A Guy in LA
Did you find this post over at Curbed LA funny today? I did---but it's got more political weight than it at first appears:
It is indeed an LA thing; in fact, natives here are often refreshingly surprised to learn that elsewhere fridges generally come with a rental unit.
Why is it so?
There are too many renters here; the market for rentals is too big. Or, stated another way, there are not enough owners.
The LA housing market is tilted more heavily in favor of owners and less in favor of renters than in other cities. If we had a better ratio of owner-occupied units to rentals than we do---ours is lowest among the nation's top twenty cities---there would be fewer renters, and the smaller pool would be more sought after by owners.
Accept this as a guiding political postulate in the owner-tenant wars: wherever there are lower ratios of renters-to-owners, the renters have more leverage. Because when there are fewer renters, landlords have to compete to get good ones. They might even be inclined to spring for a fridge.
If the City of LA had a better renters-to-owners ratio, renters wouldn't have to drag around with them 50 cubic feet of steel whenever they change cribs.
Dear Curbed:
I moved here from Denver and have looked at tons of apartment rentals in Silver Lake and Los Feliz, pretty much they are all apartments in privately-owned small buildings. In like 99 percent of the cases, there is a BIG HOLE where the refrigerator is supposed to be. I am told it's BYOF (bring your own refrigerator). Seriously? I am supposed to buy a frickin' refrigerator? Is this some sucky LA thing?
Yours,
We asked around Curbed HQ and all of us have refrigerators in our rentals, so we're stumped. LA thing?
Spoiled Meat
It is indeed an LA thing; in fact, natives here are often refreshingly surprised to learn that elsewhere fridges generally come with a rental unit.
Why is it so?
There are too many renters here; the market for rentals is too big. Or, stated another way, there are not enough owners.
The LA housing market is tilted more heavily in favor of owners and less in favor of renters than in other cities. If we had a better ratio of owner-occupied units to rentals than we do---ours is lowest among the nation's top twenty cities---there would be fewer renters, and the smaller pool would be more sought after by owners.
Accept this as a guiding political postulate in the owner-tenant wars: wherever there are lower ratios of renters-to-owners, the renters have more leverage. Because when there are fewer renters, landlords have to compete to get good ones. They might even be inclined to spring for a fridge.
If the City of LA had a better renters-to-owners ratio, renters wouldn't have to drag around with them 50 cubic feet of steel whenever they change cribs.
Labels: a guy in la
Posted by Joseph F. Mailander @ 8/08/2007 06:52:00 PM
51 Comments:
I don't think this is an "L.A. thing" - it sounds like the dude probably checked out a couple properties likely owned by the same cheap landlords.
I've never heard of an apt. not coming with a fridge.
maybe it's a silverlake/echo park thing. After all, aren't the bohemes supposed to be out looking cool in dark places with trendy grub anyway?
I have apartments. They all have refrigerators except the units in bad areas. Those tenants tend to take everything that's not nailed down with them when they move out. You must be looking at a low rent place in an iffy area.
He could always rent a frig or just buy a small one. Bet he could find a used one on craigs list.
Maybe Zuma stole that frig to put in his van and powered by a van battery.
I'm supposed to care about this story because.......???
This story requires about a year of research before it's even tossed around. For now, it's just an anecdote about some guy who didn't research the area before he moved.
Furthermore, many beach city apts and other areas come with fridges. It just depends on the owner or management company.
If you guys must compare youselves to the so-called mainstream media, then you should realize that at least the LA Times would have some supporting facts and actual research to go along with this postulate-posing-as-a-story.
I appreciate the attempt to post something nonslanderous, but there has to be something better than this.
Tell this guy, that on the plus side if he steps up a notch, even modest buildings come with pools, something he won't find where he came from.
silver lake landlord here. we have fridges in ours. never seen a place without one.
Even dumber. You can survive without a dishwasher but not a fridge. But many of these fridgeless apartments have the dishwasher! And yes it is an LA thing. New Yorkers move her and it's like duh?
New York apts., even the niciest ones, have friges the size of microwaves, so it doesn't cost much. People there don't load up a car with groceries, they walk and get stuff daily, a different lifestyle.
What does seem dumb, though, is that if a landlord requires a tenant to get his own frig, it can be an old and wasteful one that costs more to operate, a landlord expense.
But it definitely is limited to cheaper apts and maybe east side: I've rented apts in West L A and in a more competetive and expensive market like that, they all had friges. Big ones. Maybe the guy who said dumpy neighborhoods have people who steal them is right.
But who cares about one guy from Denver? Curbed L A focuses on real estate stories, tongue-in-cheek.
This wasn't meant to be a serious dissertation topic.
How do you know what it was meant to be? Did you post it? Obviously you also are uninformed about the "different lifestyle" in New York. Many apartments are old and come with big fridges from back in the day. New York encompases five boroughs as well as Metro New Jersey. The bridge and tunnel New Yorkers do load up their cars with groceries. West LA is hardly a more competitive market than Silverlake. Walking out the front door with a huge item like a fridge would be difficult. So much for all those poor people you've got stealing fridges all over east LA. The poor in LA tend to stay in their apartments forever to avoid paying today's market value. Finally, landlords rarely pay for electricity so the cost of running an old appliance is usually up to the tenant.
Curbed LA is great. It's where people get real information on real estate. An editor recently put it this way to me: Do you think anyone is calling the Better Business Bureau for info on lofts? No, they're reading blogs.
In the comments at the Curbed post, as well as here, there is a general agreement that fridges are not standard equipment in a lot of LA rentals. The last apartment I rented didn't have a stove either, and the one before that had neither fridge nor stove as well.
Did it have a pool and a dishwasher? Items one could not possibly live without.
12:28: You are obviously from the slums of New York, which isn't what I was talking about. I'm not going to lower myself into a discussion with a low-rent type like you: I'm referring of course to Manhattan, where I lived on the Upper East side and west village, the expensive and upscale parts... yes, there are old friges and old houses and old cars full of old friges in Queens and Yonkers, but who cares?
(Ugh...)Only "nice" part of Queens is Forest Hills, and it's full of fat people and striving immigrants.
The tonier parts of Brooklyn like the Heights and Park Slope are like Manhattan now...
So don't presume to tell me about
"New York" when you're referring to the lower class burbs -- sort of like telling a westsider they don't know L A because it's not all that expensive in Silverlake or Van Nuys. Puhleeezeee...
You low-rent types are so tiresome, I've got to jump into my pool-sized jacuzzi to wash off the grunge...
You must be very old. The apartments on the upper east side have been far less expensive than the apartments on the lower east side for two decades. Ditto the upper west side. The market for boilerplate "Prisoner of Second Avenue" upper east side digs doesn't can't come close to the trendy areas of Williamsburg, Long Island City, Hoboken and Jersey City. MOST of New York is OLD, which is the way New Yorkers want it. Where is all this new housing you found on the Upper East Side and West Village? Details and buildings please.
New Yorkers choose neighborhoods. It all costs the same. And the Upper East Side is notorious for fourth floor walksups with bathtubs in the kitchen.
As for Queens, the trendiest spot in all New York right now is Astoria. But old folks like the Upper East Side. The West Village went out with the hash pipe.
But of course you lived in places where the landlords paid the utilities. The only landlords famous for that own welfare hotels.
Hoboken costs as much as Manhattan. But back when your old ass lived in those fabulous brand new apartments it probably was the other way around. And because you knocked yourself out to find that brand new apartment, to a New Yorker that just makes you and old piece of cheese.
1:50
left out Nola. It's hipper than Hoboken.
The Meat Packing District! I've never been to New York but I loved that on Sex and the City when Samantha had to get away from the old ladies in her East Side apartment and took that loft in the Meat Packing District to be around younger people. I don't know if it came with a fridge though.
Greenpoint Brooklyn!
The Upper East Side is so tacky. You might as well live in a welfare hotel. But lucky you. Your's has a jacuzzi.
Silverlake IS more expensive than West LA. But the topic is refrigerators, not welfare housing that comes with utilities paid. In some buildings in this city it's from apartment to apartment. The sole reason you got one is because the prior tenant left it behind. Denver Guy is right but I could never figure out why LA landlords don't have to give you a fridge.
Someone who discourses about "tunnel people" and Hoboken and Jersey...ugh, please! Yes, I know they have big fat old people with big old cars carrying big bags of groceries to stock in their big old friges in big old houses to share with their big old fat spouses...
Uh, Upper East Side isn't the way-up- their slums above the 80's, idiot, but you wouldn't know that, because you've never been invited into a coop on Fifth or Park in the sixties, a short walk from Bergmans and such, because you take a bus to the east village (where RENTS is set, full of struggling sad artists trying to get out). Of course when you come here, you go to Echo Park and pretend it's because you're too cool for the westside, but in fact, you're just badly-dressed and poor.
That must be why you're in such a huff about this... don't worry, you MIGHT break out someday.
(WHAT part of WLA is cheaper than Silverlake, exactly? You mean south of Pico somewhere...? Yeah, like you know from Beverly Hills and Bel Air and Palisades -- but, hide behind the "I'm too cool for the posh Westside" attitude...hey, why don't you show Posh and Becks around the Eastside, maybe they'll come to their senses and move out there instead. Oh, I know: they're too old to be cool...)
Nevertheless, Blandon and his wife were arrested. The search warrant for this dragnet sweep, signed by L.A. County Sheriff's Sergeant, Tom Gordon, stated, "Danilo Blandon is in charge of a sophisticated cocaine smuggling and distribution organization operating in Southern California. The monies gained from the sales of cocaine are transported to Florida and laundered through Orlando Murillo who is a high-ranking officer of a chain of banks in Florida named Government Securities Corporation. From this bank the monies are filtered to the Contra rebels to buy arms in the war in Nicaragua." This investment bank, with the aroma of one of North's notorious dummy corporations, has since gone bankrupt.
Wait, did I miss something while I took a little nap? Are contraband refrigerators being used to finance drug dealers in Columbia?
I'd start my investigation in Astoria or Hoboken, if I were you. Those coke-heads from Columbia sure know how to spot a hot real estate trend.
Oh, and the "meat packing district" you refer to in Sex and the City, IS the West Village, you poor AND uncool fool. How sad, to be BOTH poor and uncool -- bad enough to be one or the other.
on the bright side:
Hoboken poster proves there is someone stupider than zuma dogg.
Make that a thread, will ya?
creep alert at 4:35, 38, amd 41. a tiny bit demented and rageful. cannot win an argument with facts and just insults everyone. i think lies about ever living in New York like it matters and can't stand being caught by that poster lying about renting apartments in west la, too. everyone knows that landlords don't pay the electric bill.
ALERT!!!!
The "tunnel people from Hoboken and Astoria" are coming to take over L A!
NO! THEY'RE ALREADY HERE AND UPSET ABOUT A LACK OF REFRIGERATORS IN THE CHEAP RENTALS OF BLOGGER-WORLD!!!!!
TH3Y ARE THE COOL PEOPLE!!!
THEY WILL TELL YOU SO!!!
BEWARE, DOUBLE ALERT!!!!
IFM you disagree, you must supply details and references: "Specific buildings and details please!!!"
Javol.
Wow what a looser. The Meat Packing District is not in the West Village. That's why it's called the Meat Packing District and not West Village. To say Hoboken etc are slums is ignorant. The idiot got busted as a liar and has never lived in New York and is covering it up by abusing the posters. Pretty sick.
Yeah, where exactly are all those new buildings you lived in on the Upper East Side.
The Denver Guy invaded LA and complained about a lack of refrigerators. Wrong about that, too. Just generally, you sound a little derranged.
What, "Everyone knows that landlords don't pay the electric bill?"
I've got to get my cheapskate tenants to pay me back, then.
No wonder I've had to cut back on my spa usage!!! An outrage. And I thought I was "nice" by providing them with free refrigerators!!!
Fifth Avenue is not the Upper East Side. The topic here is LA rentals not coops. If it were, the Dakota is the most sought after building in New York and it is not on the East Anything. You make a lot of assumptions about people you don't know. And your conclusions are way off. There is nothing glamorous about West LA. If you live there, fine, but since you seem so desperate to prove you are wealthy and fabulous why don't you move to Beverly Hills? Can't find a welfare hotel with a big enough jacuzzi?
5:04 AM sounding more demented.
You should put up a thread on how Laura Chick N Shit is failing to do her job as controller and keep an eye on our tax dollars. Who the hell is minding the store???? Antonio is more concerned with his public image then watching over the city and now look at the mess we're in. Daily News is reporting.
City Controller Laura Chick called Wednesday for major belt-tightening at City Hall, saying a year-end spending spree had drained reserve funds and left Los Angeles in precarious financial shape.
In her report on the fiscal year ended June 30, Chick said the city's contingency fund had been depleted; its emergency fund is $11 million short of the $122 million required under city policy; and its reserve fund is $90 million short of expectations.
With the city in only its sixth week of the new fiscal year, she said leaders have to cut back immediately on spending.
^ ...and she has to make sure new or used refrigerators are not stolen out of City Hall after being bought with money from the reserve fund!
Hey Tony Villar! Did you buy Mirthala a new refrigerator to console her after she was suspended?
Yeah, can't believe there is no news today about Laura Chick. Then the mayor ...who has been spending dollars like they are pesos ...says "Yeah, what she said. No more spending!". ...I guess Walter is off in France in exile waiting for a triumphant return to become mayor... so no posts about fiscal stuff.
I like the refrigerator stuff and the Antonio watch stuff too. It's kinda like MTV when they stopped playing music videos and went to TV shows. I didn't really like that but I do like the content. This can be a major portal. ...Maybe they can put on a Mayor show as well as the Zuma show. I do like it ... most blogs have one story a week.
Has anybody else got the feeling that the Zuma show is starting resemble the movie "Fight Club".
I can't keep up with all the different posters of who is Zuma ...and who isn't Zuma. I'm afraid I'm going to find out that they are all Zuma and I'm going to see a video of Zuma fighting himself in the parking lot.
I liked that movie though... I think I'll watch it again tonight and try to refresh my memory. It just blew my mind though when I saw Ed Norton beating himself up in the parking lot. I had no clue that Brad Pitt and Norton were the same dudes. What a sucker!
8:12 AM:
Or.....Did Mirthala's new condo come with a fridge?
But seriously, is anyone else here old enough to remember when Ken Minyard and Bob Arthur did the morning news on KABC? They had a tape clip, which they played quite frequently, of a woman's voice saying;
"Who Cares!"
8:12 - no refrigerator... he just cleans her toilet!
Joe Mailaander wrote at 12.32a.m.:
...there is a general agreement that fridges are not standard equipment in a lot of LA rentals...
what thread are you reading?
I read the opposite. majority are saying they get or provide a fridge. ????????
and you say it like its some authority, but first of all, theres no agreement, and secondly, the majority seem to oppose your notion.
just trying to keep the facts straight on this blog.
that's three very soft threads now that I remember from you. Mayor Sam occasionally has a little bite or snarl but mostly his threads are soft too.
ZD at least has guts to attack the big issues head on, without sugar coating or beating around the issues. LAUSD, vacancy rates, fiscal issues, downtown embezzlements disguised as development grants.
What happened here last night? A drag queen with a nasty attitude and a hot tub fetish came out to abuse bloggers, as well as spin fish tales about living in NYC.
Not that anyone cares, should you have to rent an apartment in Paris and Lyon, France you must rent a refrigerator and A SINK.
Could explain why the French are so stinky.
Eeeek!
Will the all-knowing folks from Noo Jork city please take the next bus home and improve the traffic and atmosphere around here?
Does that include the guy from Hoboken? Since low-rent district from the land of big power-guzzling fridges thinks that's in New York, too, I suggest deporting all such types to Hoboken, instead. New York doesn't need any more traffic, either.
If you check the guy's posts, again, he said Hoboken is part of Metro New York. It's true. Metro New York might include West New York, Weehawken and Fort Lee too.
Post 9-11, most of the stock exchange and displaced brokerage houses moved to across to Exchange Place making Jersey City and Hoboken as crowded and high-priced as Manhattan, with some parts even higher.
These are great-looking areas and we can suppose that New Yorkers like parking their cars. Which accounts for one reason why they like living in Los Angeles.
Meat Packing District? Never heard of it. But West Hollywood is the fudge packing district right?
Hoboken is NOT part of Metro New York any more than Van Nuys or Boyle Heights are a part of greater Los Angeles. Nothing East of La Brea is.
(Many people say anything east of La Cienega is unworthy to be called any part of Los Angeles, but I'm very generous; I like Melrose and 3rd Street and Beverly... you can have Santa Monica Blvd., though.)
New York metropolitan area
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New York – Northern New Jersey – Long Island
Common name: New York Metropolitan Area
Largest city
Other cities New York
- Newark
- Jersey City
- Yonkers
- Paterson
Population Ranked 1st in the U.S.
- Total 18,747,320 (2005 est.)
- Density 2,790/sq. mi.
1,077/km²
Area 6,720 sq. mi.
New York–Northern New Jersey–Long
The metropolitan area is defined by the United States Census Bureau as the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), with an estimated population (as of 2005) of 18,747,320. The MSA is further subdivided into four metropolitan divisions. The 23-county metropolitan area includes the seven counties that constitute New York City and Long Island, twelve counties in northern New Jersey, three counties north of New York City in New York State, and one county in northeastern Pennsylvania. The largest urbanized area in the United States is at the heart of the metropolitan area, the New York--Newark, NY--NJ--CT Urbanized Area (with a population of 17,799,861 as of the 2000 census).
Most owners don't provide refrigerators, because its just one more thing for the tenant to break or abuse. I know that sounds harsh, but with rent control, owners have no rights, but are held accountable for the housekeeping habits of the tenant.
Rent control?
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