When did putting yourself in a cage become a thing?

These rooftop patios/enclosures/cages started popping up a year or two ago. There was one on the roof of the building next to me and now there are three. A couple of things. Maybe it feels cosy and safe to be inside one, but from the outside, it looks like you are in a cage.

When I came up to the roof on the 4th of July to watch fireworks, there were a bunch of people in the enclosure closest to the camera, aka enclosure 1 in the picture below. I don’t think you really get the idea from this angle. Maybe if you imagine a group of people in enclosure 2. I swear to God, the way they were huddled in there, looking out, they looked just like animals in a zoo on display.

And now that the enclosures/patios are right up next to each other, it’s just kinda silly. What is the point?

Rooftop patios, enclosures, New York City

Stacy Horn

I've written six non-fiction books, the most recent is Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York.

View all posts by Stacy Horn →

2 thoughts on “When did putting yourself in a cage become a thing?

  1. Is any tenant of the building allowed to set up an enclosure for themself? At some point, will there be no more room left on the roof for tenants like you who may not have set up an enclosure yet? It would kind of bother me for that reason.

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