Our new mayor has an interesting proposal: Phase out LA’s notorious gross receipts business tax. This would be a wonderful development for real estate investors in the city and an even better one for small business owners generally. What is the “gross receipts tax”? It’s a tax the City of LA charges all businesses on … Continue reading “An interesting idea from Mayor Garcetti”
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Moving…
Sorry for the lack of posts here in the last two days. We moved out of our rental and into the new fourplex on Wednesday and have been dealing with the aftermath since. Last time we moved, we had no children and it was still fairly painful. Now, with two kids and two dogs, it’s … Continue reading “Moving…”
Why we’re moving to the hood
My very patient wife Lucy and I are moving this week to a new home just north of Washington and just east of La Brea. When I tell people where we’re moving, they get sour looks on their faces and say things like “Oh, I guess it’s improving” or “It’s not that bad”. The truth … Continue reading “Why we’re moving to the hood”
Feeding the homeless in LA
The NY Times has an interesting article today about a group of homeowners in Hollywood who are trying to stop charities from feeding homeless people in their neighborhood. Adrian over at Curbed responded with a fairly reasonable take-down of the homeowners. After all, particularly at this time of year, it’s pretty hard to sympathize with … Continue reading “Feeding the homeless in LA”
Not much to buy
… for me, anyway. Regular readers know I tend to buy beat up buildings. It’s not like there aren’t plenty of beat-up buildings on the market, it’s just that the sellers think they ought to be paid prices that don’t reflect the fact they’re beat up. Interestingly, there are several reasonable buy-and-hold deals floating around, … Continue reading “Not much to buy”
My first worth-while conference
Attended RealShare yesterday at the Westin Downtown. I’ve been to a bunch of conferences before and never really got much out of them. This one was different: 1. Met a family that makes bridge loans of the type that Jon and I can use to make our deals potentially much more capital-efficient. 2. Ran into … Continue reading “My first worth-while conference”
It’s not too late
I quit banking when I was 26 years old, convinced that I could do better by owning something, without exactly being clear on what that “something” was going to be. I messed around for a few years working on projects that did OK but ended up being dead-ends. By the time I really got started … Continue reading “It’s not too late”
Please stop f***ing around with the economy
I generally avoid politics here, because it’s bad for business. You never want to offend potential clients, investors, etc. with your idiosyncratic views. That said, I’m going to take a moment of your precious time today to complain about the state of affairs in Washington. No, I’m not going to place blame. I (obviously) have … Continue reading “Please stop f***ing around with the economy”
Echo Park gang injunction approved!
Hat tip to The Eastsider for delivering this welcome bit of news. Regular readers know that the injunction has been a pretty controversial topic in the neighborhood. A small but vocal minority contends that the injunction is some kind of tool of gentrification and/or racially-motivated oppression. Everyone else would just prefer that the local yobs … Continue reading “Echo Park gang injunction approved!”
Some thoughts on gentrification
Hat tip to my friend John McGill, an architect, for sharing this article about gentrification in Bushwick on Facebook. There’s also this response, from a long-time Bushwick resident. Regular readers know that I’m pretty heavily involved in buying and fixing up screwed-up buildings in improving neighborhoods. So, I’m not exactly an impartial observer of this discussion. … Continue reading “Some thoughts on gentrification”