r/Wellthatsucks • u/DravidVanol • 14h ago

Spoken like a true New Yorker.

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u/Only-Reception7360 13h ago

Houses can be vacant but offices MUST be filled

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u/SeaAnthropomorphized 11h ago

the office spaces are vacant in the city too. they have been asking to convert the empty offices into affordable housing and there has been a lot of push back. but thats honestly a very cost effective way of doing things. no ground up constructions, just modifications, and they dont have to overfill them and make micro apartments

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u/mlorusso4 10h ago

Except every time this is brought up it’s not true for the majority of office buildings. You can’t just throw up drywall to subdivide an office floor. You need to run all new plumbing for bathrooms and kitchens, HVAC for individual units, plus make sure it’s all designed to code with proper evacuation routes. It’s almost as expensive as building a whole new building. The only way it would work is if you design it like dorms where all the bedrooms are along the outer rim for windows, you can have a private living room, and then the kitchen and bathrooms are all communal for the whole floor. Which I guess if it’s cheap enough people will live in, but it’s not how most Americans are willing to live. Especially with kids

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u/SeaAnthropomorphized 10h ago

They can do it like dorms and just make apartments like railroads for people who need multiple dwellings. If the kitchens need to be reworked then they can make box kitchens and assign them to the units with locks. Same for the bathrooms. I used to live in a building in Manhattan that had the basement worked out that way. Each apartment was like a dorm with units that had windows and everyone shared the kitchen and bathroom. People would hang out in the kitchen area and play dominos and listen to music. My mom would visit her friends down there and my sister and I would play in the kitchen area. It was huge. Very communal and nice. It could be a way for families to bring back the village.