Comment by mtalantikite | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mtalantikite | Hacker News Reader

I've been working remote from NYC since 2008, and for a chunk of that time I had rented a cheap, no-frills loft space in Brooklyn with some friends. I had space to have a soldering setup, another area for a shared work bench, storage for tools, bookshelves for CS/math books, space for some couches, a sink, etc. I think we paid around $400/month each to split amongst the 5 of us. It was a lot of space.

Finding that now in NYC is pretty difficult without paying a ton, even with all this unused commercial space. Co-working spaces have all these amenities I don't want and charge $1200-2000/month for a closet you can kind of fit a few small desks in. A lot of these buildings are holding out to get one or two big corporate leases. I'd totally rent a small space in Manhattan if the price was right, just to have the option to head into the city when I want to get out of the house, but I don't think anyone is trying to cater to a bunch of hacker/artist types anymore. Until then I'll just work from home.

Those places still exist out in bushwick / east williamsburg. If you hang out with the right people, or go to the right facebook groups you'll find them.

The living or working arrangements are often illegal, so they aren't visible in the "above-ground" market (Zillow, Streeteasy, IRL ads, etc.), but they're still there.

I'm looking for something like OP's description. If you see this, I would really appreciate a couple pointers on where to look!

tornadosoup+hn@gmail.com

Do you have fb group references? I leave in greenpoint and my lease ends in Sept. I'm looking for something like what you've mentioned.

Gypsy housing used to be the mecca for this kind of activity. They changed the name (reasonably so!) to Ghostlight Housing, but it looks like it was suspended by an admin in 2022.

If you generally search the web for "NYC housing facebook groups", those keywords will lead you to the right groups. Note you'll probably have an easier time searching for these groups with Google than with FB. And don't be intimidated by private groups, the barriers to entry are really low.

There are niche groups for artists, craftspeople, etc. if that appeals you – just add appropriate keywords!

Not for long. The old "punk lofts" are finally being kicked out for redevelopment.

A few friends of mine are also trying to do something similar here in SF. We want somewhere else to work other than our cramped apartments, but don't necessarily want to go into a real office.

Man theres a ton of warehousey spaces on Mission. I used to rent a great on around 21st. Check out craigslist.

There's multiple free coworking spaces in SF

Which ones?

> Finding that now in NYC is pretty difficult without paying a ton, even with all this unused commercial space.

NYC makes renting most of the unused commercial space to random people illegal or highly impractical.

Even in Atlanta, it's like that.

My company has a couple of suites in a small one story building.

I'd say it's only about 30% full now (down from about 90% last summer or so). Even so, they were unwilling to budge on the rent for one of the suites my company leases. Now it's sitting empty too.

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