Be well Skitch.
Be well Skitch.
Shit. Please take care of yourself Skitch.
I figure our trash economy gripes go in here. I'm deeply concerned about California. We basically pulled the plug on the bottom 20% of the economy there. I'm sure NY and other states (Nevada? Louisiana?) are in a similar state of catastrophe. I don't think the politicians understand what a mess having astronomic high rent, people working as servers to supplement the 20% of income (or so) they get from being a struggling actor, filmmaker, tv producer, musician, and so forth. Mostly in the Los Angeles area. The governor really needs to step-up and simplify the rent situation. 60% of the state is a residential renter (apartment, house, condo, cardboard box, whatever). There's gunna be a lot of bitching and moaning from property owners, but from an ethical stand point, it's better to keep a roof over someone's head, than temporarily fuck up the finances of a property owner. Ultimately it all goes back to the banks, and the big four can take the heat. They are backed by Mnuchin, the fed, the treasury right now. They will be fine. But I think it is immoral, unethical, and a "health concern" (living on the streets even for a few days can increase your exposure to assault and rape) for anyone to loose housing because of something the government did (rightly or wrongly). This is going to be a huge issue for months, maybe years, and I'm afraid the mainstream media is going to go "yay, we stopped Coronavirus. Hooray! Everything is better now! Go America!" No fucking way. As usual, the poorest are going to be screwed over the most. It's up to Gavin Newsom to step-up and impose unilateral, state wide moratoriums on rent payments in April and May if you can prove (loosely, not too many hoops so people don't get filtered out) you were effected in any way economically by COVID-19. And I mean extremely loosely, so an Uber driver just has to sign something that says they lost major income because of this and get their rent waved. Also, NO BACK RENT, RENT IS 100% FORGIVEN. Right now we are facing a catastrophe of evictions because people are going to face a whopper of triple or quadruple rent that they had temporarily postponed. No one is going to be able to pay 6K worth of back rent if they couldn't even pay 2K for the month of April.
Oh and this isn't about me if anyone is worried. I'm doing ok for now. But this is going to be a shitstorm of epic proportions if Gavin Newsom doesn't get a handle on it. California already has a shameful level of homeless people. We absolutely don't need to exacerbate the problem.
Last edited by Pop Trash; 03-29-2020 at 06:54 PM.
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
It will go upstream. The renters will hurt, the real estate owners not getting rent will hurt, and the banks will hurt from not getting their mortgage payments. So it's in everyone's best interest.
Seems easiest to prove with current pay stub (at a certain amount?) or unemployment check to prove for some type of rent waiver.
Property owners could probably have interest waived in some way as well.
Even if the landlords are "nice" about it, they are still going to want back rent at some point. They will take renters to court if they need to. People need to understand how detached and cutthroat many landlords are. Many, many properties are run by some faceless company and hire a poor, thankless property manager to deal with problems, maintenance, and (the worst part) evictions. My old apartment complex had an alcoholic middle aged, not terribly bright guy that had to deal with all this. The landlord was some mysterious person that would show up once a month in a swanky brand new Mercedes SUV and collected the rent checks from our property manager. I assumed he owned (or coowned as a joint venture) multiple properties in the Bay Area. He probably lived in Marin (one of the richest zip codes in America) and never dealt with the human aspect of his properties. It's a lot like the mafia. The mafia don gets all the money, and then has one of his not terribly bright goons do all the dirty work of breaking legs or wacking people. Only it's all legal and instead of violence, your property manager (w/ help from the local sheriff) kicks someone to the curb and throws out all your crap onto the street. Honestly, if these sheriff and police departments that enforce evictions had any ethics, they should come out and say they won't enforce any evictions for the next year. If I worked at these departments right now, I wouldn't enforce those laws at all. A property owner or bldg manager contacted me "sorry pal you're on your own."Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
At any rate, because of disaster laws, Gavin Newsom has leverage state wide to do some draconian things and he needs to step-up. If even one person becomes homeless because of what the government did (rightly or wrongly) that is one person too much and utterly shameful.
Last edited by Pop Trash; 03-29-2020 at 07:45 PM.
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
Didn't know. They called. Self quarantine for 2 weeks. We have to test temps 3 times a day and report to them daily.Quoting Pop Trash (view post)
Not all landlords are big evil corporations. Some individuals own and manage property as their primary source of income, and if they don't receive rent then it's possible they, and their tenants, are all in trouble.
#notalllandlords ... seriously, fuck off. They can get a real job. Pull up their bootstraps.Quoting Idioteque Stalker (view post)
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
#notallbosses. Mine just told me to take the next two weeks off paid.
Great for you. I have a friend who runs a small store front business in the East Bay selling vintage clothes. She is in tears and desperately trying to figure out how to pay her rent, or possibly her back rent if they let her float for a month. After about March 15th she has made $0.00 dollars on it and as an unessential biz she had to close it by state order. She had to lay off her two employees. Everyone is like "take out a small biz loan!" ... she already has a small biz loan(s) and can't afford to take out any more debt, even at 0.00% interest. Most likely her biz is going to go up in smoke in the course of two weeks. She's ran the store for close to a decade. She doesn't have a plan B. I seriously think she might be suicidal. THAT'S WHAT'S UP. A million people in the state of California just filed for unemployment in the course of two weeks. That number will undoubtedly go up from there. Two million? Three million? This is catastrophic. Three months of this at this level and America will have a shotgun wedding with socialism (already started). Six months of this and America will have a shotgun wedding with communism.Quoting Skitch (view post)
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
Are you saying these people should get a real job so they can afford the expenses of holding and maintaining property that someone else is living in? That's like saying a restaurant should get a job to pay for and provide your free tacos.Quoting Pop Trash (view post)
Anyone who argues that rent and mortgage payments are NOT too high to an obscene degree right now, is an ignorant moron.
A studio apartment should not cost $2000 a month.
When that is the norm, everything is broken.
Anyone who thinks $2000/mo is the norm needs to consider moving somewhere cheaper.Quoting megladon8 (view post)
Oh another story: a friend in Austin's live-in boyfriend owns a small biz planning golf vacations all over the world. It's like an online travel agency specifically for golfers. He was doing really well. They were traveling around the world and such. Now that the entire travel industry has gone to shit, he's anticipating a 90% drop-off in income for the rest of they year. He basically has to figure out if he can float with $0.00 income for the rest of the year or shut it all down. He may have to (try) to get another job and float it until the economy bounces back. Spring and Summer are his busy seasons, but he's not anticipating making any money until at least Spring of 2021 at the earliest. She already has clinical depression. She's gone full Sylvia Plath over this.
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
Sounds like he might need to get a "real job" too.Quoting Pop Trash (view post)
It has become the norm nearly everywhere.Quoting Idioteque Stalker (view post)
Even in rural areas here, rent is outrageous.
There are three small towns west of Ottawa - Almonte (where I work), Carleton Place and Arnprior.
Average rent for a studio / one bedroom is $1500/month.
People are renting out bedrooms in their homes, and they're in the 1000-1200 range.
Huh? Your serious about this? Should everyone just own property then?Quoting Pop Trash (view post)
Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying. They should go work in a fucking Wal-Mart or Costco to pay for their tenants to keep a roof over their head for a minimum of three months and eat that rent income. Gavin Newsom should implement this by order of a state wide disaster. We're not fucking around. I don't feel sorry for these people at all. Fucking leeches.Quoting Idioteque Stalker (view post)
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
So move further away. Live in the boonies. I'm not as familiar with Canadian real estate, but in the US if you don't care to be near a megalopolis then you can get a comfy single family home for less than $1000/mo without looking too hard.Quoting megladon8 (view post)
No I'm saying they can go to the job tree and pick out a nice jobby job, so they can float their overpriced property for a few months and eat the rent they won't be getting from their newly unemployed tenants who are covered by state order to not pay their rent. Oh what's that? There aren't any jobs out there? YOU DON'T SAY. Welcome to the party pal.Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
I'm aware certain landlords have taken measures to work with their tenants while all this is going on. Rent deferment, late fee forgiveness, utility forgiveness, even rent forgiveness. Owning and providing housing at a reasonable rate, in and of itself, is not leeching. When done well it can be a valuable service. #notalllandlordsQuoting Pop Trash (view post)
Ah gotcha. Yeh unless they own a major apartment complex where it would be their full-time job.
Before I bought my house I was president of my condo association which was only 10 units. That was practically a full time job and I didn't own anything but my own unit.
You're insane if you think landlords in California will forgive rent without a statewide mandatory disaster decree by the governor. They're still going to want back rent at some point. They're still going to take tenants to court to get it. I don't know where you live pal, but you are living in a fantasy land.Quoting Idioteque Stalker (view post)
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
If the government declares no one has to pay rent, and also no one can be evicted, then I'd support that if and only if the government also reimbursed landlords for rent lost.
edit: either that or they pay everyone's mortgage as well.