Catching up

[Murfreesboro]

I tried to post earlier today and couldn't, so we'll see how this goes.

I was blown away by the minimum wage in your area. In TN it's $7.25. Of course, it probably costs less to live here. It seems to me that higher minimum wages just raise the prices of everything.

Sam's discipline with money is very impressive. That young lady should do very well indeed.

And since I visited here this am, we've heard that Dolly Parton has passed. That is probably big news everywhere, but especially so here. My husband knew about it at school before even we heard about it at home. He said the students aren't supposed to have their phones at school, but somehow everybody knew about it, and they could talk of nothing else.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Yes, I heard that Dolly Parton passed away, she lived a absolutely amazing life. My mother called to tell me about it, she was a big fan of hers, so she was emotional about it.

I was blown away by the minimum wage in your area.

I had the same reaction hearing what it is in your area, I honestly don't know how you guys survive on that, but like you said, it's probably cheaper to live where you are.

Regarding the minimum wage here, unfortunately, the cost of living here has gotten out of control, and you would naturally assume that somebody making that much per hour would be living a reasonably comfortable life, and if this was 30 years ago, they certainly would have. But today, most young people around here struggle to cover their rent and groceries for the month, and some of them have to work 2 jobs just to survive, I guess that's why most young people still live at home with their parents.

As business owners, we were informed at the beginning of the year that starting in 2026, the minimum wage will be indexed to inflation, which means it will increase annually based on the Consumer Price Index for the Northeast. While that might sound like good news for employees, in reality, the truth is that every time wages go up, so does the cost of everything else, especially rent. So basically your average person can't ever get ahead because the system is set up against them.

Around here a landlord isn't supposed to raise residential rent more than 2.5% annually, but there's a loophole that says if the building you live in was built after 2018, then they can increase the rent by any percentage they choose to, and unfortunately for a lot of renters, a few years ago the developers deliberately bought up a lot of old buildings and bulldozed them to build new condos specifically to take advantage of that loophole.

It's even worse for commercial real estate here, as there is no cap on rental prices for retail spaces here, meaning that if somebody was paying $1000 per month for a storefront, and the landlord decides that he os going to start charging you $2000 per month, you either have to pay it or get out, and you can't take any legal action against them because they are well within their legal rights to give you a more than hundred percent rent increase.

I can't even tell you how many friends and people I know that had to close their businesses because of that greedy bullsh*t. I'm thankful that I own the buildings and land that my businesses are on, because if anybody ever threatened me that way, I promise you that they will have a not-so-comfy grave in my backyard.

On a unrelated note, tomorrow is Aug 26, and it's officially been 2 years since any new members have joined the forum. I guess it's just going to be the 3 of us until the world ends.

[Murfreesboro]

Wow, just the three of us from now on out. Happily, I do enjoy y'all's company.

I'm starting to see the various Halloween magazines pop up in the stores. I've already got so many that I have to be careful. Sometimes they just recycle material that was published several years ago. But I do get a kick out of seeing them.

Starbucks released the PSL yesterday. Lyd, Karl and I drove to the Barnes and Noble to buy one. Lydia dressed the part. She had on a pumpkin themed t-shirt and carried a pumpkin-shaped purse that she bought on line.

Re minimum wage: I think it's inevitable that the basic wage drives up costs, especially when it gets as high as it is in your area. The increase just gets passed on to the consumers.

I get how unethical it is to bulldoze acceptable buildings just to build new ones so landlords can charge exorbitant rent. However, I can feel for the landlords, too, when they are sometimes compelled to keep their rents unnaturally low and are still required to maintain the buildings, etc. I think that may be happening now in NYC. On the other hand, when they get greedy about rents, it can backfire on them. Up in VA years ago, a grocery near our house went out of business because the landlord jacked up the rent. But nothing else moved into that building, so the landlord lost, too.

[Andybev01]

Minimum wage here is $15.55, but that isn't enough to pay for anything more than a studio apartment for most areas.

On the other hand when I was living in California, the last year I was there. My studio apartment went for $2100 a month. And that was roughly half of my take home pay.

That was the effect of California's prop 13, which artificially held property taxes down so people could afford their mortgages, except it also did the same for commercial property, including apartments.

So apartment owners could raise annual rent
by roughly 10%, which is market. However, they didn't have to pay high property taxes. So they made it like bandits.

My last job in california was for the biggest baddest bandit on the west coast, Essex Property Trust.

Although I was one of the cogs in a giant machine, and my boss was satan, he did have a solid benefit package and paid very well for the industry.

Of course that meant that my dedication to my job helped price me out of the rental market and, consequently, California.

"On a unrelated note, tomorrow is Aug 26, and it's officially been 2 years since any new members have joined the forum. I guess it's just going to be the 3 of us until the world ends. "

Quite frankly, I'm fine with it just being the three of us in here, we don't have to deal with the amateurs and the seasonal looky-loos.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I just heard that Tim Curry passed away, he had some great roles during his career, 2 of my favorite movies that he was in were Home Alone 2, and Clue.

Yes, pumpkin spice season is almost here, well, it's already been here for some people, but it officially starts here next month. My wife will be putting out her pumpkin spice menu items on the first of the month, including her very popular pumpkin spice muffins, which she can sell up to 1000 a day during the busiest part of the season in Oct.

Regarding landlords and rent, I understand that that landlords are dealing with the same rising costs that everybody else is, and that maintaining a building, and the property tax rates have gone up for them as well, so it's reasonable that rent prices would increase steadily every year to match the current economy. However, the main reason there was a housing crisis here a few years ago, and why people in this area are still feeling the results of it, is because of mass immigration.

Now, please don't think that I'm agreeing with ICE, their mission, or their tactics, because I don't, I know that some of these people come from countries where they treat people so terribly that they had no choice but to leave and they just want a better life for their families. But it was because of the sudden increase of new people here that drove up the rent, as there weren't enough vacant apartments available to match the demand, and then landlords started charging unbelievably high prices because people were desperate so they paid it. The landlords continued to raise rent higher and higher and people were paying it no matter how high it got because they needed a place. Recently the rent has lowered slightly because some immigrants are leaving and there's less demand, but most landlords still want the highest prices for their places and some of them just sit there vacant.

Up in VA years ago, a grocery near our house went out of business because the landlord jacked up the rent. But nothing else moved into that building, so the landlord lost, too.

It's the same thing here, the landlords refuse to lower the rent so the storefronts just sit vacant. It's shameful that it's come to this.

I have 6 apartments that I own, there are 4 above the restaurant, and 2 above the bakery/cafe. They are small apartments because these buildings were built in the 60s, but I renovated them when I bought the buildings, and they are fully furnished, and are suitable for single people, or couples to live in. However, I don't want to be a landlord to anybody. This is for a few reasons, mainly because I consider myself to be a decent person, and if somebody didn't pay me I wouldn't want to throw them out. When I was growing up, and before I started working, my mother struggled to pay the rent, and there were times she had to choose between feeding us or paying the rent, sometimes she chose the rent and we starved, and other times she would feed us and fall behind on the rent, and believe me when I tell you, THAT is when I learned that most landlords are just evil assh*les that only have greed in their hearts.

They didn't care that she had 3 young kids, they were ready to throw us out on the street if she didn't pay, and we were actually evicted once and had to stay with family for a few weeks until my mother could find another place that was affordable. It was after that situation that I decided that I was going to work so that wouldn't ever happen again. So that's the main reason that I don't want to be a landlord, I also know that there are bad tenants out there, and I don't want to deal with the bullsh*t that could potentially occur from having tenants.

With that said, while I don't ever actually rent the apartments to anybody, I do let some of my employees live there for free, but this is reserved specifically for the good kids that have proven themselves to be hard working, ambitious, decent people that want their independence but can't afford the high rent in this city. That way they can actually save some of their pay and put it towards something one day. When I was younger, and in the generations before me, your rent was only supposed to be 1/3 of your pay, but now your rent is most of, if not your whole pay and you either have to work 2 jobs, or live with somebody else just to cover the rent. Like I said, most of these kids today won't ever have a chance to be homeowners because they can't get ahead in this economy, and it's set up against them.

I only have 3 tenants living up there now, and I have the other 3 apartments vacant in case we have family from out of town and our place is too full, or we just don't want them staying at our place, and they don't want to pay for a hotel. The apartments are also there for emergencies, if something was to happen and somebody needed a place to stay then the apartments are there for them.

Although I was one of the cogs in a giant machine, and my boss was satan, he did have a solid benefit package and paid very well for the industry.

Wait, wait, wait ... you worked for Mr. Burns?

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[Murfreesboro]

You learned hard lessons in your youth, HH, but it seems to have set you on a very successful life path.

I'm one of those people who is enthusiastic and welcoming to legal immigrants, but I really don't want the illegals here. A few years ago, when several people in our neighborhood put up those yard signs that said, among other things, "No human is illegal," I used to wonder if they locked their front doors. What would they have done if, like Goldilocks, I'd entered their houses to eat their food and sleep in their beds? I have a feeling they'd have regarded me as a trespasser and called the cops. The illegal immigrants situation is really no different. It's not just the increase in housing costs that concerns me. I worry about the diseases that illegal immigrants bring in from third world countries, and about the terrorists and foreign spies who sneak in that way. Our neighborhood is working class, I guess I'd say, and we do have some immigrant families nearby. The folks across the street are Palestinian, and we are cordial with each other. A block or so down the street is a young Mexican family. I don't know if they own or rent, but they've been here for several years. The folks across the street have been here since the late 90s. Both these families strike me as emblematic of the way immigration should be done.

On another note, we were all sad to hear of Tim Curry's passing yesterday, though I know he'd been in ill health for several years. Colin had seen him on stage in Spamalot when his high school band took a trip to NYC.

[Andybev01]

Tim Curry will always be the best devil in cinema history to me.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Murf, you're absolutely right about immigration, as long as they are decent people, and are here legally, then they are welcome.

Tim Curry will always be the best devil in cinema history to me.

Yes, he was great in Legend, I also should have mentioned the original IT. He had so many awesome roles through his career.

Also, last night I watched a old movie from 1955 called Tarantula, it was your classic horror style 50s B movie. It was also one of Clint Eastwood's first movies, he had a uncredited role as a jet pilot. I thought that it was a good movie for it's time. There's a poster and original newspaper ad from 1955 for the movie below, it was shown along with a movie called Running Wild. It looks interesting, the ad says that it's about the brutal story of today's lost generation.

Man, if only they knew what was coming.

MV5BZjRmZjRkNjEtYjM1Ni00NTE2LWI4ZjMtMjVhZmNhZmU4MDg4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjI4MjA5MzA@._V1_.jpg (854.32 KiB) Viewed 55 times

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[Murfreesboro]

A lot of respected actors got their first breaks in horror movies. The genre is relatively inexpensive to make, so it's easier for the producers to make a profit with them. And the young actors get work and exposure, if the film hits, like Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street. My daughter was impressed that, this year, two of the acting Oscars went to horror performances. She remarked that the genre may finally be getting some respect.

[Andybev01]

I still find it hilarious that young steve mcqueen is in the blob.

And not exactly a b movie, but Alfred Hitchcock's. The trouble with harry is young Jerry Mathers first movie alongside the screen debut of Shirley Mclean, not a bad bit of info for a person's resume.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

As they say, everybody has to start somewhere.

I think it's awesome that some of those people are still with us, Shirley Mclean is 92, and Clint Eastwood is 96, and he just announced his retirement yesterday.