Major pandemic problem: move far from the big city to flee the coronavirus, end up somewhere far from high-quality interior designers to renovate your new home.
Solution: fly out an interior designer thousands of miles to do the work, after Zoom consults. wsj.com/articles/with-…
“We wanted a Hamptons-meets-Scandinavian vibe."
"Homeowners living far from urban design centers—or their favorite interior designers—are taking the extra time and effort to bridge the distance gap. That means creating a sleek New York look or a relaxed L.A. aesthetic in unexpected places."
"In Decorah, Iowa, Joie LaFrentz spent months looking for someone to turn her 9,000-square-foot formal Victorian into a home that was accessible to a young, growing family. At first, she turned to designers in nearby Des Moines, but they didn’t meet her needs."
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"Rob and Jessica Zizza, newlyweds who met at Columbia’s business school, began their [Park Slope] search with a $3 million budget but decided to pay an additional $1 million to get the layout they felt would accommodate their desired post-Covid lifestyle." wsj.com/articles/for-w…
"They are now in contract to buy a $3.995 million, 3-bedroom unit at 1 Prospect Park West in Park Slope.
'We had the ability if we wanted to do it all cash, but where interest rates now made it sort of a no-brainer,' said Mr. Zizza, who works in real estate and private equity."
"Soon Jang, a California-based physicist, and his wife began eyeing NY apts for their youngest son, who was slated to attend Columbia in the fall. They quickly settled on a $2.3 million 2-BR. Following the onslaught of Covid-19, they had decided two bedrooms wouldn’t suffice...."
Here we are: publication day for FULFILLMENT: Winning & Losing in One-Click America.
I've been working on the book for 3 yrs, but it stretches much further back. It grew out of years of reporting across the country and being overwhelmed by the regional disparities on display.🧵
The regional disparities have been growing wider than ever, between winner-take-all cities and left-behind ones.
The imbalance is not good for either: on the one hand, unaffordability and congestion; on the other, abandonment and despair.
And political alienation all around.
There are plenty of ways to tell the story of this regional inequality. I chose to tell it through the frame of Amazon, a company that serves both as a natural thread through the country due to sheer ubiquity, and as a leading explanation for the disparities due to its dominance.
I talked in the intvu about FULFILLMENT being about the "places that a lot of us, a lot of our families come from, places that we still live in, and we feel the pain of watching the cities we come from fall behind these rich-get-richer cities." I've been thinking about this bc...
...I've been so struck by responses I got to this short preview of the book, focused on the growing Baltimore-Washington divide. So many readers wrote about the pain of watching what has happened to their own hometowns and regions as other cities soar. 3/n nytimes.com/2021/03/09/opi…
"Amazon has spent the pandemic embarking on a warehouse shopping spree in New York, significantly expanding its footprint in the biggest and most lucrative market in the country." nytimes.com/2021/03/04/nyr…
"When pandemic gripped NY, it propelled an enormous surge in online shopping that hasn't waned, even in a metropolis where stores are rarely far away. People who bought online are buying more while those who started ordering to avoid exposure have been won over by the advantages"
"Deborah Bass, an Amazon spokeswoman, [said] that the company’s goal was to 'become part of the fabric of New York City by embracing the people, the needs, and the spirit of the community.'”
Wonderful, uplifting @keithlalexander
story of how Moses Ingram went from attending Baltimore's public arts high school and the local community college to acing the role of Joleen in "Queens Gambit." washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/…
Correction: Jolene.
“I think about all of the days I worked hard, up at 4 a.m. on buses, standing out in the cold waiting for a train with my mom, trying to get to an audition. I feel really blessed to be bearing some fruit from it now.”
Really not sure why everyone complaining about being stuck at home doesn't just create a"study and hang-out zone for the girls" as part of a $250,000 makeover, or build a $235,000 home theater in the basement, with tiered seating to accommodate 14 people. wsj.com/articles/these…
Or build out your high school freshman's room for $85K w/ "millwork built by an outfit out of state and trucked in, "a system of 45 drawers" for Legos and a fluted glass door. "Lucien is much more organized here. He's really good about going to his room to work on long projects."
Of course, one of these happy stay-at-home renovators is an "education consultant."