Many of the recent developments I’ve seen in American urban centers bring back memories for me — of late 90s China. Microhousing, AKA “apodments,” have been going up all over Seattle, gypsy cabs are all the rage and people are renting out their bedrooms, in some cases to hookers:
Hookers are using the controversial Airbnb home-sharing Web site to turn prime Manhattan apartments into temporary brothels, The Post has learned.
One escort service is even saving a bundle by renting Airbnb apartments instead of hotel rooms for clients’ quickies, says a 21-year-old call girl who works for the illicit business.
“It’s more discreet and much cheaper than The Waldorf,” said the sex worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Hotels have doormen and cameras. They ask questions. Apartments are usually buzz-in.”
The prostitute, a buxom brunette who charges up to $500 an hour, said her escort service generally rents an Airbnb apartment in the Financial District or Midtown West for up to a week at a time — then cycles numerous hookers through the place for trysts around-the-clock.
It’s almost as though there’s a case of collective amnesia about the problems associated with overcrowding and class stratification. Well, to be fair, people don’t read much history in the “information age,” so maybe they never learned in the first place.
From the 50s through the 00s, the US went through a remarkable period during which quality of life steadily improved, but that trend is clearly over. I wonder, in this new age of diminished standards, how well exotic ideologies like feminism and multiculturalism will hold up. Practically speaking, I think they’ll be gutted, whether or not people continue to pay lip service to them. When getting by means leasing your guest room to hookers, living in a virtual chicken coop and paying for your car by giving rides to strangers, what does all that high-minded stuff really mean anyway?
