SoHo Gets Something New

Wow. Awesome but how do working artists afford it? I can't afford new W&N brushes. Just asking.

ridiculously expensive; having kids trying to live in broke-lyn I was interested but now I realize it's really in richmantophattan. When will somebody do something about rents, huh? And yes, of course my kids are artists. Marble should be banned anyway - they re not making any more of it - why on earth should spoiled One-percenter Manhattanites be allowed to plunder the earth while they go slumming in Broke-lyn.

I am a native New Yorker and I have to say the Real Estate section of the Times is increasingly absurd and out-of-touch - seemingly in the pockets of developers and perhaps real estate brokerage firms as public relations marketing and placement. The entire NY Times Real Estate section needs a good jolt of reality with articles that make sense. I finally had to write about this as a $13 million residence in Soho is not even close to what working artists would be able to afford. And by the way, to illustrate just how out of touch the Real Estate section of the Times really is...working artists have not lived in Soho for the last 25 years at least...unless they were living there prior in a rent stabilized situation. They live in Brooklyn or in the outskirts of the city. This article is beyond absurd for both New York City natives and those from around the country and abroad who think an article like this truthful, realistic or viable.

The kitchen as shown sure lacks cabinets and all the glass fronted cabinets make for constant fussing. Could never understand marble counters in a kitchen that's for prepping and cooking. Marble stains and with kids (4 bedrooms) will look beat up. Quartz for me but not in a $13 million apartment. Got a kick out of the pictures.

"New York’s City Council had to agree to a zoning change, a move that also relaxed the requirement that residents had to be artists...." Gee, theres a surprise. Ok, wouldn't a far more interesting and far more engaging article for the *Real Estate* section be one that delved into exactly how many requirements have been relaxed by the City Council? How many buildings are in the SoHo district and how many have resident restrictions? How many times have those restrictions been ignored or relaxed? And - most interestingly, most topically - why? Why hasn't our Mr.-Equality-Mayor, our Affordable-Housing-Mayor said and done NOTHING about these *relaxed restrictions* ? Its infuriating when you think about it.... infuriating that this article raises not a single one of these points. The *Real Estate* section is bottomed-out! Has been for years. Its the most depressing collection of repetitive and perfunctory 'articles' in the entire paper, endless free advertising for a handful of mega-brokerages, and so out of touch with what must arguably be the vast majority of its readership. Instead of pap like *Shopping for End-Tables*, how about an in-depth expose on the deplorable and out-of-code conditions in rent-stabilized apartment buildings? [Sigh], or at the very least a complete moratorium on all the *whats-for-sale* and *whats-selling-in-the-area* nonsense - those are nothing more than glorified listings with pretty slide-shows and belong in the Classifieds!

6 units. List of struggling artists that could afford to buy a unit: 1 - Michelangelo 2 - Van Gogh 3 - Rembrandt 4 - Da Vinci 5 - Monet 6 - Picasso 7 - Renoir 8 - Cezanne Let the bidding begin...

"For struggling artists, the apartments...are likely out of reach. Their starting price is about $13 million." Gee, you think? Not sure why The Times publishes pieces like this with a straight face. For the vast majority of us, this is like reading a story about colonizing a far-off planet, and wondering who'll get to live there.

"SoHo Gets Something New," more of the same unaffordable housing.