When my wife and I bought our house in the South Bronx, after selling our beautiful one-bedroom apartment in Clinton Hill for over double of what we bought it, we had no idea of what owning a townhouse, a real house, meant. We didn't even know shit about the Bronx. With our coop apartment in Clinton Hill, we were responsible for our mortgage and a quite steep maintenance fee but, on the other hand, we never had to worry about anything concerning home-repairs and maintenance. We didn't even paid for electricity! Everything was done for us.
At first, our 4 story house (plus basement) seemed like a gigantic proposition. What were we going to do with so much space? It was a house with an independent garden apartment, but still it was considered a one-family house. We knew we were going to rent the first floor, but did we really need the other three floors just for the two of us? What about that ever present flow of friends and acquaintances trying to make it in NYC? Perhaps -we thought- we should rent the top floor two bedrooms to some of them, depending on their situation, and our needs. And so began our house-as-a-communal-refuge project. In the five years we have owned our house, countless friends have made our house their home, and we have derived immense satisfaction in knowing that not only they help us pay the mortgage with their below-market-rate rent (our one bedroom garden apartment goes for $850 per month), but we have helped lots of people to 'make it' in the city, or at least supported them giving NYC a try. From a now-successful actor to a junkie friend looking for a friendly detox environment, we have provided a safe heaven for people that have become part of our family. Our house has been their house, and we have created community thanks to the ownership of this blessed space.
About two years after moving here, we began what we christened 'The Bronx Salon Series', a series of public events where academics and activists presented their projects and/or papers to a public audience, followed by an open discussion and a party afterwards. Green projects (like the South Bronx Food Coop and the Green Workers Coop) were launched and made public in the parlor room of our house. We have had scholars from Berlin talking about hip-hop in ethnic enclaves in Paris, Warsaw, New York and Berlin, and we even had Marshall Berman present his last book, On the Town, here, in our parlor room. Friends from the GC, from Columbia University, from other academic institutions, PLUS our neighbors (the projects included) have enjoyed our discussions and parties. Doing that in a place that you don't own might be a little bit difficult. You could get away with doing it once or twice, but it would be a tough sell for any rational landlord. 'Yeah, it is cool, use my property to host public panels and invite the people from the projects and whomever wants to come'. The series has been possible only because we own the place.
Then we have our basement. The basement has served as a recording studio and rehearsal space for at least 6 different music bands since we moved here in 2005. Our musician friends know they have a free space for rehearsals, that they can make as much noise as their music calls for, at almost any time they wish...that is a rare opportunity in this overcrowded and noise-conscious city. We have recorded four CDs in that basement, some of those CDs are now part of the NYU library, the New York Public Library, the University of Puerto Rico's library and the Library of Congress. Again, owning the house, the sense that we could do whatever the fuck we want without asking for permission, is what has allowed us to provide that service to our friends. Again, our music projects have created a sense of a shared community, and it has been a source of immense personal satisfaction and pride for the artists and for my wife and I.
One day, about three years ago, we got an invitation from Mayor Bloomberg to come to a discussion with city planners about plans the city had about our hood. Why? It turns out that we are now considered to be important cultural and neighborhood leaders in our area. Every time that there is a plan for our neighborhood, we are invited, and we make the most of it...we say no, we say yes, and they have listened to us. In those meeting, plans have been scratched because we -and other 'important cultural leaders'- have made it clear that we will raise hell if they go ahead with a rezoning or closing a green area. We have gotten that humble clout because of the projects we have done in our house, and we have developed those projects because we own the place; we are not renters, we cannot easily move away if something is not of our liking, this place HAS to work for us, or else.
Last week we began experimenting with planting our own vegetables in the backyard, and we have friends already talking about helping us do a communal garden in our roof (they will buy everything we might need, including the special soil -produced here in the Bronx- that is best for roof gardens).
And next week we will begin our own radio station, with the antenna transmitting from our future roof garden. Most of the neighbors that own their own houses have already given us their approval to post re-transmitting antennas on their roofs. The idea, initiated by one of our tenants, is to to provide an open neighborly space for the discussion of issues affecting our neighborhood, and to play good music. We are still working on the programming, but we already have the servers, software and antennas ready to go. Our first experiment with the system -this weekend- was a resounding success.
Owning a house can be a drag, it is true. It is a lot of work. It forces you to learn about pipes, boilers, electricity, plaster walls, beams, drainage systems, etc. But, as with everything in life, it is absolutely dependent on one's attitude and approach. 95% of the friends that have rented in our house move out and stay in the South Bronx, blocks away from our place. Two of them even bought their own apartments in the borough. The idea, I guess, is to move beyond public/private artificial distinctions and to think beyond one's own self-interest, without disregarding hard facts as mortgage and oil payments, being a responsible landlord, and paying the bills. Our friends help us pay our mortgage, and we in turn have given them a progressive space for experimentation and community building. That's what owning a place should be all about: making it your own.
God, I love, love, love this post.
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