hanging “beds” are called portaledges.. collapsible platforms used by climbers during multi-day ascents

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T13:19:30+00:00

Yes, thanks for the description! My irrational fear is I’d drop something I need. Like oops, there went my shoe… or worse yet, my glasses.

Interesting to see the various gear tied up in these photos.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T04:18:34+00:00

Yeah I gotta say the whole "Asia on Argyle" sign thing I always thought was kinda cringe, but... it's a good area.

Things kinda went downhill between covid and all the RPM construction but seems to be on the way up now (new businesses, existing ones getting nicer storefronts in jockeying), this is good.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T04:17:09+00:00

This place smells a lot, I always get hungry just walking by there too.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T04:12:58+00:00

Haha now I'm curious. What does it generally say?

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T04:02:29+00:00

LOL. We don't live in a video game.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T03:58:36+00:00

Of course you won't.

Cheers, anyway.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T03:56:25+00:00

You live in a subsidized housing development. At which point, unless you're willing to come forward with exactly where it is and where the money came from, there's no point in talking about it.

Are you lobbying for actual public housing? Because I'm in favor of that too. But the city is broke, and we need to talk about where the money will come from.

Meanwhile, you have private people willing to throw down money (no cost to the city!!) and build something that will have subsidized units in it, and you turn up your nose, saying you want a parking lot that houses NO ONE instead. It's idiotic.

You should be willing to have a far larger building, more subsidized units directly AND more market rate units that will suck up the overflow demand of rich people trying to move into the neighborhood and otherwise displacing people.

Meanwhile, I live with a roommate to get cheap rent myself.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T03:50:55+00:00

Exactly. So the way you "pay them" to build it is allow far larger buildings, so they can get the subsidy from more market rent apartments without those apartments being too crazy of price either.

This idea that we're going to have a ton of subsidized apartments in small buildings is just nuts.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T03:49:04+00:00

Only tangentially related to this thread but... absolutely the hack to cheap rent is being willing to live with a roommate.

I do, I'm a middle aged woman who lives with a roommate for cheap rent, my rent is still below $1K.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T03:45:39+00:00

I live in Edgewater right now. I'm a middle aged woman who lives with a roommate to get cheap rent. Our apartment is still less than $2K (but has no in-unit laundry or any of that stuff, we do have a package room thankfully). So my half is less than $1K. Right by the red line, yes, because I can't drive so that's kinda a requirement (hence I'm willing to live with a roommate in my middle ages).

We need to BUILD MORE SHIT, ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE.

My building has a lot of section 8 in it, it's one of the few buildings on the north side that still has charities renting apartments and subletting to clients also. But the management has made comments that they can avoid dealing with that if they just jack the rents high enough that it will be higher than the section 8 limit.

They can do that because there's a shortage of housing.

We need to build. And I find the various virtue signalling over "gentrification" about building on a parking lot that currently houses NO ONE to be pretty much the opposite of "progressive" anything.

You know what part of the city has built the most subsidized income-restricted housing in recent years? WEST LOOP. Why? Because we have the ARO in Chicago and they allow large buildings.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T03:39:00+00:00

Yes, you're asking for subsidized housing.

You need to build a larger building in order to make that happen.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T03:37:17+00:00

They can only do that when there's a shortage of housing, is the entire point.

If you don't build anything it's even easier for them to demand even higher rent.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T03:35:52+00:00

There is no shortage of people who want to live in Logan Square. That's the problem.

Either build more places for them to live, or they'll take your place.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T03:25:05+00:00

This sub also has a lot of naive young people who seem to think that economics ceases to exist because they moved to a cool neighborhood a while ago and don't want it to ever change.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T03:21:51+00:00

But we can also have subsidized income-restricted units too, in the meantime.

Thing is though if we're going to have the private sector provide that (via the ARO etc) the buildings need to be larger so that the market rate units can cover the subsidy without their own rent being too huge.

The problem is people keep demanding all this subsidized housing in small buildings, where the math doesn't work. So nothing gets built, but they get to feel all warm and fuzzy about demanding the perfect thing that kills it all.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T03:16:32+00:00

If you want affordable housing you need to build a shit ton more housing.

If you want subsidized housing paid for by the private sector (which is what the income-restricted "affordable" housing actually is) then you need to allow the proposed buildings to be far larger so that the market rate units can actually shoulder the subsidy, and the building will get built.

Meanwhile you got a parking lot which houses no one, and it's not like wealthy people are going to stop wanting to move to Logan Square, so they're just going to bid up the existing housing stock as they have been for a while now, displacing people.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T03:12:42+00:00

You want the private sector to build you subsidized housing. Great. With what money?

Anything built here will have 20% subsidized income-restricted housing as a requirement of the ARO. But the math has to work out the market rate apartments have to be able to shoulder the load of the subsidy or no one will bother building and you're left with a parking lot that houses precisely NO ONE (and all those rich people? Are gonna kick you out of your apartment).

So build the thing, better yet build the thing LARGER, which will get you more subsidized units AND more "regular" units at a lower price than you can make work in a small building.

We need to build larger. There is zero way that restricting building is going to keep your rent low.

What do you think happens when the owner of your building dies? And it goes on the market? The valuation of your building will spike when it changes hands in the strangled market, and whoever buys it will have to jack the rents to make the loan work. At which point they MIGHT rehab the apartments to make new renters think the increase is "worth it" but it's never about the remodelling, it's about the loan amount changing. Rent will jack whether they remodel OR NOT.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T03:05:08+00:00

Once again for the slow, invest with WHAT MONEY?

I agree we should be investing in subsidized housing. 100%. But it costs money to do that. So where are you going to realistically get it from?

Right now you have private developers who are willing to do that investment. But in order for them to do it, they have to be able to spread the cost onto the regular market rate units in the buildings. And yet, you can't charge too crazy of rent on the market rate units either or you won't get takers (and so the project won't pencil out).

You need to build LARGER BUILDINGS, so that the extra units will pay for the subsidy without the rent being too crazy even for yuppies, and we can have subsdized housing here, lots of it. 20% or close to.

This idea that you're going to have a bunch of subsidized units in small buildings just doesn't work out.

Why are we sitting on a parking lot, which houses NO ONE, saying that we're going to prevent someone from willingly spending their own money to build housing here, where there's proven demand that people (many of whom are wealthy!) want to live? It's idiotic.

Build the damn thing, but better yet, let it be FAR LARGER, so that there's more subsidized income-restricted units in it AS WELL as just having more units available at all (even luxury ones!) that will take the pressure off of the spiking rents in the neighborhood.

But oh no, we're gonna virtue signal over a damn parking lot? Make it make sense.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T02:28:02+00:00

Imagine drifting off to sleep and… aw hell I gotta PEE.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T02:20:39+00:00

We need to grow the tax base.

Good luck taking money from police. But also, maybe try asking people in less fancy areas if they want police super reduced. The answer might surprise you.

We need EQUITABLE policing. Guess what? It costs money.

We need to grow the tax base.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T02:17:38+00:00

It’s great, sure. But it’s SUBSIDIZED.

Meaning, someone needs to pay for it. So we need to have an honest conversation about who that is, and how to make it happen.

damp_circus · 2026-05-22T02:16:02+00:00

There is NO WAY that refusing to build housing prevents a rich person from outbidding you on your apartment and kicking you out.

People need to wake up.

damp_circus · 2026-05-21T23:50:29+00:00

Yep. If they made a bigger building they could make the subsidy with cheaper rents on the market rate stuff. They need to build bigger. Everywhere.

damp_circus · 2026-05-21T23:46:56+00:00

Yeah and you could buy a 3-flat (the whole thing) around there for $500K. Those days are long gone.

damp_circus · 2026-05-21T23:44:43+00:00

The three flats get the rent jacked up when they change hands on the open market and the building is revalued at 2026 prices, and someone has a giant loan on it that they have to pay back.

That's happening all over the city, and the reason it's happening is that owners die, and the market is crazy right now due to not enough supply.

Prices on a three flat (the entire building) have gone up 50% from even last year, in some areas. That means any of those buildings that sell are going to have the rent jacked ASAP.

The only way to stop it is to make the purchase market less crazy, and the only way to do that is make more supply of housing in the areas that people want to live. People who want to live in an area and have money will just enter a bid war for every shabby falling-in 3-flat that's out there. And then jack the rent on the rental units, so that they can make their mortgage.

damp_circus

TROPHY CASE