US cities shelving plans for more self-storage buildings

New York

SALLY Lesser really needs a bigger apartment. Instead, she has a storage unit.

Into her 70 square foot nook goes everything she cannot cram into the one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn Heights that she shares with her husband: out-of-season clothing, old files and Christmas ornaments, playbills from long-ago shows, even their grown son's childhood toys. All for US$275 a month.

"We could not live without our storage unit," said Ms Lesser, 66, a costume designer. "Where are those Thomas the Tank Engines going to go?"

For many New Yorkers, a storage unit or two (or three) is the only solution to living small.

It is the spare closet or extra room that they don't have, or can't otherwise afford in a crowded city with ever shrinking and more expensive living quarte…