It is definitely the case that communal living has made a big comeback in modern-day SF, out of necessity, as the housing market tightens and legions of bushy-tailed twentysomethings arrive here none too picky and just needing a place to lay their heads. A previous edition of Apartment Sadness looked at a very narrow room that had been carved out of what was likely a larger space at one time in a house shared by 60 people, for which they wanted $1500. This week we bring you another similar situation, for the same price, although this share has a slightly more reasonable number of roommates involved? Reasonable if you think 13 people is a totally livable, easy to handle arrangement.
Yes, it appears that an incoming roommate at this Potrero Hill flophouse will have the choice of either the above lower bunk, or a twin bed pictured below that may or may not come complete with tacky comforter.
And unlike the earlier ad mentioned above, this ad is extremely shy about the details of this living arrangement.
Here is what they do tell us: It's at 17th and DeHaro, so not terribly far from the Mission; all the roommates work in tech but they are super "chill/laid back" and "social/friendly and cool people to hang out with" despite whatever "tech" conjures up for you; and they also enjoy something called Starcraft, which sounds like something really dorky, but the ad makes a point of saying, "Most of us prefer Starcraft to chess, but all of us know how to play chess and are pretty damn good at it."
And whoever wrote the ad seems really defensive about the tech thing, because s/he adds "almost all [of] us code, but all of us are friendly good people," because obviously coders and engineers are known to be mean, terrible, anti-social assholes. But these are the friendly sort of coders.
They have a sense of humor too! Yes, the eye-catching headline on this one is, "You look like you do drugs." And then they're all "JK!!" They won't even judge you if you do! And obviously they can't see you through the computer, silly! "But really we would not turn you down if [you were a total drug addict]."
What else? Some of them play sports. And this is what the house looks like at present I had to count the number of people in the photo, plus the small dog, because the ad is not explicit about how many people live there, how many bedrooms there are, whether you'd be sharing a bedroom, or any of that unimportant stuff.
And there is a kitchen, about which we can see very little except for the fact that there are two stoves.
And this is that sad twin bed I mentioned. There is no explanation about which bed is available, so this might be it! Hope you aren't expecting company. Ever.
Also not mentioned in the ad, but potentially important:
- how many of these people are sleeping together?
- how many of these people have boyfriends/girlfriends outside the house who occasionally come over and/or sleep over?
- are there fights over what time everyone watches Game of Thrones? live or on DVR?
- do we have to watch Game of Thrones or risk eviction?
- do I have to know what Starcraft is in order to be accepted?
- is there a crying room for when things get to be too much?
- which drugs are most acceptable, just out of curiosity?
- is speedballing something this household enjoys, or...?
- who's dog is that?
Anyway, it's $1500! Why ask questions? How could you go wrong.
Plus you're living with 13 people who obviously devote most of their time and energy to their jobs, noses in their laptops 24-7, on board the shuttle at 6 a.m. and barely home long enough for any of these living conditions to matter. They're young! They play sports and Starcraft (whatever that is)! Perhaps one day, they hope, they can afford to live with fewer than 10 other people. But until then, this will have to do.
