Skyrise Dwellers Oppressed by Sun

082808sun.jpgTime, once again, to break out the tiny violins. It's hard living in luxury condos with commanding views! The Wall Street Journal has a long article on the trials and tribulations bravely endured by those whose floor-to-ceiling windows are turning their high rise apartments into hot boxes. It seems that some people don't realize that their expansive view of the Hudson also comes with too much damn sunlight! Can't the local community boards do anything about this sun business? Surely it's violating the zoning laws. And it's making the inside of Sara Antani's $1.5 million apartment stinking hot, bleaching her $20,000 sectional and forcing her to wear sunglasses just to read her Panache magazine. Your heart better be bleeding, because the only alternative for these unfortunates is to throw around a lot of money – Antani dropped $12,000 – installing expensive motorized shades. Who says the poor pay more? [Via Curbed]

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shades... friggin' shades!

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

JdS's sarcasm hurts my feelings.

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I particularly like the fact that the woman with the $20k sofas and $12k blinds is a 23 yr. old grad student.

Why don't they just splurge for those windows that can be made opaque by applying a small electrical current. I don't know what they're called but they have them in the bathroom doors at Bar 89 on Mercer in Soho.

It's so much easier to be poor or middle class, when you know you can only afford regular sized windows that face an alleyway.

boo fuckin hoo

"I particularly like the fact that the woman with the $20k sofas and $12k blinds is a 23 yr. old grad student."

She's either old money or a rich guy's main squeeze.
She's too young to have socked away that much working at the Emperor's Club, unless she started at 13.

How about...curtains? They work well for the proletariat.

Also, JDS, your writing style is growing on me. You knew this would happen, didn't you?

I had the same problem when I lived in a 34th floor studio a couple of years back and it was not that bad. You either turn down the shades, crack open the window or put on the AC for f*ck's sake. These people really must lead a wonderfully privileged existence if this is all they can complain about.

Yeah, my room in Tribeca has wall to wall windows and it's hotter than hades in the summer and cold as fuck in the winter. I get so much light it fucking makes me insane and I only live on the 8th floor. It's better to only have one lounge with wall to wall windows or better yet just a balcony terrace.

She's either old money or a rich guy's main squeeze.

I would have said new money. Most old money kids I know slummed it for a while. New money spoils their kids like this.

she paid 22,000 for that sectional?

kid's nowadays. i guess she'll be suing god now for ruining her couch.

Heh, I saw this coming years ago. I always wondered why people didn't consider this when looking at their luxury abodes. Years ago my sister lived on a very high floor of a (non-luxury) building in Brooklyn, nothing blocking the sun except the half ass shades. It was brutal after a night of underage drinking, the sun burning any moisture out of the air, my sinuses and lungs dry as the desert as my hungover swollen eyes struggled to stay shut. Everything in her apartment got bleached out if it was anywhere near the windows. Fortunately for her though, everything came from the curb and no money was really wasted.

Hey, I know a dude in Dyker Heights who don't want no trees in front of his house. Mebbe he can hook dis chick up wit some shade.

Wow. What an idiot. I live on the 33rd floor of a high rise and yes, it gets very, very hot. You know what I do? Wait for it!!!

I close my blinds. OMG!!!! I'm a genius.

This is the second really cuttingly sarcastic piece I've read by JDL today. I can't say that I don't like it!

23 year old students living in multi-million dollar apartments make me believe in wealth re-distribution, by revolution if necessary.

Ah, it's times like these when I love the haters on this site.

I'm sure murdering another 30 or 40 children in Iraq can solve this problem.

Thats why you guys should let colored people up there. We dont burn like you do in the sun.

#22- Right, because the insurgents there NEVER used kids as human shields, NEVER used them as walking bombs, NEVER used their own people's kids as hostages.

Never.

Wow. Its hard to believe how petty people can be. Put up some damn curtains, whiny children. If you can afford one of those places, you can afford curtains, or you can find another apartment.

Anyone stupid enough to pay $20,000 for that sectional isn't going to understand the uber-complicated concept of "blinds." She doesn't deserve shade. Let her dessicate in her LR. No more whining. Problem solved.

I'm enjoying the irony of zillionaires who probably owe their fortunes to crap that causes global warming experiencing their own "greenhouse effect", and even better, having paid so many millions for the Richard Meier version. Maybe all that direct sunlight will cook their brains and bestow upon this great city a race of feeble-minded rich fucks who root around in dumpsters for meals and ride the subways all day long in search of curative darkness.

First of all, I think that all of you are reading into this way too much. None of you know anything about her, where she comes from, or what any of her future goals are. You are using a misconstrued, superficial wall street journal article to type cast one of the most intelligent, hardworking women I have ever met in my life. She was not complaining or whining, and you all seem to think the article was something of her concoction. She was simply answering a few questions that some idiot from the Wall Street Journal though would be a good article. Later, her words were turned into a paris hilton manifesto to all of you via the Wall Street Journal. Sara and I both think this article is silly and useless, and would much prefer to see articles about the current situation of our economy or the current health care crisis for example, but as you have all demonstrated, articles like this cause much more interest in our superficial society than those of any great value. Your reaction and your taking time to write a response to this article says so much about your values and beliefs, and how you choose to spend YOUR time: This makes me wonder why you all feel that you are in a position to judge her in the first place. You don't see Sara on blogs criticizing other people, because she's too busy taking 24 credits, working a job, publishing pertinent research, and completely one of the most competitive internships at her University. I wish you all the best of luck in all of your endeavors. I also sincerely pray that your life poses more for you than the short-term satisfaction of judging a person you know absolutely nothing about.

Philistines, all of you! Do you not appreciate that drapes, curtains, shades, and blinds, all, disrupt the clean, sharp linear elements of contemporary, minimalist design?

This is not Sara's problem. This is our problem. How is a troubled society, such as ours, to redeem itself if it allows the bodies, the minds, and the furnishings of its most worthy to be bombarded by ultraviolet radiation and subjected to the ravages of free radical damage?

As we the walk the streets of our city during this Summer, we can glance the dark-skinned homeless, roasting on sun-drenched sidewalks, and say, "Their lives are not worth living, for they have no home, nor expensive furnishings for which to care." But our hope and our future are in the hands of boys and girls like Sara, slaves to style and fashion, who have already paid handsomely for their trappings.

Where are our hearts, if we cannot spare them criticism, nor help them from their plight?

@#29, You didn't answer the question. How did the lovely Sara, a 23 yr old grad student afford this apartment, especially when she's "taking 24 credits,working a job, publishing pertinent research,and [completing] one of the most competitive internships at her university." She's like, working at Starbucks? This is an article about "the current situation of our economy" as it portrays a young woman in an uncomfortable environment that came about as the result of someone's wealth and privilege. Whose? Who's her Motorized Shade Svengali? Who opened the door when the WSJ came 'a knockin'?

I'm guessing she's the daughter of wealthy foreign parents, and they bought the condo as an investment. None of that makes her a bad person, or even unusual. But voluntarily allowing one's personal life to be the subject of a media story is never a good move, as the ensuing internet hatefest demonstrates.

A good mitigation strategy may be growing indoor desert plants.
Another may be solar panels on her windows.
Both would be win-win solutions!

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