My semi-squat is another supposed tragedy — on my god, Paula’s living in an abandoned duplex in the ghetto. The other half has been gutted and is completely trashed, totally uninhabitable. Well no, it’s not abandoned, I’m here. I’ve paid upwards of $700 a month for apartments that were not as habitable as is this one. For the first several months I was here, I hated it. All I wanted was to make enough money to get a “real” apartment. It slowly dawned on me that leaving this place to pay several hundred dollars a month for less space and more rules would be insane. I took stock of what I’ve got here and holy shit, this place is a gift from the gods. I keep expecting the man to come in here and harsh my mellow but I don’t even know if that will ever happen. There are houses on this street that have been abandoned for years and no sherriff’s sale, no foreclosure, no nothing. As far as the market is concerned, this place is quite literally worthless. It is not even worth the money it would cost to conduct a sherriff’s sale or a foreclosure.

[read the rest]