Humanity, Caring, Gentleness, Consideration, Respect

Concepts that appear to be rapidly disappearing in the new Millenium.

It is several days before Christmas, 2007, I recently went out for a drink with a girlfriend who had been away for the week-end. I had been out of town working for a month, and we hadn’t seen one another for a while, wanted to catch up, and interestingly had purchased small gifts for each other during our travels. We ran into some other friends in the restaurant and found ourselves sitting ‘boy-girl-boy-girl’ at the bar, which gave us proximity and opportunity to speak with our other friends.

Normally I would use the word ‘Gentleman’, however following the gist of the conversation, the homily is sadly inappropriate, and his description must be simply that of ‘Person’.

He currently owns a condo in a very high-end building which is about to require monumental repairs, well into the millions, and the condo association has maybe $100,000 in its reserve account. Bad management, to say the very least, but weren’t the owner’s paying attention? A building of this size and age should be sitting on at least a million in reserve. Unfortunate, as it is a heritage building and spectacular.

The architecture is exquisite, the views can take your breath away, and the scale of the apartments, from a bygone era, all with high ceilings, fireplaces, and maid’s quarters.

There are approximately 60 units in the building, so the assessments could range as high as $750,000 for the larger penthouse apartments. Over 50% of the residents are older, retired, and living on fixed incomes. Meetings of the owners with the condo association over the last few weeks have been unpleasant, and frightening for some of the older residents, who clearly do not have the means to finance the massive repairs they are facing. Furthermore, the market value of the units has publicly known, so the chance to sell on the open market has virtually disappeared. To further add insult to injury, as many of them have been in their units for over 30 years, they would require substantial renovations to bring them up to a condition to render them marketable.

This person’s assessment of the situation?…….

He thinks they should sell out for whatever amount they can get and leave. I softly suggested that many of them will need to invest the capital as they will have to pay for moving and rent, that if they are old and frail, they may not be able to survive on the limited amount they would derive from selling in a depressed market. Mr Inconsiderate felt that as they had purchased the units decades ago, they would still be reaping huge benefits compared to the original purchase price, and should be thrilled with the profit.

It is cold, damp, and winter here. These people planned to live out their lives in these wonderful apartments, not be forced to sell and move in winter.

He seems to find nothing wrong in pushing them out to make way for ‘those with fat wallets’ as he put it.

This thinking upset me considerably, and struck me viscerally as what is wrong with the society of today.

His idea is that they should ‘get out’ and make room.

One wonders if we should bring back ‘debtors prison’ as well? If people have lost their jobs and are experiencing a temporary hardship, should they be thrown in the street? In prison? Should we add them to the millions of homeless we see wandering around, instead of allowing them some time to get back on their feet?

Are we better off with ‘tent towns’ full of homeless people, or should we find ways to temporarily help them to get back on their feet.

Think about it. It could happen to you.