I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the Village streets at noon looking for an affordable place to live. While we slog through Facebook posts and Craigslist ads, shelling ridiculous amounts of cash to brokers and management companies, some take to their imagination. Capital New York reporter Azi Payb noticed the poetry flyer (as seen above) plastered all around Red Hook last weekend.

This James Carpenter fellow beseeches his beloved neighborhood for help, expressing himself in rhyming couplets. Though just as boldly, he lists his full name, e-mail, and phone number. Who is this guy, why didn’t we think of this before, and who writes poems to New York? (Just kidding, everyone does that)

Carpenter told Gothamist about his living predicament: He broke up with his girlfriend, whom he shared a one-bedroom on the border of Red Hook/Carroll Gardens, in January. He can’t afford his rent there anymore, so he turned to Craigslist and brokers for help searching for a new place for him and his cat. He said it became a frustrating experience very quickly, one which most New Yorkers have had to go through at some point. “The crooked parts of their industry run entirely on helplessness and isolation,” he said.

“Feeling that you have nobody else to turn to makes you feel all the more pressured to jump at whatever crumb of an apartment they might let drop for you, at whatever insane cost, just to have somewhere to go.” Read more…