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this gets me nervous — Brooklynian

this gets me nervous

joseph11
joseph11
edited November -1 in Prospect Heights
Suspicious Fire
Classon Ave & St Marks Ave
Brooklyn, NY
9/24/2008 3:56 a.m.
Got this off of gothamist
Does this make anybody else nervous. I hope that building owners aren't starting fires because they cant sell them
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Comments

  • caaahyoko
    caaahyoko
    Don't worry, its not 1977.
  • whynot_31
    whynot_31
    I read that they thought they caught the landlords who were setting properties along pacific on fire. ...not sure if they were able to charge them with the fatal fire from a few years ago.
  • brooklynboy3
    brooklynboy3

    Subject: Ever wake up in a burning building?

    caaahyoko wrote: Don't worry, its not 1977.
    When you are 3 months behind on the mortgage and there is no light at the end of the tunnel, every year is 1977.

    Big ass rings won't help you then.

    H
  • lo kee
    lo kee

    Subject: Re: Ever wake up in a burning building?

    brooklynboy3 wrote: [quote=caaahyoko]Don't worry, its not 1977.
    When you are 3 months behind on the mortgage and there is no light at the end of the tunnel, every year is 1977.

    Big ass rings won't help you then.

    H

    Wow. Calm down. It's not that bad.
  • caaahyoko
    caaahyoko

    Subject: Re: Ever wake up in a burning building?

    brooklynboy3 wrote: [quote=caaahyoko]Don't worry, its not 1977.
    When you are 3 months behind on the mortgage and there is no light at the end of the tunnel, every year is 1977.

    Big ass rings won't help you then.

    H

    My big ass rings always help. :P

    Especially the secret decoder ones...they find tax deductions.
  • brooklynleather
    brooklynleather
    Yeah, I heard about those fires. I have a friend who is a firefighter in the area too. I hope that this doesn't start happening again.
  • joseph11
    joseph11

    Subject: Re: Ever wake up in a burning building?

    I know its not 1977, but 30 years from now I dont want people sayin don't worry it not 2008.
  • caaahyoko
    caaahyoko
    Come on now. You're comparing a time when no one wanted to live here and there was a HUGE drug epidemic to now, a time when rents are still rising, and, for the first time since the end of WWII the proportion of white people here has increased.

    Yes, some people are defaulting on mortgages, but there are plenty of other people still coming in to buy or rent those places. I'm sure if you talk to some people who lived in poor areas in the 1970's they'll tell you how incredibly different that time was. From how its been described to me, I know I can't quite ever fully understand how bad it was.

    Don't worry. And it does help to learn more about the city's history. You'll start to see the ebb and flow of economic times. Start way back with Jacob Riis' book on tenements--very in depth and gives you a great idea of what was going on at the time.
  • whatchuwant
    whatchuwant
    Actually, those fires were pretty recent (last two years?) and scary.
  • patrykbot
    patrykbot

    Subject: Re: Ever wake up in a burning building?

    joseph11 wrote: I know its not 1977, but 30 years from now I dont want people sayin don't worry it not 2008.
    image
    image
  • stacey
    stacey
    caaahyoko wrote: Come on now. You're comparing a time when no one wanted to live here and there was a HUGE drug epidemic to now, a time when rents are still rising, and, for the first time since the end of WWII the proportion of white people here has increased.
    I think a lot of these fires are in line with that thinking i.e., the only way to get out of certain government programs (i.e., Section, rent control, HPD) is to claim that the building is uninhabitable and will be for some time. So they burn them down, get everyone out, rebuild the building and rent it for probably 10x what they were originally getting before it burned.

    Still sucks though
  • caaahyoko
    caaahyoko
    stacey wrote:

    I think a lot of these fires are in line with that thinking i.e., the only way to get out of certain government programs (i.e., Section, rent control, HPD) is to claim that the building is uninhabitable and will be for some time. So they burn them down, get everyone out, rebuild the building and rent it for probably 10x what they were originally getting before it burned.

    Still sucks though
    Interesting. I didn't think about that particular situation. Well, hopefully if that does start happening more regularly the city will step in pretty quickly to squelch it.
  • lo kee
    lo kee
    image
  • caaahyoko
    caaahyoko
    Will Robinson?
  • whynot_31
    whynot_31
    stacey wrote: [quote=caaahyoko]Come on now. You're comparing a time when no one wanted to live here and there was a HUGE drug epidemic to now, a time when rents are still rising, and, for the first time since the end of WWII the proportion of white people here has increased.
    I think a lot of these fires are in line with that thinking i.e., the only way to get out of certain government programs (i.e., Section, rent control, HPD) is to claim that the building is uninhabitable and will be for some time. So they burn them down, get everyone out, rebuild the building and rent it for probably 10x what they were originally getting before it burned.

    Still sucks though

    Yes, but burning ones building in order to jack up the rent rolls is not as dire as burning it to collect a one time insurance payment. ...its still arson, and it still makes people homeless... but NY remains one of the few cities in the nation where you can't find a large burnt out slum.

    The sky isn't falling ...it's just we'll have to learn to compete in the world economy. We might need to stop rich people from getting a disportionate share of the benefits of the current system while we are it...
  • joseph11
    joseph11
    Yes, but burning ones building in order to jack up the rent rolls is not as dire as burning it to collect a one time insurance payment. ...its still arson, and it still makes people homeless... but NY remains one of the few cities in the nation where you can't find a large burnt out slum.

    The sky isn't falling ...it's just we'll have to learn to compete in the world economy. We might need to stop rich people from getting a disportionate share of the benefits of the current system while we are it...

    guess you have never been to east new york
  • candicissima
    candicissima
    joseph11 wrote: guess you have never been to east new york
    It might have been a slum, but burnt out? Not really.
  • whynot_31
    whynot_31
    I'm in East NY on a regular basis. Things are occupied, very few things are burnt out. ...a lot of things could use a coat of paint.

    Have you been to Detroit, Chicago, etc? Its on a completely different scale.
  • daver
    daver
    whynot_31 wrote: Have you been to Detroit, Chicago, etc? Its on a completely different scale.
    It's been awhile since I've been to Detroit, and even longer for Chicago, so I'm not sure as to how it is _today_. But yeah. Especially certain areas of Detroit. Seriously weird burned out urban wastelands. Selectively.
  • whynot_31
    whynot_31
    NY, SF and few other US cities seem to have successfully moved from an economybased on manufacturing to one based on service.

    ...this helped maintain NYC for serveral decades as manufacturing went overseas. The problem is that the services we've end up focusing on (banking, insurance, real estate) are not doing well.

    I'm betting we are still better off than if we had tried to continue to manufacture, (China kicks our butt in manufacturing) but we'll see if we can maintain the banking and insurance gigs (Hong Kong and Singapore do these things pretty well) .....Frankfort is no joke either.

    but, back to the fires: anyone want to talk about the fires? otherwise, we at risk of being booted to the lounge. Fear of the sky falling isn't specific to Prospect Heights afterall...
  • madman
    madman
    The future, ladies and gentlemen, is advertising!

    But seriously, high value services like advertising and most business consulting in NYC will continue to thrive as the US economy tanks. As the dollar falls, our rates become much more competitive for global business. Why hire a shop in London when a shop on Madison Ave is better and cheaper?

    Or maybe we are simply all doomed. I can't decide.
  • candicissima
    candicissima
    Having worked on Madison Avenue and still in the field, it might be better, but sure isn't cheaper. $450 for graphic resize, $300,000 for a 5 page site? You betcha. If anything, it might help a NYC shop streamline instead of having 6 members of a team in meetings running up the billables.
  • whynot_31
    whynot_31
    Candicissima wrote: Having worked on Madison Avenue and still in the field, it might be better, but sure isn't cheaper. $450 for graphic resize, $300,000 for a 5 page site? You betcha. If anything, it might help a NYC shop streamline instead of having 6 members of a team in meetings running up the billables.
    Or, the US can continue to believe that somehow whatever it does is somehow better than what the rest of the world can do, and it can therefore keep its prices the same ...and gradually wonder why it is receiving less orders.

    "People think they want small cars, but really want big ones." -a good quote to put on GM's tombstone.
  • daver
    daver
    whynot_31 wrote: "People think they want small cars, but really want big ones." -a good quote to put on GM's tombstone.
    Hell, after Lehman, Fannie, Freddie, Wamu, etc. I have a new appreciation for GM's sound business practices. :mrgreen:

    And that goes double for the airlines!
  • whynot_31
    whynot_31
    this bust is a lot like the dot com bust, in that it is the result of wild speculation.

    Pets.com will be worth millions, look at the hits its getting! (problem: hits aren't money).

    This house is worth 1.2m, because the bank will loan me that amount! (problem: they loaned everyone else a huge amount to buy their house too. What happens if we have to actually pay the mortgage, instead of flipping it to a sucker who will buy it with borrowed money...)
  • arches
    arches
    Everything was fine at Wamu until they changed their slogan to Whoo Hoo! And trademarked it, nonetheless.
  • whynot_31
    whynot_31
    arches wrote: Everything was fine at Wamu until they changed their slogan to Whoo Hoo! And trademarked it, nonetheless.
    How are they going to resolve their current marketing campaign (the one with the black guy making fun of the stuffy old white guys) with the fact that they were just bought by JP Morgan Chase.

    ...the oldest and stuffiest of white guys?!
  • arches
    arches
    Maybe nobody will notice the subtle change to...."Who-oops!"
  • candicissima
    candicissima
    whynot_31 wrote: How are they going to resolve their current marketing campaign (the one with the black guy making fun of the stuffy old white guys) with the fact that they were just bought by JP Morgan Chase.
    According to their homepage and the "we own you now, suckers!" note from Chase, the name is just going to disappear altogether after a bit.
  • whynot_31
    whynot_31
    Candicissima, can you help them out with new campaign?

    If so, you are worth far more than you are paid.
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