Everything Now Twice The Price!
July 24, 2015 8:15 PM Subscribe
Enjoy the Artisanal Landlord Price Hike Sale! "Everything in the store was also two-and-a-half times its original price, a nod to an impending rent increase that would send the store’s monthly payments skyrocketing from $4,000 to $10,000."
Yeah, that blinking eye was kinda creepy. NY designers. Waddayagonnado?
The signage campaign is neat, if just a tad bit ironic, given that the people who put it together, as well as the intended local audience, are pretty much part of the reason why the store's rent is going through the roof. We used to call it gentrification. I'm not sure what the term-du-jour is now. Hiptrification? Artisanalization?
posted by Thorzdad at 8:46 PM on July 24, 2015 [9 favorites]
The signage campaign is neat, if just a tad bit ironic, given that the people who put it together, as well as the intended local audience, are pretty much part of the reason why the store's rent is going through the roof. We used to call it gentrification. I'm not sure what the term-du-jour is now. Hiptrification? Artisanalization?
posted by Thorzdad at 8:46 PM on July 24, 2015 [9 favorites]
"Brunch Meat." Like lunch meat, but 10,000x more annoying.
posted by heurtebise at 9:00 PM on July 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by heurtebise at 9:00 PM on July 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I'm not sure what actually makes a good solution here, and wanting to "start a conversation" is the most bullshit copout justification ever when Thorzdad's point is obvious to everyone.
posted by fatbird at 9:06 PM on July 24, 2015
posted by fatbird at 9:06 PM on July 24, 2015
I believe that the "skateboard delivered grilled cheese" market is ready for disruption.
posted by autopilot at 9:11 PM on July 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by autopilot at 9:11 PM on July 24, 2015 [3 favorites]
I believe that the "skateboard delivered grilled cheese" market is ready for disruption.
'It's like Uber, but for bullshit.'
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:56 PM on July 24, 2015 [19 favorites]
'It's like Uber, but for bullshit.'
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:56 PM on July 24, 2015 [19 favorites]
Proposed bumper sticker to capture this zeitgeist: MOVE BACK, START SOMETHING
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:14 PM on July 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by BitterOldPunk at 10:14 PM on July 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
LEAN BACK
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:15 PM on July 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:15 PM on July 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
I suppose this yupsterfication is why some of Portland's "urban pioneers" are moving to Detroit where they don't have to worry as much about this particular problem . . . yet.
It reminds me of some of the short stories in Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles wherein humans bring along the seeds of their own (and others) destruction whenever they colonize a new place and it ends badly, just like the last place.
posted by clickingmongrel at 10:59 PM on July 24, 2015 [5 favorites]
It reminds me of some of the short stories in Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles wherein humans bring along the seeds of their own (and others) destruction whenever they colonize a new place and it ends badly, just like the last place.
posted by clickingmongrel at 10:59 PM on July 24, 2015 [5 favorites]
Noscript ensured that all I saw was the blinking cyclops.
I have not read the article, as a result, but somehow I feel like it has read me.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 1:40 AM on July 25, 2015 [10 favorites]
I have not read the article, as a result, but somehow I feel like it has read me.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 1:40 AM on July 25, 2015 [10 favorites]
An excellent way to deal with an unfair rent hike and being priced out of one's own premises. It was heartening to see how the local populace rallied round.
That said, IT'S WATCHING ME IT'S WATCHING ME IT SEES ME GET IT AWAY GET IT AWAY HELP
posted by The Zeroth Law at 4:55 AM on July 25, 2015
That said, IT'S WATCHING ME IT'S WATCHING ME IT SEES ME GET IT AWAY GET IT AWAY HELP
posted by The Zeroth Law at 4:55 AM on July 25, 2015
The real estate factor in pricing is usually invisible to the customers. I often wonder what percentage of the cost of psychotherapy goes toward paying office rents.
posted by Obscure Reference at 8:14 AM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Obscure Reference at 8:14 AM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
given that the people who put it together, as well as the intended local audience, are pretty much part of the reason why the store's rent is going through the roof
posted by Thorzdad at 8:46 PM on July 24
The people who put it together did so for free. The intended local audience - 1,200 of them - signed a petition asking the landlord to keep Jesse's rent unchanged, or at least raised a reasonable amount instead of 250%.
The landlord had no problems paying for the property and its maintenance when Jesse's paid $4,000. The rent hike to $10,000 is simple greed. I find it pretty interesting that instead of pointing the finger at greedy landlords - which is exactly what is the problem here - you find fault with the locals who banded together to support it.
posted by Awful Peice of Crap at 8:40 AM on July 25, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 8:46 PM on July 24
The people who put it together did so for free. The intended local audience - 1,200 of them - signed a petition asking the landlord to keep Jesse's rent unchanged, or at least raised a reasonable amount instead of 250%.
The landlord had no problems paying for the property and its maintenance when Jesse's paid $4,000. The rent hike to $10,000 is simple greed. I find it pretty interesting that instead of pointing the finger at greedy landlords - which is exactly what is the problem here - you find fault with the locals who banded together to support it.
posted by Awful Peice of Crap at 8:40 AM on July 25, 2015 [4 favorites]
Welp, Hogs and Heifers is having their rent raised from $14K to $60K; in essence, kicking them out of their space, also. But no one is going into activist mode to save them. Real talk, they're probably considered by their neighbors as way downmarket for the area, what with their attracting the wrong sort of people (i.e., tourists, bikers, and other plebes) to the super-dee-dooper-upscale Meatpacking District. Can't have a "biker joint" near the new Whitney, can we?
Does anyone really think the landlord/developer is going to get $60K a month for such a small space? I don't, but I do think Hogs will be replaced by some "luxury"/designer goods shop and they'll pay $25-$30K.
posted by droplet at 9:05 AM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
Does anyone really think the landlord/developer is going to get $60K a month for such a small space? I don't, but I do think Hogs will be replaced by some "luxury"/designer goods shop and they'll pay $25-$30K.
posted by droplet at 9:05 AM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
they mobilized, collecting 1,200 signatures in support of their beloved bodega, but landlord Karina Bilger returned the petition unopened.
At least she could have included a polite note explaining that the bubble was far from bursting and the clever fund managers that would be buying the block from her at absurdly inflated prices would still be able to sell at least once or twice more before the crash and in a couple business cycles cool businesses would reemerge from one social wreckage or another. Unless the waters finally rise.
posted by sammyo at 9:40 AM on July 25, 2015
At least she could have included a polite note explaining that the bubble was far from bursting and the clever fund managers that would be buying the block from her at absurdly inflated prices would still be able to sell at least once or twice more before the crash and in a couple business cycles cool businesses would reemerge from one social wreckage or another. Unless the waters finally rise.
posted by sammyo at 9:40 AM on July 25, 2015
Oh the eye! No. Actually, nope. Dear web designers: nope. The content should be the most important thing.
posted by amtho at 11:08 AM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by amtho at 11:08 AM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
The signage campaign is neat, if just a tad bit ironic, given that the people who put it together, as well as the intended local audience, are pretty much part of the reason why the store's rent is going through the roof.
So I'm beginning to realize it's a smoke screen when we blame artists and white queers and formerly-middle-class punk rockers for being gentrifiers in poor and working class neighborhoods, or then on the next level, when we blame the young "creative class" for then displacing those first level gentrifiers. I was reading about how Rock Paper Scissors, our local art maker space/gallery/after-school program is getting priced out of Downtown Oakland, and they're talking explicitly about how they basically created the conditions that got them priced out, but they don't frame it as being because they're bad guys - and they're not! They were serving a function that the city wasn't. And they're an important institution which our city and community should support.
There are real structural changes that need to happen, now, yesterday, years ago, but at minimum as soon as possible that limit how much landlords can increase rents, that create new affordable housing, that support small businesses that are aimed at immigrant and people of color communities that were there before the middle class people move in. There should be fees on luxury home sales that go to support community infrastructure for everyone else - like our rec programs and bike lanes and after school programs and public parks and transit.
These are structural problems, and just putting it on the middle class who are themselves being squeezed out of the ability to buy a home or live in a safe neighborhood is useless, because no one is going to choose to not live in a vibrant or safe or affordable space if the option exists and no other option does.
posted by latkes at 6:42 PM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
So I'm beginning to realize it's a smoke screen when we blame artists and white queers and formerly-middle-class punk rockers for being gentrifiers in poor and working class neighborhoods, or then on the next level, when we blame the young "creative class" for then displacing those first level gentrifiers. I was reading about how Rock Paper Scissors, our local art maker space/gallery/after-school program is getting priced out of Downtown Oakland, and they're talking explicitly about how they basically created the conditions that got them priced out, but they don't frame it as being because they're bad guys - and they're not! They were serving a function that the city wasn't. And they're an important institution which our city and community should support.
There are real structural changes that need to happen, now, yesterday, years ago, but at minimum as soon as possible that limit how much landlords can increase rents, that create new affordable housing, that support small businesses that are aimed at immigrant and people of color communities that were there before the middle class people move in. There should be fees on luxury home sales that go to support community infrastructure for everyone else - like our rec programs and bike lanes and after school programs and public parks and transit.
These are structural problems, and just putting it on the middle class who are themselves being squeezed out of the ability to buy a home or live in a safe neighborhood is useless, because no one is going to choose to not live in a vibrant or safe or affordable space if the option exists and no other option does.
posted by latkes at 6:42 PM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]
i just moved to nyc, took a substantial raise and a substantial hit in my quality of life. I'm basically betting short on the market crashing and all these fancy-ass condos becoming cheap in the next 5 years.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 7:55 PM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 7:55 PM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]
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