Hacker News Reader

Comment by rtkwe | Hacker News Reader

Part of the reason they're not occupied though is they were setup for library caretakers and have full after hours access to the library so it's kind of sketchy to just rent them out on the open market because without a lot of work the tenant would have to have the keys and security codes for the library.

View on HN

IDK, considering the insane rent prices in NYC I would think that they could do something like a small division so that the person could access the apartment without direct access to the rest of the library.

It could help to support the libraries, I guess some people would even pay an "extra" because it's in there.

I would definitely pay extra to have access to the library as a tenant in the library-apartment. I mean, granted, it's just a generic neighborhood library, so it wouldn't have specialized texts, but still.

Leave the cameras on, lock the librarian's office and password-protect the computers after hours, and require the tenants to return [or check out] any borrowed material by the next morning. Realistically, you'll probably have one or two bad tenants over the next few decades who leave their trash inside the library or try to steal the crappy old library computers and it will mostly be fine.

If they accepted slightly below market rent, they could have the pick of NYU's writing instructors, or sabbatical visitors, or whatever. That is, don't rent them on the open market, but hook up with one of the many institutes with a long list of underpaid people well-vetted for reverence of books.

> If they accepted slightly below market rent, they could have the pick of NYU's writing instructors,

It doesn't even have to be below market rate: They could pair it up with a grant program where someone else is picking up the market rate rent (or the difference between market rate and what would make it attractive for scholars) for the "in residence" person.

Yep - set up a scholar/artist/author-in-residence program.

The 'small division' would have to cut the stairs off from the rest of the library because the apartment in this building is on the third floor. It doesn't really work with the entrance, main desk and stair location where you could easily seal off the apartment from the rest of the building.

https://bit.ly/3fyZDJ5

I'm surprised "the city that never sleeps" lets their libraries close at night. (not serious)

Large swathes of the city are dead by 9PM.

If you want to see cities that never sleep, you'll probably have to head for Asia.

In Seoul I watched Avatar at 3 am, and the theatre was almost full. When I came out the morning crowds were already on the the move. Another night, at 1am, I wandered by an eyeglass store and they whipped me up a new pair of glasses for me in 15 minutes. Truly incredible.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com