quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a rolling new york times thread

When my parents decided they wanted to open a coffee shop as a pleasant retirement business, I had a fit because they barely drank coffee, didn't go to coffee shops and had no clue what it entailed to run a business. They also didn't think it would be necessary to hire a manager for the store. Then they realized they would have to be at the store at all times to open, do orders, receive deliveries, schedule workers, do payroll, deal with health inspectors, etc. etc. They actually seemed shocked that the high schoolers they hired gave away free stuff to friends. They got super lucky when the previous owners of the shop for some reason decided not to close on the sale and they only lost a little money.

this made me lol because i'm pretty sure i've been to coffee shops that started this way

a) there is money in weddings and b) there is worlds of pain

yeah you gotta be hardcore as a vendor. every customer thinks they're special because they're only doing this the one time while the vendor is dealing with the same crazy shit every week

yeah you gotta be hardcore as a vendor. every customer thinks they're special because they're only doing this the one time while the vendor is dealing with the same crazy shit every week

this is true for a lot of service industries when you deal with the general public (as opposed to other businesses). it's definitely true if you're running a law firm or a doctor's office.

This is actually from May, but I didn't see it at the time and it's sort of fascinating:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/nyregion/brooklyn-neighbors-share-landlord-but-not-amenities.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

And as is often the case in both real estate and human nature, one condo owner said she too felt envy — for the people who lived on the affordable side. The woman, a 32-year-old mother-to-be who did not want to have her name published, said she and her husband poured their life savings into their one-bedroom condo at Northside Piers. (She also said that if everyone used the gym and pool, “it’s going to be a mess.”)

The rentals, by comparison, were a sweet deal, she said.

“Sometimes we feel they are luckier,” she said. “We are not that rich.”

id totally take the below market rent over the gym pool etc

one bedroom with a kid on the way? no wonder this lady's having second thoughts

Oh good

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2011/08/rich_people_feel_comfortable_b.html

Is Mark Zandi seriously suggesting that the recession happened because rich people stopped spending money? Jesus. Time to revive the oligarchy thread.

omg this earthquake is gonna create such great material for this thread

PTSD alert

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/seven-ways-to-protect-your-tech-from-irene/

Hurricane approaching? Don't forget to fire up a month’s worth of data for your 3G iPad!

Follow #hurricane and #irene on Twitter.

@NYC lol #own3d

beware the flying glass shards from those luxury condos.

Have just been reading those Peter Watts books in which ecological disasters/explosions send shockwaves into urban areas and shatter all the sheet glass from skyscrapers, which falls into the canyons of the streets and shears the pedestrians apart into little pieces, and broken glass and parts of people fill up the streets to the 2nd or 3rd story.

Glad I don't live in Midtown or the financial dist wot.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/realestate/new-mortgage-limit-may-set-buyers-back.htm

eh not ruling class

article's not particularly obnoxious either

It's probably not ruling class for NYC, but $625k isn't chump change regardless?

pretty sure there are people on ilx w/ mortgages around that size

not chump change but still a subject that's relevant to a decent % of people reading the nyt, far more people than private planes to summer camps etc.

I'm just kind of shocked that a web site designer and an interior designer are taking out a 700k loan

yeah iatee otm, before the crash, $625k was a middle class house in the SF Bay Area.

Yeah, not ruling class. My eyes always get wide when I think of real estate prices like that but it's not really a thing.

It's probably not ruling class for NYC, but $625k isn't chump change regardless?

that's why you get a loan for it. for the ruling class that would be chump change, and they would just pay cash.

I'm just kind of shocked that a web site designer and an interior designer are taking out a 700k loan

why? idgi

those are not exactly the kinds of jobs that scream out "job stability" to me?

I'm incapable of comprehending how anyone can afford a mortgage that must be $2500-3500/month, tbh.

Some people are paying that much in rent anyway!

I know. It's insane.

those are not exactly the kinds of jobs that scream out "job stability" to me?

hmm ok. my experience is otherwise, but whatevs.

their job stability, as with a large % of people in nyc, is directly related to the ruling class

The apartment that my ex picked in Manhattan where I lived for a year was $2300. It slowly bankrupted us, as it happens, but we could have afforded it IF we had also made some lifestyle changes (which he refused to make).

where was it?

yeah the "buy a house first" logic probably really only holds in NYC and SF

14th St and 1st Ave, ground floor, back. About 500sf iirc. Total cave.

$2,300 is nothing in NYC and in some parts is really really cheap. In even the cheapest parts of Manhattan you'll expect to pay about that much for a 2 bedroom.

What can you buy for, like, 900K in NY?

^^^item I should google my damn self, I know.

a unit in washington heights?

actually I think it's easy to overrate how much of the nyc market is made up of $2000+ rents

relatively few people live in manhattan + nice parts of brooklyn and a decent % of that is rent controlled, housing projects, etc.

probably something nice in buffalo </lulz>

I found a renovated brownstone with a back garden, in Boerum Hill, on a realtor's website a year or so ago, and fell immed in total love with it, and they were asking 2 million at the time.

i think you could buy a whole street in buffalo for 900k

To qualify for a $3500 a month payment you only need to make around $150k a year, right? Which seems reasonable for two yuppies in NY.

people can make a steady 75k/yr from being a website designer? I thought that shit was mostly freelance?

I guess there are just that many restaurants that need Bad restaurant websites

people can make a steady 75k/yr from being a website designer?

uh yes. easily.

I thought that shit was mostly freelance?

no, but at any rate, freelancers can often make more than full time employees if they're good.

But then "website designer" is a huge term that encompasses a lot of very different situations. Same with interior decorator. That could be someone who just calls themselves an interior decorator and has only had one or two paying clients ever. Or I would imagine it could also include some successful and fairly lucrative businesses.

I guess there are just that many restaurants that need Bad restaurant websites

lol. and I suppose your idea of TV commercials is local spots for used car dealers?

I wish I were a yuppie / had $$$, there are 1brs in my neighborhood in queens for less than 200k.

The last interior decorator I had to put up with billed $100/hour. But I don't know how many hours each week she could actually bill for, etc..

okay wk but can someone make that money over the 10 or 20 or 30 years it's going to take to pay back that mortgage? is there even going to be an internet or a thing known as a 'web site' by then?

ya but it will be only used to look up menus for crappy restaurants