From Miss V. to Los Angeles Landlords

I love this:


Dear Landlords and Managers.... (crappier the area the more pricey!)
Reply to: hous-643708616@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-04-15, 9:17PM PDT


...I know that the amount of bad mortgages and foreclosures have created an environment where lots of people want to rent- how lucky for you! But there are a few things you must know when the prices of your rent are more than half of what folks are making :

Here are a few blunders that to all too common these days:
1. "New York Style Living!!!" - this is code for smelly shoebox. Please keep in mind that the only reason that most people in New York live as they do is because they do not spend a lot of time in their apartments. If they did, the suicide rates in Manhattan would be sky high. It is not a privilege to live "New York Style" it is a matter of desperation and necessity.

2. "The Adjacent" phenomenon- Adjacent is not a selling point. Example: If an apartment is in Silverlake then charge Silverlake prices (though god knows why people want to pay them.) However, trying to tell a tenant that a place Union and Rampart (i.e. silverlake adjacent" ) warrants the same prices in rent is just messed up. It's like paying full price for piece of cake only to find that someone has taken a huge bite out of it. not cool.

3. As a rule in Los Angeles, the following is true: "The shittier the neighborhood, the more expensive the rent." You can live in a wonky studio in Echo Parque (read: crossfire between the Frogs and the Silverlake 13, with an occasional tagger vandalizing your car) for 1200!!! And guess what? You get to live in Echo Parque...fucking yay.

People please wake up and stop paying these ridiculous prices...you are being fooled. Landlords need to stop gouging. It is greedy and wrong and it won't stop until people stop letting them.