Carolina S Ortiz describes her 700-square-foot Upper East Side apartment, built in 1929, as having 'all the bells and whistles' including arches, wood floors, and ceiling beams.
The first news accounts of squatters in New York City were published in the 1850s, as impoverished German and Irish immigrants surged into the city. Charles Loring Brace wrote about them for The New York Times, describing the rough cabins they lived in and the rough living many eked out, by picking through the streets to collect and sell anything of value.
This isn't a zoning decision, it's a decision about who gets to live in the city and who gets pushed out. Without space for new students, the whole system starts to break down.
