Room for Improvement

Room for Improvement: Tepid water, window bars, secondhand pot smoke, and other things New Yorkers could do without

By Mayra David  | March 6, 2013 - 11:26AM
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Drier clothes, hotter water, a ventilated bathroom and a little less "relaxing" from the neighbors. Seven New Yorkers share the ways in which their living situations could be improved.

  • Ready to stage a prison break: I hate that there are bars in front of my windows! I need to stop fixating on them. - Warner, Brooklyn
  • No contact highs - at least not before work: It always smells like weed in my hallways.- Sylvia, Lower East Side
  • Tepid water blues: The water pressure in my apartment is non-existent. And the water takes forever to heat up. I wake up, brush my teeth, and boil water for my tea and it's still not hot!!! - Shelley, Harlem
  • New floors, not new socks: There are nails in my wood floor that sometimes pop up and my socks keep getting snagged on them. - Fay, Midtown West
  • Save the light flicker for the end of intermission: Electrical needs updating. Every time I use the A/C or the microwave, the light dims a little. - Mrs. Barker, Harlem
  • A ‘dryer’ that's not a misnomer I have laundry in the building -- I'm really happy about that. But the dryers don’t dry properly. I’ve tried tennis balls and dryer balls but still end up draping my moist laundry over all my furniture for a day to get them really dry. - Jess, Upper West Side
  • A bathroom that breathes: My bathroom needs better lighting and there is no window and the ventilation is not great. So I’ve actually had mold on the ceiling. The landlady cleaned and repainted the area, but it has come back a couple of times.  - Sita, Inwood

See all Room for Improvements

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