These People Could Use Diapers

[KimbaFoxNatsume]

More seriously, I found this article about a couple in Brooklyn who use chamberpots because their 150-year-old apartment doesn't have a bathroom. http://thehairpin.com/2012/12/chamberpots-a-resurgence/

I have questions.

Wouldn't it be illegal/slumlording to rent out an apartment that doesn't have access to a toilet? (And one person also commented it would be illegal in New York City to dump the waste in the gutter outside?)

I assume they don't have a shower/tub either? How do they bathe? Friends'/family's houses or a gym? (Although seeing they don't ''ideologically support air conditioning,'' maybe they're that type who doesn't care about modern hygiene practices.)

 

[KimbaFoxNatsume]

I know that when a relative of mine started fixing up the cabin he grew up in in rural West Virginia - which only had an outhouse - he supposedly wasn't allowed to build a new one. He built a bathroom outside that was connected to the sewer.

 

[Gsmax]

The article is pretty old as its from December 2012. So I'm really hoping that within the past 3 years, this apartment has either received proper plumbing, or these people moved into a proper apartment. I enjoy old fashioned buildings and repurposing old buildings, but there's a limit, and if the apartment doesn't even have a bathroom, it's just not livable.

 

[Mattew]

An article on Slate says that it was actually a joke. I'm inclined to agree that it was a joke, making fun of the lengths that people would go too, to live in a well to do area. Plus, I have a hard time believing that they could empty out the pots, without getting into legal trouble. If it truly is a well-off neighborhood, the locals wouldn't allow it.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox...o_is_a_bad_substitute_for_housing_supply.html