Gothamist

A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.

Gothamist

WNYC Listen Live

Donate

Arts & Entertainment

Apartment Voyeurism: The Woman Who Paid $500 To Own TWO East Village Apartments

Jen Carlson

Published Feb 28, 2012

Modified Mar 6, 2012

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

Never miss a story

Email address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .

View all 10

Jen Carlson

Published Feb 28, 2012

Modified Mar 6, 2012

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Two weeks ago we asked to see your apartments. New Yorkers, including us, are voyeuristic creatures (admit it), and who doesn't love to see how their neighbors are living... even if it can lead to pangs of jealousy. So here is our first installment, which comes with a pretty amazing story from Lisa R., dating back to 1980.

In 1980 I moved into an abandoned East Village tenement [at 11th Street and Avenue A] that lacked electricity, running water, windows, heat, toilets, sinks, stoves, refrigerators and plumbing, which had been torn out of the walls by junkies looking for scrap to sell, leaving giant holes in the walls and ceilings—the wind used to whistle through in the winter. We used to take showers in the fire hydrant across the street, and at night when we came in we'd have to crab-walk sideways up the stairs with a pipe or bat because we had no idea who might be waiting to mug us in the unlit hallways. I spent 6 months living by candlelight and using large cans as a toilet, two years without heat or running water in my space.

Lisa tells us the building had been abandoned for a decade when she moved in, "it was on the city's rent rolls because the landlord had walked away from it and not paid taxes for two years." So she ended up purchasing two of the apartments (directly from the city, under the Tenant's Interim Lease program) in the building for just $500 total. At this time, "landlords were either burning down or abandoning their buildings in certain neighborhoods as fast as they could, so the city wound up with thousands of unwanted buildings on their rent rolls that they had no idea what to do with." While 500 bucks for two apartments in the East Village may seem like a steal, this was the 1980s East Village, and a lot of money had to go into fixing up the two apartments, which eventually became one.

Mine is a double apartment; I connected to the one across the hall because no one else wanted it, and I knew it was my only shot at getting a decent-sized and affordable living space in Manhattan. In the course of turning it from a wrecked shell filled with dozens of quart-size soda bottles of old urine (there when I moved in, not mine!), old mattresses, and all the junk and detritus an abandoned building collects, I tore down walls and ceilings, built new ones, sanded floors, learned to do plumbing and some electric, put in windows and did all the other little things to turn it into a home.

The apartment has a garden view, a bedroom, a library, a bathroom, a walk-in closet, a kitchen, and a large living room (in the photos, this is the space with yellow walls). Lisa tells us, "I closed off the library window when the drug dealers in the next building used to watch to see when my lights were out and then come over the roof, down the fire escape and try to rip me off, so it's a fairly dark room. Hence the need to have windows in my bedroom and bathroom walls so the sun can come through and light it. The dealers are long gone so I could re-open the embrasure, but then I'd lose that shelving. Plus I like the sort of hermetic air it gives the room—makes it cozy, especially in winter."

Click through to get a look at the East Village apartment that cost just $500.

So are you proud of your place? Send us your photos and some details about your home. NOTE: Please send small files, preferable a max of 640 pixels wide, and under 100K. Or better yet, a link to your photos.

Tagged

apartment

apartment voyeurism

east village

how new yorkers live

real estate

Jen Carlson

Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

MORE arts-entertainment

How the NYC Marathon has changed in the last 50 years

Spoiler alert: It's still 26.2 miles.

Hannah Frishberg

Published Oct 14, 2026 at 2:36 p.m. ET

A visit to Art of Play, the Brooklyn store in an animatronic bird beef with Kelly Clarkson

"Kelly Clarkson has put us in danger," says the co-owner of Art of Play.

Sonia Rao

Arts & Entertainment

A visit to Art of Play, the Brooklyn store in an animatronic bird beef with Kelly Clarkson

"Kelly Clarkson has put us in danger," says the co-owner of Art of Play.

Sonia Rao

The hottest way to show you're an authentic New Yorker is… riding a Citi Bike?

Lindsay Lee Wallace

Is NYC’s hottest attraction the free observation deck at 1 Centre Street?

James Ramsay

What happens when NYC kids take lessons in rock music? Really good bands.

Jayson Greene

Never miss a story

Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.

Sign upEmail address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .