Apartment success stories

Small-space deal in the East Village!
“In 1983, I moved east of Avenue B. I was a theater student at NYU, and we performed in the whole downtown explosion that was going on. I could bartend two nights and I was deep in gold bullion—my rent was $265 a month. It was like I had a patron of the arts. My apartment looked just the Jacob Riis photographs of tenement apartments from the ’10s and ’20s: My bathtub was in the kitchen, which I absolutely adored. We had no intercom system; visitors literally yelled up at the window, and you put your keys in a sock or something to toss them down—if they hit the pavement too many times, they wouldn’t work in the lock.

“In 1994, I headed west to Venice Beach, and I traveled to India for the past 15 years. Whenever I would visit New York, I would see my old landlord, and now I’m in a back apartment in the same building. The rent is nearly four times 1994’s, but well below market. It’s smaller than my old front one, and the tub is in the bathroom. But I have experience living in small spaces; I have a gigantic bed, and that’s the couch, with storage under it. I’ve built a beautiful vanity table, with pink mirrored glass. My huge custom closet area is hovering, and soon it will have a pink light under it. There’s a gorgeous glass dining room table, a cool midcentury light sculpture. It’s really streamlined, chic and bright. In three months it’ll be the sexiest apartment you’ve ever seen.”—Kiki Flynn; actor, writer and yoga teacher; East Village

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