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When Dodai Stewart, a reporter for The New York Times’s Metro section, asked readers this spring to share their wildest New York City roommate stories, she had no idea what she was in for.
“I just came in with an open mind,” Ms. Stewart said.
More than 100 submissions later, she found the horror, for sure. An infestation of maggots. Sleeping in a studio apartment bathroom to avoid a parade of gentleman callers. Using a fifth-floor fire escape as a door rather than getting a spare set of keys.
But more unexpected were the heartwarming accounts of people extending helping hands — a woman from Harlem teaching a roommate from New Jersey how to fry chicken and make gravy, for instance — and how many former roommates had remained in touch decades later.
In an interview, Ms. Stewart, whose article was published on Friday, shared why she wanted to pursue this project, why she thinks people are riveted by roommate tales and advice for people moving to the city now. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
How did you first get the idea for this project?
My editor, Felice Belman, and I were talking about what happens in summer in New York; that there’s an influx of new graduates as well as summer interns, and everybody looks for roommates.
She was like, “Maybe we should do a callout asking for readers’ roommate horror stories,” similar to one I did when I crowdsourced rat stories when the city appointed a rat czar in 2023.
Do you have roommates?
I live with a poodle. I grew up in New York, and the only time I had roommates was after college, when I was living in Long Island City. There were three of us, and I believe the total rent was $850.
Are you still in touch?
My roommate situation ended in two of us dating and the other one becoming an enemy.
What was the craziest story you heard?
I spoke to one woman who has had, in her 22 years in New York, more than 60 roommates.
How did you verify that?
I had her break it down for me: When she first came to New York, she had three roommates, and sometimes they changed or brought guests. So that became 10. Then she lived in Greenpoint with one roommate, and then in Bedford-Stuyvesant with a roommate who changed frequently — that was another five. And then she lived at this other place with three roommates and their guests, who rotated, totaling another 13.
At her current apartment in Park Slope, which she used as an Airbnb in the early days, she had 18 roommates in total. Now she’s using Craigslist to find roommates, and she’s had 14 from there. I did the math: It adds up to 61 roommates over the last 22 years.
Were people reluctant to give you their real names?
There were some people who wrote in, and when I reached out to them, they were like, “Oh, actually, I don’t want to be in the paper, because my roommate may read this.”
Did you allow any pseudonyms?
No, it’s all real. And not all the roommates are named — in the story about the maggot infestation, I didn’t name the culprit.
What was your biggest surprise?
How many people who had roommates a long time ago had remained friends with them. More than one person told me that someone they were roommates with in the ’50s or ’60s or ’70s or ’80s, they’re still friends with to this day.
What trends did you see?
There were a lot of stories that involved drug situations. And a lot of problems with plumbing and people sleeping in beds that were not their own. A lot of tales of railroad apartments, where you have to walk through someone’s bedroom to get to another bedroom, which is a quirk of living in New York City.
Did you know from the beginning that you also wanted to include stories about positive experiences with roommates?
There are houses in Queens that have 12 migrant workers sharing one bedroom; I was cognizant that there are people who are just doing the best they can and have to share space, and that doesn’t mean it’s a horror story. I wanted to show that there are things that can be fun about this situation — even in a place where there is a severe housing shortage and a lack of affordable housing.
Why are people so fascinated by stories about roommates?
It reveals little quirks and idiosyncrasies about how people live and what they do in their private space.
What advice do you have for people going through this right now, or who will soon be searching for roommates?
Whatever the situation is, whether it’s positive or negative, remember that it’s generally temporary.
Sarah Bahr writes about culture and style for The Times.
The post What a Reporter Learned From Over 100 Wild Roommate Tales appeared first on New York Times.
