A Good Roommate Is Hard to Find

In a city where there are a lot of crazies, the search for a decent roommate always generates some interesting stories. So, obviously, when the Times interviewed a few Williamsburg residents about their roommate search histories, they learned about some interesting characters. One of their subjects encountered an applicant who sent a 500-word essay about his desire to share “more than just a living space”:

“‘Honestly,’ the applicant wrote, ‘I’d like to find roommates that actually wouldn’t mind having a meal together from time to time, or talking, maybe about humans, society, culture or maybe even Mars.'”

And then there was the applicant who sent an electroclash music video that he starred in — and in which he doused a woman with a jug of milk. This strange behavior isn’t confined to Williamsburg, though, and sometimes the corporate types are even worse than the kooky hipsters…

We’ve been on both sides of the Craigslist roommate search in south Brooklyn — and we’ve had plenty of potential roommates send us their life stories when all we really wanted was a friendly non-smoker who’d promise that he wouldn’t kill us in our sleep.

And we’ve only been on one roommate interview, but when that Wall Street dude with the spare room asked us, “Why aren’t there any hot girls in Carroll Gardens?” we decided never to go on a roommate interview again. (It was, after all, an especially uncomfortable question for a Carroll Gardens girl to answer — but that jerk’s spare room sure did have a great private bath.)

Anyhoo, if you’ve got some roommate-search stories, please dish ’em in the comments.

You’re Cool, but Can You Swing the Rent? [NY Times]
Photo by Piotr Redlinski