Little Is Joyful
Sampson Dahl was pretty excited to move into this new and possible live and work space. He says he knew the true sense of community while he was growing up and it has been reincarnated even now as an adult. While his girlfriend thought that this old laundromat was an absurd idea, he certainly didn’t see any problem whatsoever.
He saw an avid potential for a great environment and he moved in within a month. Dahl says that he doesn’t feel as though a space needs to be a perfect representation of what people hope a simple mind looks like, rather it should be an imperfect representation of the people who are in it at that moment in their lives. He is a 27 year old production designer and has lived in commercial spaces before. He first used to live in a warehouse in Chicago so he kind of knew that while he was hunting for an apartment, he might just have to relive that experience.
He says that he truly enjoys the liberty of a commercial are even if there are fewer tenant rights. Something about it feels more ethical when people move into an empty storefront that has been sitting idly for years rather than taking an apartment in a neighborhood that you aren’t familiar with. He had found this laundromat in Maspeth, Queens in an online forum back in 2019. A tenant who used to live before him had added a tiny kitchen that now gives Dahl quite some space to have a sink, stovetop and a toaster oven. The laundromat hasn’t been in service since 2005.
Sense Of Belonging
When Dahl first moved in here in March 2019, the rent was $1750, and he paid two months’ rent and an $875 security deposit. In 2021, his rent went up to $1850, and on average, he pays $120 for electricity and $60 for the internet. He is in production design and one of the advantages is that he can get all the free furniture once his job is done, so that’s what he used to decorate and ornamentalize the space.
For him, the favourite part is that he feels closer to the community because it reminds him of his childhood. He had grown up on a commune in Texas and he described it as a nonprofit humanitarian organization that did disaster reliefs. That’s how his mom had lived and he says it has molded an open door policy that he has taken with himself throughout his adult life as well.
It’s because of this philosophy that Dahl made it extensively huge in his living space. He also had a fridge and a communal swing. He was mugged in the neighborhood a couple of months ago but this community feelings has now made things better for him. He says that people are looking out for him more than he has ever looked out for himself and this he believes has been significant.
