When a developer wanted to replace the grimy Second Avenue apartments around the legendarily sticky Mars Bar with a shiny co-op building, they promised a few longtime residents an unbeatable deal: $10 to buy one of the new places, which would retail for up to $10,000 a month. The situation sounded ripe for an evil rip-off, but somehow it’s come true, The Wall Street Journal reports: “I am grateful they didn’t give us lowlifes apartments in the back,” said one of the nine neighborhood veterans who gladly sold out to take a place in the twelve-story building, named Jupiter 21 in a corny nod to Mars Bar. “I feel hugely entitled to this luxury apartment,” she added, “but I feel completely unworthy of it at the same time.” Hopefully the old-timers will litter their custom “serenity garden” with cigarette butts and Budweiser bottles to feel more at home.
