Complaint Review: Post Apartments

This is part of a wider criticism; an idea inchoate regarding how gentrification operates to perpetuate false mythology revolving around chasing the American Dream.

These overpriced apartments are becoming ubiquitous in DC. They purport to offer luxury, grandeur, functionality, various amenities not found elsewhere such as business office, rooftop garden, rooftop pool, TV room, free breakfasts, gymn, etc.

For the price of 2K-4K you “buy into” your residency – a shade of the novel High-Rise by JG Ballard. The more you pay, the more deference you receive by the staff.

That’s an important aspect to remember, or to never forget. Not only are the dialectics of power, authority, sterility, coldness, functionality, impersonality built-in; the residents tend to invite supporting qualities such as impersonal, chilly, haughty, pretenses, and class-consciousness.

In contrast to your country apartment qualities such as quaint, folksy, charm, earthy, personality, warmth, coziness, friendly…

An example of the buy-in that is merely a veneer. They watch how many bagels or doughnuts you take for breakfast, how many cups of juice. The TV is never turned on, or if it is, you cannot change the station; if you ask the concierge and he is not in the mood, he will turn it off rather than teach you how to change the channel. Same goes with business office; if you need help printing or anything, it is at their whim. (Of course if you are too persistent with the concierge, he will write you up and report it as an incident to the manager.)

There are residents heavily invested in the gentrified myth in the cities, an important factor in why native residents are displaced and forced to move out into the suburbs.

Characteristics of the “urban warriors and princesses” include overt compartmentalization, ritual cleanliness, prove-it games, and trivia contests. Their dialectics of advancement include made-it myths, playing the politics of exclusivity, accompanying undercurrent of elimination, bubble world social awareness. 

Thus, they are supporters of the reactionary fearmongering that accompanies gentrification, class-consciousness games, alternating with oppression and possible misreporting.

If you try to reason with an unfriendly concierge, he will report you. If you try to win over an ally for a resident on an issue with the concierge, don’t be surprised if they take the opposing side, because they lack empathy, especially if they think you look like you live on the lowest level.

The reason we take the time to document this is to demonstrate how this plays indirectly or directly into the hands of the millionaire landlords and their commercial interest. They profit with frequent turn-over. We are so caught up in these cube-dweller games that we can’t see how we are all used to ignore the needs of the poor while the land prices sky-rocket.

So rather than spend time on Saturdays and Sundays helping build better housing for the poor, we are content to walk our dogs, meet friends for breakfast, walk the urban street mall, show off our beautiful bodies, pretend to be living the good wholesome life that only gentrified people can really afford.

It is really too bad people can’t wake up and smell the woodsy smoke of campfires, the tragedy of those living in homeless encampments while the forests burn. Thank gentrification for the role it contributes in helping keep Americans in a bind rather than truly liberated.