not a quid ag article as such, but right in the middle:
As the cases of bottled water and energy drinks stacked in the corner of the Yapalaters’ dining room attest, the family is cost conscious — especially since a photography business long owned by the family succumbed eight years ago in the shift to digital imaging. They moved out of Manhattan. They rent out their summer home on Fire Island. They have put off restoring the wallpaper in their dining room.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/health/colonoscopies-explain-why-us-leads-the-world-in-health-expenditures.html
― stefon taylor swiftboat (s.clover), Sunday, 2 June 2013 01:11 (ten years ago) link
Well-spotted! Yes, nothing says "cost conscious" like cases of bottled water.
― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 2 June 2013 01:17 (ten years ago) link
They have put off restoring the wallpaper in their dining room.
not replacing, restoring! not given up, just put off. the cost consciousness is staggering!
― free your spirit pig (La Lechera), Monday, 3 June 2013 12:29 (ten years ago) link
Perhaps they could save some cash by inviting world-renowned freelance art restorer Cecilia Gimenez to take a shot at their wallpaper?
http://i1.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article1276453.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/The+20th+century+Ecce+Homo-style+fresco+of+Christ+after+its+amateur+restoration
― bizarro gazzara, Monday, 3 June 2013 13:01 (ten years ago) link
http://gothamist.com/2013/06/01/video_conservative_who_represents_m.php
I actually picked up on this BEFORE gothamist, but forgot to post it here
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Monday, 3 June 2013 15:18 (ten years ago) link
lol i just put that in the politics thread. it's that important.
― goole, Monday, 3 June 2013 15:21 (ten years ago) link
dorothy rabinowitz should be a recurring onion commentator
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Monday, 3 June 2013 15:23 (ten years ago) link
BEGRIMED
― iatee, Monday, 3 June 2013 15:23 (ten years ago) link
I love the "we all know" approach. Statistics be damned, it's the bicyclists who are the danger!
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Monday, 3 June 2013 15:24 (ten years ago) link
"the bike lobby is an all. powerful. enterprise."
― Je55e, Monday, 3 June 2013 17:49 (ten years ago) link
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4071/4696317117_0de0a690bf_o.jpg
― iatee, Monday, 3 June 2013 17:55 (ten years ago) link
Jesus, it took a while before I realized that the joke there was not based on the word "enterprise" (as in the starship).
― Je55e, Monday, 3 June 2013 18:06 (ten years ago) link
http://urbanvelo.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/nahbs_2010_356.jpg
― iatee, Monday, 3 June 2013 18:10 (ten years ago) link
King of My Castle? Yeah, Right
The City by the Bay is going through one of its worst housing shortages in memory. With typical high demand intensified by a regional boom in tech jobs, apartment open houses are mob scenes of desperate applicants clutching their credit reports. The citywide median rental price for a one-bedroom is $2,764 a month, but jumps to $3,500 in trendy areas.One reason for the shortage? Me.I’ve recently joined the ranks of San Francisco landlords who have decided that it’s better to keep an apartment empty than to lease it to tenants. Together, we have left vacant about 10,600 rental units. That’s about five percent of the city’s total — or enough space to house up to 30,000 people in a city that barely tops 800,000.I feel a twinge of guilt for those who want to settle in this glorious city but can’t find a flat. But after renting out a one-bedroom apartment in my home for several years, I will never do it again. San Francisco’s anti-landlord housing laws and political climate make it untenable
One reason for the shortage? Me.
I’ve recently joined the ranks of San Francisco landlords who have decided that it’s better to keep an apartment empty than to lease it to tenants. Together, we have left vacant about 10,600 rental units. That’s about five percent of the city’s total — or enough space to house up to 30,000 people in a city that barely tops 800,000.
I feel a twinge of guilt for those who want to settle in this glorious city but can’t find a flat. But after renting out a one-bedroom apartment in my home for several years, I will never do it again. San Francisco’s anti-landlord housing laws and political climate make it untenable
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 8 June 2013 08:15 (ten years ago) link
scumbag
― Operation Gypsy Dildo (silby), Saturday, 8 June 2013 17:42 (ten years ago) link
Seriously. "The law restricts my ability to exploit my tenants so I'm taking my rental and going home." What a big, jerk baby.
― carl agatha, Saturday, 8 June 2013 17:51 (ten years ago) link
owner-occupied housing shouldn't be held to the same regulations as commercial rentals. that's stupid.
― wk, Saturday, 8 June 2013 18:13 (ten years ago) link
I think he makes the mistake of assuming that his tenant was crazy because of tenant protection laws rather than because sf is filled with crazy people
it's also very disingenuous to frame the vacancy rate as high when sf's is among the lowest in the entire country:http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acsbr11-07.pdf
― iatee, Saturday, 8 June 2013 18:15 (ten years ago) link
but yeah I agree with that too xp
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/sunday/loving-the-midwest.html?hp
strangely, when you move to a new place, it takes time to adjust, but then you do
EVEN WHEN IT IS THE MIDWEST
― j., Sunday, 9 June 2013 01:55 (ten years ago) link
what a bizarrely narcissistic article xp. That "landlord"'s experiences couldn't be less representative of landlords. He was basically renting out a room in his basement, possibly illegally. And somehow in spite of his complaint that strong "renters rights" caused him problems, nowhere is that actually to be found in his story. Meanwhile, the vacancy rate in SF is actually low, not high, and his misconception that the 10,600 "acant apartments represent landlords who choose not to rent out their apartments is beyond imbecilic -- at any given time there are going to be some apartments where landlords are renovating, are waiting for the right tenant, etc., and very few of them are likely to be opt-outs from the real estate market. The fact that a property is "worth more" vacant is totally irrelevant unless the landlord sells, at which point another landlord would be buying so that he can rent out to generate income.
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Sunday, 9 June 2013 02:36 (ten years ago) link
was expecting the end to be a complaint about an increased property tax assesment
― Operation Gypsy Dildo (silby), Sunday, 9 June 2013 02:41 (ten years ago) link
"Well, the clerk explained, because of the city’s troublesome rental laws, a tenant-free property is much more valuable.
A check of comparable recent sales in our neighborhood, in fact, shows that empty buildings are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars more than those with tenants, and with the current housing-price boom, that profit margin (on paper, anyway) increases each month."
Gee, buildings for sale without tenants, allowing the new buyer a fresh start are more valuable than those with renters locked in? You don't say...
Of course, if you aren't selling your building, that makes the added value nonexistent.
Fuck this guy.
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Sunday, 9 June 2013 03:22 (ten years ago) link
the comments on that are QuidAg gold
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Sunday, 9 June 2013 03:23 (ten years ago) link
“It’s challenging for the boys to go from surfing in Malibu to Brooklyn, so we fill their rooms with surfer art,” Ms. Davis said.
Otherwise this maybe doesn't belong here but ughhttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/13/greathomesanddestinations/licensed-to-grill-mike-ds-brooklyn-town-house.html?hp&_r=0
― Hadrian VIII, Thursday, 13 June 2013 01:22 (ten years ago) link
man, it's WEIRD to see Mike D all yuppied out like that
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Thursday, 13 June 2013 01:24 (ten years ago) link
sick pad though
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Thursday, 13 June 2013 01:26 (ten years ago) link
that could almost be an onion article
― iatee, Thursday, 13 June 2013 01:27 (ten years ago) link
Mr. Diamond, who prefers not to give his age
oh come on, it's already in the public record
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/beastie-boys/biography
― dunham checks in (get bent), Thursday, 13 June 2013 01:35 (ten years ago) link
i was on my way to post that here love ya mike but cmon
― i didn't even give much of a fuck that you were mod (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 13 June 2013 01:37 (ten years ago) link
i really do love cobble hill and am terribly envious.
― dunham checks in (get bent), Thursday, 13 June 2013 01:39 (ten years ago) link
The thing that most weirds me out and just seems kinda distasteful is WHY they would even do the interview. Like what is the upside? To show off his wallpaper? The guy is already super famous and at least in nyc probably can't even go to the bodega for milk w/o getting recognized. You want people to see yr bathtub?
― Hadrian VIII, Thursday, 13 June 2013 01:53 (ten years ago) link
Also yeah wtf he's not even that old. Kim Gordon could be his mom almost.
― Hadrian VIII, Thursday, 13 June 2013 01:55 (ten years ago) link
I think we need to address the most pressing issue here: where the fuck have Mike D's eyebrows gone?
― bizarro gazzara, Thursday, 13 June 2013 12:19 (ten years ago) link
― dunham checks in (get bent), Wednesday, June 12, 2013 9:39 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
oh fuck yeah. H and I spent the morning gawking at the photos. I mean I don't think I'd go for that catalog-perfect look even if I had the money, but if you told me a condition of living there was not changing a thread I'd be happy.
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:25 (ten years ago) link
But who are your light fixtures by?
― Hadrian VIII, Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:30 (ten years ago) link
Oh my god. That is my house. I'm not kidding, that house was on a realtor's website like three years ago or more when my life was pretty terrible, and I loved it so much I downloaded all the photos as a reminder of what happiness looked like. They gutted my brownstone.
― Tottenham Heelspur (in orbit), Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:38 (ten years ago) link
!!
― http://threeframes.net (gr8080), Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:39 (ten years ago) link
Mike D Is Playing In My House
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:40 (ten years ago) link
http://corcoran.com/nyc/Listings/Display/2016313
― Tottenham Heelspur (in orbit), Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:40 (ten years ago) link
lol I remember about 5 years ago, naively talking with H about how just "owning a brownstone in cobble hill" would be enough for us to live out the rest of our days happy, as though that were some kind of modest goal. Maybe in post-crisis 2008 it was? History has really dickslapped us on that one.
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:41 (ten years ago) link
“Our goal was to limit our total reno-architecture budget to under $500,000,” he said. “Which we pretty much succeeded in. It meant that at times we’d splurge on one light fixture, but not another. And it helped because we ended up having to retain original detail, clean it up and leave it as is.”
reno-architecture, Mr. born in 1965
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:42 (ten years ago) link
I think he could afford to upgrade his stereo.
― chinavision!, Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:53 (ten years ago) link
To get that last .5%?
― Tottenham Heelspur (in orbit), Thursday, 13 June 2013 14:56 (ten years ago) link
It's just funny that they've thrown money all over that place but the turntable is just a regular old TT sitting on a tea cart.Eh sorta funny anyway. Or maybe Not really.
― chinavision!, Thursday, 13 June 2013 15:09 (ten years ago) link
the beastie boooyyyyyyyyyyyysssssyou know they splurging on a light fixxxtuuuurrreBut only occasionalllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyOnly occassionllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
― i didn't even give much of a fuck that you were mod (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 13 June 2013 16:05 (ten years ago) link
China otm; it's just surprising there isn't a bigger, more terribly self-mythologising ~musical~ presence in the decor. bono probably has Elvis Presley statues & shit, it's weird that this place is 99% expensive glasswork & only minimally manifests musicianship
also this place is way too breakable. for a house with kids? a Pierre Cardin rug & exposed collections of antique china perched on glass shelves? any one of the things in this house being broken would be enough to tear apart a family, a modest Brooklyn earthquake would be like the end of the world here
― daft on the causes of punk (schlump), Thursday, 13 June 2013 16:33 (ten years ago) link
i mean i ask you, mr. diamond, do you even remember what happened when i broke my granddad's cuckoo clock
― daft on the causes of punk (schlump), Thursday, 13 June 2013 16:35 (ten years ago) link
huh, i always just assumed the beastie boys still lived above
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_rYfuewuzrOc/TKVYt037WuI/AAAAAAAAEGQ/GMpVWJGsJO0/s400/110288_1_f.jpg
― j., Thursday, 13 June 2013 16:39 (ten years ago) link
those speakers look lame too. he should have doper speakers. man he looks freaky.
― scott seward, Thursday, 13 June 2013 16:44 (ten years ago) link