[sudo-discuss] Dystopia News: No-Sex Apartments.

Tue May 21 05:39:10 PDT 2013

Aren't apartments in Hong Kong and Tokyo even smaller, the size of closets?

I don't understand the need for large houses americans have. Most don't even have time to maintain them. 

I feel like any "profit driven oligarchy" would be against smaller apartments: 

- larger homes mean you have to buy more. Even large apartments.
- small apartments in the city mean probably no car. You always buy more when you have a car  

Larger apartments mean you have room for  a traditional nuclear family. Single people or people who hang out in communal spaces need not apply 

How does this relate to sudo room?

--/well I and many others could be spending all their time in their garage or their backyard instead of sharing & hanging around the sudor (although I feel like sometimes its harder for people to share skilled information ;) than beer and burritos)

/- these tiny apartments remind me more of the boarding houses of the turn of the century.
 They can definitely be improved but I don't understand how they are worse than live work lofts .. Those soma live work lofts enable fabulously wealthy people to move into poor school districts and worm their way out of supporting school taxes 

-- you have to be minimal to be in a Tiny space. Again less materialism 
SudoRoom helps me avoid eating out needlessly at cheesy trendy cafes and I can eat healthier too... Instead of fast food I can fill the fridge with fruit 

-- no work from home... I don't work at home personally. I prefer communal spaces as long as I don't get exploited or harassed. Sudoroom has been pretty fine so far . 

---

On May 20, 2013, at 15:28, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss at gmail.com> wrote:

> The obvious evil - doer is the laws that make it hard to build new housing in sf. 
> 
> There are strong home owners associations suppressing supply over there and keeping rent high. 
> 
> Does anyone know of an org that tries to counter that, or are developers the only entities that lobby on the other side?
> 
> Gtwog you amaze me with every post - you're just finding out now that we're none of us free, huh. 
> 
> On Monday, May 20, 2013, GtwoG PublicOhOne wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> No-Sex Apartments.
>> 
>> (Creative commons, with attribution to "G.")
>> 
>> In cities across the USA, a new "solution" to affordable housing is
>> being promoted: micro-apartments of less than 200 square feet.  New
>> York's conrol-freak in chief, Mayor Bloomberg, is promoting them (New
>> Yorkers call them "Bloom Boxes").  A developer in San Francisco is
>> promoting them.  And developers in Seattle WA are building them by the
>> hundreds.
>> 
>> The Seattle apartments were recently covered in a CBS News article, here:
>> http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57582327/tiny-apartments-are-creating-a-big-backlash-in-seattle/
>> 
>> If you look at the picture, something immediately stands out: a TWIN BED.
>> 
>> As the article says, "...(the) apartment comes with a small private
>> bathroom, a microwave and a mini-refrigerator. There's just enough room
>> for a twin bed, a neatly hung rack of clothes and shelves."  (There's
>> not even room for a desk, so forget about working from home: it's back
>> to the plantation for you, worker-bee.)
>> 
>> And therein lies the catch, or more accurately the "nudge," to use the
>> Newspeak word for "manipulation."
>> 
>> A twin bed is sufficient for sleeping, but not sufficient for a regular
>> sex life with others, much less a stable relationship.
>> 
>> Sure, you can manage it occasionally, but for the long term it's right
>> out.  Squeezing two people into a bed meant for one is miserable,
>> particularly in the hot summer.
>> 
>> This is one form of "birth control" that won't be controversial with the
>> Vatican or other right-wing religious denominations.  I suppose that
>> also qualifies as a "feature."  (We won't mention the fact that you can
>> carry on a satisfactory solo sex life in a twin bed, lest the twin beds
>> be replaced with "stand-up beds" consisting of straps on the wall.)
>> 
>> There's no need for the Oligarchy to make an explicit No Sex rule.  They
>> don't have to, when they can just "nudge" the architecture to enforce
>> that outcome by "nudging" people who might think to disobey.
>> 
>> Best of all (from the Oligarchy's perspective), there's nothing to
>> revolt against.  A revolt against a type of architecture is like a
>> revolt against traffic jams or weather: there's no obvious evil-doer to
>> hurl ballots and tomatoes at.
>> 
>> The Oligarchy likes micro-apartments because they are more profitable
>> per square foot of building, compared to apartments that let you have a
>> bed big enough for two people, and a fridge big enough to let you keep
>> enough food that you don't have to go shopping every day.
>> 
>> The working masses (that would be us) who are being lined up to live in
>> these boxes would do well to recognize that they are also about the same
>> size as prison cells.
>> 
>> The only difference is that you have the key to your cell, just like
>> inmates in "honor system prisons" for white collar criminals.  That, and
>> there isn't a guard staring at you whilst you poop, though I'd be
>> careful about the tiny apartments that come with internet and TV service
>> included (no choice of carriers either), as the "smart sensors" won't be
>> far behind.
>> 
>> Smaller houses and apartments are of course part of a viable approach to
>> sustainability: primarily through lower energy consumption and proximity
>> to public transport.  Some years ago, a close friend and I came up with
>> various designs for micro-houses, from about 160 square feet, up to
>> about 400 - 500 square feet.  A building with a 500 square foot
>> "building footprint" was sufficient for a family of four.  We were
>> designing for the sake of sustainability, and for the ability of
>> individuals and communities to build these houses for themselves at low
>> cost.
>> 
>> But as with eating bugs, it's one thing to do it by the choice of your
>> own free will, quite another to do it by way of getting mercilessly
>> milked by the Oligarchy.  Especially when the Oligarchs continue to live
>> in 12,000 square foot (and larger) mansions with sprawling lawns on all
>> sides.
>> 
>> What the world can't afford, is the Oligarchy.  Darwin, take note!
>> 
>> -G.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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