The Volokh Conspiracy - Hilarity (Presumably Unintentional) at the New York Times

Here, in its entirety, is an editorial that appeared in Sunday's NY Times [unavailable online except to NY Times Select members, otherwise I'd just give you the link):

"A Dorm Grows in Harlem

Graduating from college used to mean leaving your campus dorm and moving into your first grown-up apartment. Unfortunately, overpriced real estate in places like New York, San Francisco and Washington have raised the bar for making that transition to new heights.

Some graduates go back home; others put the touch on better-off parents for handouts. Perhaps it was only a matter of time, but economic circumstances have provided yet another alternative: dorms for adults. As Janny Scott reported last week in The Times, a woman named Karen Falcon has provided group living for nearly 150 young people in three Harlem buildings. She has assembled a varied mix — men and women, graduate students and bartenders — to minimize potential conflicts.

It's an idea that could spread. Recent graduates working long hours and filling their free time with dates and parties require little more than places to sleep and communal stoves to boil the occasional pot of noodles. Dormitory living also carries a whiff of nostalgia. It almost sounds like fun until you stop and remind yourself that these dorms for adults arise from the rigors of the housing market and not from any desire to live in close quarters with strangers. There is a nobler alternative — to make affordable housing a higher priority for a city that caters more and more to its richest residents. Families with small children that are living off dishwashers' and even teachers' pay are also adrift in this cutthroat market. For the working poor, and increasingly for middle-class families, dorms are not an option, but neither is the going rate on a comfortable home."

The italics are mine -- that's the hilarious part. These dorms arise "from the rigors of the housing market." Man, that really sucks, huh? These "rigors of the housing market" mean that some people might end up living "in close quarters with strangers" even though they don't want to. Ooooh, how terrible is that?! It would be better -- not just better, but actually "nobler" -- if we were to "make affordable housing a higher priority."

Come on! A "higher priority" how, exactly? Karen Falcon actually made it a high priority -- it was such a high priority, for her, that she actually went out and built something. Unlike, say, the Times -- which owns a good deal of real estate in NY, and, last time I looked, had converted none of it into "affordable housing." This idea that it can't be "noble" when it's just the market supplying people with something they want at a price they can afford really gets my goat.

	[David Post, July 19, 2006 at 2:05pm] Trackbacks Hilarity (Presumably Unintentional) at the New York Times Here, in its entirety, is an editorial that appeared in Sunday's NY Times [unavailable online except to NY Times Select members, otherwise I'd just give you the link): "A Dorm Grows in Harlem Graduating from college used to mean leaving your campus dorm and moving into your first grown-up apartment. Unfortunately, overpriced real estate in places like New York, San Francisco and Washington have raised the bar for making that transition to new heights. Some graduates go back home; others put the touch on better-off parents for handouts. Perhaps it was only a matter of time, but economic circumstances have provided yet another alternative: dorms for adults. As Janny Scott reported last week in The Times, a woman named Karen Falcon has provided group living for nearly 150 young people in three Harlem buildings. She has assembled a varied mix — men and women, graduate students and bartenders — to minimize potential conflicts. It's an idea that could spread. Recent graduates working long hours and filling their free time with dates and parties require little more than places to sleep and communal stoves to boil the occasional pot of noodles. Dormitory living also carries a whiff of nostalgia. It almost sounds like fun until you stop and remind yourself that these dorms for adults arise from the rigors of the housing market and not from any desire to live in close quarters with strangers. There is a nobler alternative — to make affordable housing a higher priority for a city that caters more and more to its richest residents. Families with small children that are living off dishwashers' and even teachers' pay are also adrift in this cutthroat market. For the working poor, and increasingly for middle-class families, dorms are not an option, but neither is the going rate on a comfortable home." The italics are mine -- that's the hilarious part. These dorms arise "from the rigors of the housing market." Man, that really sucks, huh? These "rigors of the housing market" mean that some people might end up living "in close quarters with strangers" even though they don't want to. Ooooh, how terrible is that?! It would be better -- not just better, but actually "nobler" -- if we were to "make affordable housing a higher priority." Come on! A "higher priority" how, exactly? Karen Falcon actually made it a high priority -- it was such a high priority, for her, that she actually went out and built something. Unlike, say, the Times -- which owns a good deal of real estate in NY, and, last time I looked, had converted none of it into "affordable housing." This idea that it can't be "noble" when it's just the market supplying people with something they want at a price they can afford really gets my goat.