September 15, 2005
Live Free Market or Die
Trouble brewing downtown?: Another downtown cafe is now threatened with eviction, and its owners say the city’s real estate market is to blame. [...] The couple see the dispute as a symptom of a larger problem. They said inflated real estate prices downtown have made it increasingly hard to compete. "Landlords can price their properties high, and people with sufficient funds can buy the buildings," Jim Clark said. "They can then turn around and charge in rent whatever they need to charge to make money."
Sheesh, when my local tech company was going under why didn't they get an article in the paper decrying the fact that they had to pay rent!? It's the last sentence in the quote that really gets me. What exactly is wrong with charging whatever they need to charge to make money? Isn't that how they charge for a cup of coffee? Isn't that what we're all doing in our careers? When's the last time you walked into work and said to your boss, "Ya know, the salaries in my field have become really inflated. I don't need all that so why don't you just pay me half?"
Posted by David at September 15, 2005 07:00 PM | EditLet's take an innocent post off on a political tangent.... (evil grin)
I'm surprised they're not blaming it on Katrina. Is it just me, or is absolutely everything suddenly imported through New Orleans? Oil makes sense, and coffee I can believe, but prices for things like gypsum have shot up. Gypsum? There's a gypsum plant right here in NH!
Real estate is next; "we need to raise rent because NH real estate is imported through New Orleans." Now that is sound political and economic thinking, it is.
(surprisingly Starbucks coffee has not gone up in price, and remains solidly fixed at $4 and change for a frappacino, which
is interesting because they will undoubtedly take the blame if another Portsmouth coffee house goes under.)