187
Why do residential skyscrapers always seem to include balconies that never get used?
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this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2024
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You add tiny, mini, useless balconies so that you can check off another tick box on a zillow or trulia search, justify an increased rental cost.
Then you make the balconies as small as possible, as featureless as possible, and throw a whole bunch of rules into your rental agreement that prevent you from actually using them for basically any reason: Can't smoke on the balcony, can't dry clothes on it, can't cook on it, can't display any thing like a flag or banner on the balcony because of some made up aesthetic code, etc.
I've lived in a lot of different apartments of differing quality and location, and while I'm not saying that modern apartment residential balconies are entirely a scam, they very often are.
Legally you cannot smoke here within 100ft of a door or window that ventilates another's workspace or living space as it represents carcinogenic pollution you're willfully emitting despite knowing the risks.
In allowing it, the landlord would be subject to a number of complaints, some of them like human rights violations carrying no upper limit to the compensation -- they could actually be sued for millions in the right extreme circumstances.
Because that smoke goes into other people's apartments. People who may not also be smokers or may have asthma or other medical conditions in which 2nd hand smoke is bad. not actually a building choice... most states now bar smoking inside or near a multi-unit residential building.
19 states have some form of "right to dry" legislation, most of which would protect drying on patio space.
usually a matter of firecode. where I am, it's illegal to have wood burning fire pits or charcoal grills, but gas grills are fine. Also, turkey friers.
These rules are because people are stupid and have caused apartment fires numerous times with these things. can you use charcoal safely? sure. Also, another reason smoking is generally illegal. there's always that one smoker that forgets to clear out the ashtray every so often and that catches fire. (or they put a tissue in it or something, and that's not at all fire retardant.)
not actually legal. if there's a residential building code that bans political speech (banners, flags, etc) then that's a first amendment violation. The apartment can (maybe) ban things in their contract agreement, but that's not a building code. that's a contract agreement, and as long as it's not exactly graphic, it probably falls into the "unenforceable" category.
So, a bit of discussion about a hypothetical me has spawned from this and I'll say some things here:
I am from the US, have mostly rented in the PNW.
I am aware that smoking is bad and can affect other people, and that idiots running grills can be very dangerous, but I'm old enough to remember when these used to be a major use case for residential balconies.
AFAIK, generally, you can still do these things if you own (or even rent) a house in a lower density area with a balcony or patio.
Hell, I've lived in places and with roommates who are entirely capable of nearly burning down an apartment complex by not knowing how to cook on the oven/range in their apartment, or by just smoking inside and woops that cigarette butt or spliff or joint missed the tray.
I'm not saying it should be the case that we ignore safety concerns in more dense housing, I'm more just pointing out that things which many people are used to be able to do on some kind of residential balcony are not actually doable as more and more people live in rentals.
As for clothes lines, decorations, hell in some places even public drinking of alcohol on a balcony all being technically legal to some extent but still being against a rental contract:
Surely you are aware that the landlord and property managers hold basically all the power in these situations unless you have the time and depth of pockets to legally challenge their usually illegal frivolous stipulations.
They can just fine you and threaten eviction or withhold your security deposit, and it will almost always be 5x to 10x less expensive to just accept this than to attempt to challenge it.
Hell, I have literally never received my security deposit back, anywhere I have ever rented, despite doing no actual 'damage' to the unit. They will always just invent some reason to withhold it.
... Anyway, my main drive here isn't that you should just be allowed to do whatever you want on an apartment balcony, its that these balconies are functionally useless to the renter due to them being designed as an afterthought to drive up rental costs, as well as having all kinds of functionally real restrictions unless you want to get into a legal fight with your landlord.
Basically, at a glance, the balconies are just scams, false advertising that looks like a neat bonus at first, but then you realize you can't actually do anything on them besides maybe sit on a chair on them, if one will even fit.
It is a first amendment violation when THE STATE and ONLY THE STATE restricts your expression. You can absolutely have your expression restricted by private agreements that you willingly enter into.
When it’s a private agreement, that’s not BUILDING CODE.
Read my comment again.
Building codes are regulations imposed by city, state, or federal governments. Not by HOAs or landlords. If there is a building code that restricts political speech, it’s a first amendment violation.
Okay but the original comment never mentioned building codes, but the rental agreement
interesting that charcoal is banned but gas is fine. I've never had the grease accumulated on the bottom of the grill catch fire on a charcoal grill, but with a gas grill...
gas can be turned off, charcoal can't.
it's caused way more fires than uncleaned gas grills. mostly because people go inside to eat and forget about the coals (an then the wind comes up or something happens and sparks fly).
Two points which I would like to interject here:
OP (of either the post or comment above) may not be in the United States, and
Even if they are, there are 50 states and 1 capital district. That means those 19 states only make up roughly a third of the United States. Odds are they are not in one of them.
Fair enough.
though, my understanding is that the opposition to clotheslines is a mostly US thing. Especially in places where the weather is warm year-round. (specifically its the HOA's because HOA's are the devil.)
edit: also, there's no state here that forbids the practice. (there may be cities that do, but I imagine those are in places like... florida. Government small enough to fit in your backyard.)
My house is in an HOA. I'm not allowed to have a clothesline.
I do anyway. It's on my screened in porch, and not visible unless you're climbing trees in my backyard. And if you are, fuck you, I'll walk around naked all day if I goddamn well please.
That's fair. I'm not personally knowledgeable about said rules; I just thought I'd point out those couple things.
Agreed. I would say they need to go fuck themselves with a cactus, but really now. What did the cactus ever do to deserve that?
You can blame Jeff Bezos, George Clooney, and Nestle for that.
Nipple Batman made balconies useless?
You're going to have to walk us through that one, please.
I figure Jeff Bezos and Nestle ARE guilty of so much evil shit that they get away with, that it's not actually in bad faith to blame them for things they had nothing to do with. They can accept blame for SOMETHING for once in their miserable god damned evil lives.
As for Clooney.......well he's just a smug bastard, and my Clooney bashing is well known here on Lemmy.
So you CAN blame them all for whatever it was we were talking about. Doesn't make it true.....per se.....but you CAN blame them for it! Because fuck them anyways!
Ok. So you're 15 and 'edgy'.
holds up spork