Between Riverside And Crazy

Pops’s rent-controlled apartment has significant symbolic value, both as a representation of Pops’s determination and stubbornness and as an emblem of power. While Pops is able to live in the apartment, he has power and a sense of agency, but as soon as the city is able to find a reason to take it from him, the power dynamics shift, and Pops is left with nothing, with New York City getting to keep what Pops believes he is owed. 

Pops’s character is a strong, willful one. His confidence in his position in the apartment can be explained by the fact that he feels secure in his possession of it, thanks to the rent-control laws that enable him to afford the monthly payments. Once his possession of the apartment is challenged and then denied, Pops must find his sense of security elsewhere; fortunately, by the end of the play, it appears he finds it in himself. This triumph is bittersweet, as the audience may wonder what was preventing Pops from finding his own confidence in himself in the first place.  

Pops’s apartment is called a railroad apartment, meaning the rooms of the apartment connect in a line, like the spaces in a passenger train. This kind of apartment is perfectly comfortable for one person, or perhaps for a couple, but as nothing separates the rooms except for a doorway, privacy is minimal.