renting an apartment
Apr. 6th, 2022 12:01 pmI'm planning to move in with ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
redbird and cattitude this summer. We've gone from vague plans to actually signing a lease on an apartment in Brighton. (ie, on the Boston side of the river, near the B branch of the green line.) Moving Day is June 10, and Measuring Day* is June 2.
I've lived in Massachusetts for almost 24 years, never more than 4 miles from the Somerville apartment I rented in 1998. Moving across the river feels like a big change. Even leaving this apartment feels pretty significant...I've been here 8 years. I was at my previous Arlington apartment for 10 years. It feels oddly uncomfortable to realize I've lived here longer than I lived in either of my childhood homes, the houses in Michigan my parents owned.
It goes past "uncomfortable" to think about how much contempt my neighbors have for renters, as being bad for the neighborhood. When I read the Arlington Facebook or Nextdoor (which seemed like such a good idea for finding people who might want a used lamp and were in range to come get it.) Because they think homeowners are respectable, and renters aren't. And homeowners are stable, and renters are transient, and transient is horrible. And of course not just here.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/03/31/charlotte-rental-homes-landlords/
There are certainly appalling landlords. We encountered some while searching for apartments. (Well. Mostly we kept running into That Guy.) But the general attitude of "tenants are contemptible, we only want homeowners here," does not seem like a solution.
*We decided to rent the place without taking many measurements, because the current tenants are still living there. After they move out and we get keys, we can go over it with measuring tapes and graph paper and decide what furniture will fit where. Including the hard decisions about what furniture will fit at all.
redbird and cattitude this summer. We've gone from vague plans to actually signing a lease on an apartment in Brighton. (ie, on the Boston side of the river, near the B branch of the green line.) Moving Day is June 10, and Measuring Day* is June 2. I've lived in Massachusetts for almost 24 years, never more than 4 miles from the Somerville apartment I rented in 1998. Moving across the river feels like a big change. Even leaving this apartment feels pretty significant...I've been here 8 years. I was at my previous Arlington apartment for 10 years. It feels oddly uncomfortable to realize I've lived here longer than I lived in either of my childhood homes, the houses in Michigan my parents owned.
It goes past "uncomfortable" to think about how much contempt my neighbors have for renters, as being bad for the neighborhood. When I read the Arlington Facebook or Nextdoor (which seemed like such a good idea for finding people who might want a used lamp and were in range to come get it.) Because they think homeowners are respectable, and renters aren't. And homeowners are stable, and renters are transient, and transient is horrible. And of course not just here.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/03/31/charlotte-rental-homes-landlords/
There are certainly appalling landlords. We encountered some while searching for apartments. (Well. Mostly we kept running into That Guy.) But the general attitude of "tenants are contemptible, we only want homeowners here," does not seem like a solution.
*We decided to rent the place without taking many measurements, because the current tenants are still living there. After they move out and we get keys, we can go over it with measuring tapes and graph paper and decide what furniture will fit where. Including the hard decisions about what furniture will fit at all.
