an interesting take on what the map can and can't tell you.

[theinevitable]

Those cheap neighborhoods have 30-40% poverty rates. So maybe they are not lovely places to live.

...I just looked and the neighborhood I lived in in St Louis had a 30% poverty rate. Hmm.

I am applying to jobs this weekend, and sending resumes where I have 3 recent urban planning jobs/internships feels so good compared to sending my "Barista and Cashier, 2010-2014, St Louis Missouri" resume a year ago.

[theinevitable]

My crazy roommate left notes for all of the people in our buildings telling them to please not slam the front door late at night, which she says wakes her up every night. She went on and on ranting about how inconsiderate and shitty it is, and how she can't imagine anyone so awful that they would slam doors in a building with other people (??).

...she lets the door slam every morning and wakes me up when she leaves for work. It doesn't bother me that much, so I just sat there grinning while she played herself.


Even better: just realized I have 2 weeks between when my last project is due and graduation? What is that? I guess the answer is time to look for jobs.

[pmcd9]

My crazy roommate left notes for all of the people in our buildings telling them to please not slam the front door late at night, which she says wakes her up every night. She went on and on ranting about how inconsiderate and shitty it is, and how she can't imagine anyone so awful that they would slam doors in a building with other people (??).

...she lets the door slam every morning and wakes me up when she leaves for work. It doesn't bother me that much, so I just sat there grinning while she played herself.

Haven't we played this scene before?

[theinevitable]

I think last time we talked her out of it. Or at least I never heard about the outcome.

[theinevitable]

I took the subway out to Bushwick, Brooklyn after work to find the mural advertising the new Parquet Courts album. There was also a newspaper machine that they have rigged up to sell posters, but unfortunately it was empty by the time I got there. Still cool to see. So I went into the bar right next door and drank a beer and read for a bit before taking the train home. I miss having close friends here, but I really enjoy going on adventures like this without having to consult anyone else, worry that they're getting bored, etc.

It was interesting to see the makeup of the neighborhood after looking at all kinds of demographic stats for the area at work that day. South of a certain street I was one of the only white people walking around, north of it everyone looked like me and was dressed like a hipper version of me. I felt out of place in my "just got off work" outfit which usually blends in wherever I am.

Next week I'm going to Boston. That should be fun.

[pmcd9]

I'm interested in this newspaper machine that dispenses posters.

[pmcd9]

By the way, I used to own a newspaper machine (I stole it in my misspent youth) and if it operated like that one once you put in your .25 or whatever you could actually take as many papers as you wanted, but who would want more than one? It might be a different situation with posters where one might easily want 2 or maybe all of them to resell on EBay or CraigsList.