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The “Poor Door” and the Glossy Reconfiguration of City Life [NewYorker.com]

 

Anyone who has dealt with the world of New York City real estate knows that its business is conducted in a euphemistic language second only to Orwellian Newspeak in sheer terminological deceit. “True one bedroom,” “spacious,” “comfy,” “sexy,” “cool,” “amazing,” “super amazing,” even nouns as seemingly uncontestable as “closet” and “light”: all are ruthless attempts to manipulate a population in which the prospect of hardwood floors buffed to a high gloss inspires a degree of lust beyond that of mere human flesh. Just this past weekend, I visited a “studio apartment” for which the word “cell” would be a generous exaggeration. So it felt like a bit of citizen’s justice this week to see the local news buzzing with indignant reports of the “poor door,” a scrap of real-estate jargon coined, for once, in sympathy with the people.



[For more of this story, written by Alexandra Schwartz, go to http://www.newyorker.com/cultu...uration-of-city-life]

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