RoR: Forum

BTW, if the neighborhood isn't zoned for residential, how comes there are any residents there? I guess it's OK for socialists to squat in industrial lofts in contravention of property rights and zoning laws, but building a luxury high rise…

Yeah, I don't get that either. The "residents" of a non-residential neighborhood are upset? Plus, I don't get why a hotel would be OK with them, but a condo isn't. I think they just don't like Donald Trump. Also, I'm not sure they're socialist squatters, or if they are, it's a very lucrative career path! Trulia.com says the average sale price of a home in SoHo is $3,463,363. There must be something I don't understand about the demographics there. Any New Yorkers on here care to shed some light?

Post 1

Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 12:54pm

Well, what I meant with squatters is that in the 70s artists used to move into those abandoned commercial buildings for little or no rent. Then the area got gentrified, but some residents must still be socialists — silver spoon socialists I guess—because they want the government to rule what a developer can build and what not. As for the legal situation, it's probably that people are allowed to live in those converted lofts, but new residential buildings are verboten. A hotel probably qualifies as commercial.

Post 2

Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 4:44pm

Only In NYC

What's unfair here is not that Trump will get away with what he's doing, but that smaller businessmen can't use his methods to skirt the law. Trump himself is no capitalist hero. He routinely cheats his subcontractors whom he refuses to pay in full after they complete there work. He tells them that they did "substandard" work and tells them to sue him if they want to collect their fees. This keeps his costs down, since suing him is too expensive. Many contractors will refuse to work on his projects because of this, but there are always lots of new contractors available.

The residents of the area are mostly living in squalid rent-stabilized buildings, welfare hotels, illegal residences and converted lofts or as squatters. You can get enough people to protest anything in NYC so that such news on NY1 is meaningless. Also, NY1 is owned by Time Warner and Cablevision which both own property throughout NYC.

I had an uncontrollable laughing fit one night when NY1 did a report on the 70-year delayed construction of the First Avenue Subway Line. A shaft had been drilled in the Village to test ground stability. An obviously jobless man in his 50's was complaining loudly to the NY1 cameraman, don't they realize what this will do to people in this neighborhood? There are jews in this neighborhood. There are Jews living here! I suppose that an airshaft is the equivalent of a pogrom? Only in NY...

Ted Keer

Post 3

Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 7:31pm

Ted

What's unfair here is not that Trump will get away with what he's doing, but that smaller businessmen can't use his methods to skirt the law.

I honestly don't get this criticism Ted. If he gets away with breaking an unjust law while others follow it is Trump acting immorally because others are following the bad law?

Would it also be unfair if pot smokers get away with smoking pot while other non-drug users follow the law?

He routinely cheats his subcontractors whom he refuses to pay in full after they complete there work. He tells them that they did "substandard" work and tells them to sue him if they want to collect their fees. This keeps his costs down, since suing him is too expensive.

Underpaying subcontractors for substandard work is almost routine in any commercial project, as substandard work requires more money to fix by a competent contractor (same thing happened to me building my house, substandard work lead to more costs and I refused to make final payment to some subcontractors because of it, I also told them to go ahead and sue me and I would counter-sue for a higher claim). Nothing out of the ordinary with that. Do you have evidence he is cheating his subcontractors and that his subs completed the project in a workman like manner?

Post 4

Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 9:28pm

I didn't say that I thought it was bad that Trump gets away with flouting the law, only that it's unfair that others don't (due to their size) while he does. Like lawyers and cops who laugh doing coke while they bust people for smoking weed.

But I have it on authority from a well-respected NY area project manager that Trump has people do work for him exactly to spec, and then he reneges on paying them by merely claiming that they did not live up to the terms of the contract when indeed they did. He then laughs in their faces and invites them to sue, knowing that they will lose more in legal fees than they might recoup by winning at court. This is a modus operandi, he never intended to pay them in full in the first place. I don't think I was unclear about this in my first post.

Ted

(Edited by Ted Keer on 9/20, 9:34pm)

Post 5

Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 10:57pm

But I have it on authority from a well-respected NY area project manager. He then laughs in their faces and invites them to sue, knowing that they will lose more in legal fees than they might recoup by winning at court. This is a modus operandi, he never intended to pay them in full in the first place. I don't think I was unclear about this in my first post.

I'm sorry Ted that's not evidence. We don't know who this project manager is, we don't know if he has ever worked with Trump, nor do we have any evidence brought forth Trump cheated him or anyone else out of their money. All we have is you "have it on authority" a "well respected project manager" said so. I don't think that's good enough.

Post 6

Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 11:46pm