Trying to make it as a hipster on the Gowanus canal.

But before you go running for your own abandoned factory warehouse or floating Gowanus chatelet, NY Mag makes the following astute observation:

Living on a  toxic Superfund site may pose more of a health hazard than former factories converted into lofts, but Gowanus squatters do appear to share some similarities with their Williamsburg brethren. Take, for example, Adam Katzman who grew up in a wealthy New Jersey suburb, but now lives on a boat he calls the Jerko. He’s outfitted the boat, purchased for $1 million from a family who lived on it for twenty years at the 79th Street Boat Basin, with solar panels and a “humanure” composting toilet for an attempt at off-the-grid green living — perhaps initially subsidized, we imagine, by mom and dad.

Which is to say everyone in New York City has a chance to live the life of a hipster, assuming you come from a little bit of cash, are resplendid in imagination and obtain an ability to reconstruct your home and society to the preferred image in your mind. Never mind the empty syringes one once in a while is forced to carefully walk over…