what i'm doing on thursday...

[B]

On Wed, 15 Oct 2003, Pope Jeremy wrote:

> The Beehive is closed due to some shady business practices by Oakland
> Real Estate.

"Shady business practices" is relative.  Like everyone in Oakland, their
property was re-assessed and their property taxes went up significantly.
They raised their rent significantly (with very little notice to the
tenant, admittedly) to cover it, and Scott & Steve decided it wouldn't be
profitable to remain open.  Notice the very large number of now-empty
Oakland storefronts compared to about three years ago...

Laga's rent went up, very dramatically, around the same time.  My own rent
went up a while ago-- there's a clause in my least (not too uncommon, read
yours) that says the landlord can raise rent to cover increased property
taxes.  Without seeing The Beehive's lease, I don't know that what the
realtor did was "shady."

What is shady is the way the University of Pittsburgh gets to operate like
a for-profit business, but still has a tax-exempt status.  Unlike any
other landlord in Oakland (Pitt owns a *lot* of apartment buildings), they
aren't paying any property taxes on all of the prime real estate they are
making so expensive with their presence.  This is probably a significant
piece of Pittsburgh's financial crisis.  But I digress...


brian j. parker
dj, geek, & black-clad cliche

dj badtz  .  http://blackbadtz.lm.com  .  all that is wrong about music