Part 3 Space Travel

I decided to rent an apartment in Stuyvesant Town.  Stuy Town was a middle class housing development  built for returning veterans and their families.  For decades, the rents  were low and stabilized.  Until a real estate company bought it and thought they could make a mint if they got  rid of the tenants who are paying something like $1,200 for a two bedroom,  and then jack up the rents to the usual "holy shit!"prices of a luxury apartment building. What a brilliant idea: let's turn a new york city housing project  into Trump Plaza!

But my first ten years on this earth were spent in the ny housing projects.  So in an odd, maybe sad, and ironic way, I have come full circle. So I felt quite at home with puke in the hallway on Friday nights, broken elevators, maintenance guys who interned at Riker's Island and look in your closets when they fix the toilets when you're not at home.  When I first went to see the apartment, I met the neighbor right across from me.  First I heard the peep hole on the door open and saw an eyeball going back and forth like a scene out of a Wes Craven movie.   Then the door opened a crack and my neighbor  -who I'm sure has the number of the funeral home and directions to her grave site  tacked on the bulletin board  - peeked out. I found her to be a very delightful woman who truly had a gift for making people feel quite at ease.

Me:   Hi, I'm your next door neighbor.

She stood there without saying a word.

                                          


Me:  Hi.   Moving in next week.  Just separated from my wife.

No response.  I just stood there, me looking at her, she looking at me.

                                    
 Finally, she said something.

Woman:  You're a Jew?

Me:  Well, yeah, I was born Jewish--but not really a practicing Jew.

                                        

Woman:  A lot of Jews lived here.

Me:  Really.  What a coincidence.

Woman:  The real estate company wants me out.

Me:  Who?

Woman:  The real estate company who bought it.  They want me out because I'm paying $600 a month rent.  And they want to raise the rents.  How much is your rent?

Me:  Well, it could be a bit more than you're paying.

Woman:  They want to toss me out of the apartment I lived in for over thirty years!
But I'm not going!  You hear me!  I'm not leaving the apartment I lived in for over thirty years!

Me:  Well, it was really nice talking to you, uh, hope to see you around.  If you need anything, I'm right here.

                                        
She stared at me for a good two minutes.  And then slowly shut the door.  I then heard six door locks being locked one after another.


I opened the door to my new apartment.  It was a nice apartment!  Very spacious.  I have a view of the Empire State Building.   Good size bedroom.  And for a quick second, I was excited to be in the city, and in a new life.  I shouted for joy.  My words echoing in the empty space.

 Me: "Wow, what a space (space, space, space....)

Now I had to fill the space up.  Both the space in my apartment and- to be totally truthful - the space in my heart.

I felt at the moment I was living inside the last ten minutes of Antonioni's L'Elcipse.  A  film about the emptiness of modern day life.