Great guy, busts his ass all his life, looking to retire at 65, and then gets kicked out of his shop

[DFW]

Our local mechanic, a Greek immigrant (fluent in German), has been here for most of his life, has been in the same location for as long as we can remember, must be at least 25 years. He is always there, always goes the extra mile, never overcharges, will store your winter tires in the summer, summer tires in the winter, will bring your car to your house if you need it and get an employee to drive him back to the shop.

He is 60, was looking to retire at 65. He used to own the adjacent gas station, but it all got to be too much work. So he sold the whole thing to the gas station people and rented out the space he had always used for his mechanic's auto repair shop and his office.

Today, they told him, he had to leave. Period. Not renegotiate the rent, just "clear outta here." They obviously got some kind of sweet deal with some business that was going to pay them more than he could ever afford. He is looking for a new location, and will have to build everything new, and will have to work at least until he is 70 to pay for it all.

This is not the first time this has happened in our town. Our favorite ice cream parlor/café, run by a family of Italians that had opened the business here in 1959, got kicked out the same way almost 20 years ago. The owner, a jovial Italian, always called me "Zio (uncle)," as I was adopted as his family's long lost "uncle from America." I called him "Zio," too, since he became our "long lost uncle from Italy." After a while, most our friends started calling him "Zio," too. Until one day, his landlord made a deal with some big travel agency chain, and kicked him out. Heartbroken, he and his wife moved back to Italy, where he soon died of a heart attack and his wife from cancer. But the real cause was a broken heart. Even now, we still keep a photo of "Zio" on our refrigerator door.

Sometimes, I really understand people who throw firebombs into windows. Our town was made a poorer place from the loss of these wonderful people. Some landlord got richer. Well, congratulations.

[redstatebluegirl]

1. Can anyone in town help him find another location?

Sometimes when you make this known someone in town steps up. Plus shaming the place that is throwing him out could help too. This is just wrong! What kind of town does this to good people who work hard????

[DFW]

10. My town: Ratingen, Germany

There IS no one to step up. No one stepped up for out Italian friends either. How could they? It is a small town with a desirable location (near the Düsseldorf airport, adjacent parks, good public transportation and decent hospitals close by). You can't just kick another business out because your favorite shop needs a new location. The travel agency that took the place of out Italian café is sparsely visited, but new people move in all the time, and they have no memory of the evil manner in which the lease was negotiated.

[secondwind]

2. We are rotting from the inside...

[DFW]

4. We?

What country do you live in?

[Mariana]

29. You think the same thing doesn't happen everywhere? nt.

[DFW]

31. I dion't know if Germany is rotting from the inside at quite the same rate.

Here, they rotted completely, were destroyed, and came back, and all that within 100 years. There is much to dislike here, but my wife says there is no way she will live in the USA. On the other hand, although there is much I dislike here, I find I can live here and survive.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

3. IBM did the same thing to my husband and many IBMers we know.....

Faithful employees who made the company so much money, being targeted for wanting to retire after 30 years with full retirement benefits.

In 1992, my husband was given an offer he could not refuse. Bridge the remaining time, just over 4 years, to retirement after 30 years. But during that time, we had to scrape by until 1996, when his retirement kicked in. The first couple of years, IBM covered health insurance, then reneged on that. It was not easy, but we got by. We did not pull our daughter out of Private school to finish high school, then on to the University of Minnesota. I was working 2 jobs myself. Thank goodness my husband was also serving extra weekends in the Minnesota National Guard at that time.

Today's corporations no longer care for people. It is profits.

[lastlib]

6. People are commodities to corporations.

Use them and depreciate them just like any tangible asset, then when it's advantageous, dump them.

[DFW]

9. No corporations involved. People are also commodities to heartless people.

That's why the word "slavery" exists.

[lastlib]

21. Point well taken!

[DFW]

7. These weren't corporations. Corporations had nothing to do with it.

These were just greedy local landlords. Just out for a few more thousand euros a year--but just enough so the local businesses couldn't make ends meet.

[OldBaldy1701E]

60. They may not have been corporations...

But this is the corporate mentality, and it is prevalent in all business these days. The influence of our capitalistic society has created a ridiculous idea that this is the only way for anyone to operate. I am still trying to figure out how a hospital is supposed to post 'annual growth'... isn't the idea to lessen the number of patients? See how insane this all is? I am fine with business. I am not fine with it being a societal model...

[Aristus]

5. Sounds like the kind of thing more likely to happen in the US than Germany.

Sorry to hear it's prevalent over there, too.

I remember the owner of the Italian ice shop in Kitzingen when I was stationed there. His name was Senore Sugiamo. Wonderful guy, sweet, thoughtful. He was trained in civil engineering, but decided one day "To Hell with that; I want to make ice cream!" So he did.

[DFW]

8. It is, alas VERY prevalent over here

The corruption in our scenic little town runs deeper than people realize.

About 15 years ago, the office that issues building permits let itself be bribed into granting permits for what the rest of our neighborhood calls "the Frankenstein houses." Huge, outsized monstrosities suddenly appeared in our immediate area with no warning. Years later, every major official from that office was either gone to parts unknown or under indictment for bribery.

[DemocracyMouse]

32. "Frankenstein houses" happened in Williamsburg Brooklyn too. It's now called "development dumping"

... or just "dev dumping." And it usually involves back room deals between land owners and city officials who pave the way with rezoning and tax breaks for the dev dumpers.

[DFW]

36. I guess anywhere where the city officials are corrupt and don't care what they leave behind

Here they were really obscene. One got built at the top of a meadow on the castle grounds, where horses graze and used to come up to people walking down the street. Now a third of that view is blocked off by a house, a white wall and a garage. Down by another entrance to the meadow, the last house used to be a 300 year old yellow, cross-hatched Westfalian farm-style house. Now, between that house and the meadow, stands a huge ugly (brown-grey marble) square fortress (looks like a leftover fortress from World War II). The thing is hideous, and no one understands how anyone would pay money to have a house built like that, much less bribe a city official for permission to do it.

[fierywoman]

44. Here those kind of houses are called "McMansions."

[DFW]

47. I always thought of McMansions as oversized but not hideous

These things here are downright ugly.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

52. Assholes are everywhere.

[kimbutgar]

11. This happens in SF

They kick out a long time business a chain comes in and a year later they close that location and now the location stands empty and the greedy owner gets no rent.

[DFW]

12. My town is too small for that

These aren't corporate owners, but private owners that don't make a peep until they have the next renter already lined up and ready to sign.

[LisaM]

24. It's happening all over Seattle, too.

A hat store (Bernie Utz) had been there for 86 years. 86 years! They were actually doing just fine. The building was sold to, I think, a bank. They absolutely refused to negotiate any kind of lease. The space has now sat empty for over a year. The whole retail core of Seattle is becoming a ghost town, and rents (and some business taxes) are to blame. Meanwhile, Amazon gets whatever it wants, does not pay taxes, and is slowly extending its tentacles all over the city. What do they care if buildings sit empty? They don't want us shopping in stores anyway.

[DFW]

28. I can imagine that Amazon has plenty of clout

Maybe the parent corporation pays no income taxes, but if they employ thousands of people, the local area collects payroll taxes, and, if WA has a state income tax or a sales tax, then the state gets a cut, too. That's New York were fighting so hard over the new Amazon regional HQ. It's not the corporate taxes, but all the residual benefits that the local governments were looking at.

In our two cases here, it was nothing more than a greedy landlord who saw a few thousand more euros a year, and went for it.

[LisaM]

34. Washington does NOT have a state income tax. We have a very regressive system.

I remember back in the late 1990s or something, Washington had the, or one of the, highest number of millionaires per capita in the entire country, and yet there was no state income tax.

There is also no rent control allowed by state law.

The lack of a state income tax is a huge source of the problem, but the quality of life for everyone but rich people in Seattle has decreased dramatically in the last ten years, and every year it seems to accelerate.

[DFW]

39. What a shame for such a great city to be allowed to deteriorate like that

Here, our town is small enough so that when enough voices are raised, they at least get heard, even though getting action is another subject altogether.

When our first child entered school, my wife was concerned that many of the 7 year olds were going home to the empty houses of working parents. She and a few of the other mothers demanded that the school set up a city-sponsored after-school care center where the kids could hang out under supervision until the parents could come get them in the late afternoon. Within months, it became reality.

[Lulu KC]

56. So where do they get the funds?

Sales tax?

[LisaM]

59. High sales.taxes, property taxes.

They've started with toll roads. We rent, but I think property taxes are high in Seattle. Hotel taxes are.high. parking is expensive. They've added a lot of restaurant fees. But mainly, sales tax is really high, especially in Seattle.

[Lulu KC]

62. Thanks

Seems rather silly.

[LisaM]

63. Some say it's the most regressive tax in the nation.

I noticed when a group of us went out to lunch the other day, they'd added in a 4% charge for what they called the "cook's fee" (this is tied to the $15 minimum wage).

[vishnura]

13. Change in America

We are slowly destroying the things that made America great, I hope when we wake it its not too late.

[DFW]

20. And here in Germany, they are doing exactly the same thing n/t

[LittleGirl]

14. Lost my brother in March

He worked for a Pharma co for 34.5 years and got laid off last September. 6 months later he was dead of a heart attack at age 57. They took away his lifetime health care even though they promised him that when he started if he worked 30 years. He had his first heart attack at 29 so health care was a big deal to him. I lost my baby brother, so sad. He was robbed. Nobody cares for humans anymore. It’s all about the buck.

[progressoid]

16. ...

[LittleGirl]

17. Thank you.

[DFW]

22. Or, in our case, the euro n/t

[thesquanderer]

15. I think it comes down to contracts.

Whether it's a residence or business, you can't assume you'll have your location for any longer than your current lease (or other contractual agreement) specifies. You either have to own your own premises, or have a contingency plan if the owner of the premises chooses not to renew. People act in their own interests, and no one guarantees anything more than what is in writing. Counting on the good will of your landlord or suppliers is a risky way to run a business or plan your life. The circumstances people found themselves in in this thread are terribly unfortunate, but also not anyone else's fault. I guess unless you want to argue against the whole system of private ownership of land/buildings that give individual owners of premises the right to control who uses it for what purposes and for how long, which is a whole other conversation.

[DFW]

23. True, but after 25 years, it is easy to let down one's guard

In the case of our Italian friends, it was over 40 years.

I can understand how they just grew to think something like this would never happen, especially so close to retirement.

[thesquanderer]

27. Yeah, I think it's a natural human trait, to believe that the longer something goes on a certain way

the more you expect it to not change.

[DFW]

30. I quite agree

Here in Europe, there are ruins of buildings that have been around for many centuries. Next door to us is a castle whose first recorded presence is from the year 973, and I did NOT leave off a digit. But we forget too easily, they are still ruins.

A friend of mine once celebrated his wedding in a restaurant that had been in the same family for 900 years. But it was out in the country, and the family owned the land it was on. Big difference, and far from typical, even for here in Europe.

[OriginalGeek]

50. I can't even comprehend a restaurant like that - in same family for 900 years -

and I frequently eat at a Cuban place here in Florida that has been in the same family since 1905 (I remember that because their salad is called the 1905 salad and it is sooooo good)

Columbia has a few locations now and I'm glad because some are closer to me than the original one in Ybor City, Tampa...

[DFW]

51. Even here in Europe, that is really unusual

Most families can't even trace their lineage back THAT far. My wife has a family tree book. She is on nearly the last page, of course, but it starts with some minor northwestern German nobleman of just about zero historical significance whatsoever in the year 1473 (!!!!). I don't even know the names of all of my great grandparents! My daughters can boast of either being half members of a 500 year old German family or being half members of a mongrel mix of Central and Eastern European "wretched refuse of your teeming shore (that would be me). "

[OriginalGeek]

53. lol!

hey, some of my best friends are wretched refuse.

I inherited my grandma's family bible and it has entries going back into the 1800's but I can only barely read the names PLUS I'm afraid to touch it because it's so old. It's all in German but I have no idea what part of Germany they are from.

[Ms. Toad]

37. As an attorney, I was trying to come up with a tactful way of saying the same thing.

Don't sell the building you own, but intend to remain in, without getting a long term commercial lease (preferably - or perhaps required by law - recorded).

That said - even when I was working for corporate clients, it was really hard to get them to protect themselves. Every deal was a handshake & of course they were going to be best buddies from now until infinity. Which was typically only a couple of years. So, even through they were mad at me for holding up the deal at the time, they were grateful when things started getting rocky since any client who followed my advice was well protected.

[DFW]

55. Though not a town where everyone knows everyone else

There are those of us to whom a handshake is as good as a notarized contract. Our Greek friend is one such person. A LOT of bitter disappointment results when that trust is betrayed--something that happens more often than anyone wants to admit.

[Ms. Toad]

58. Which is why -

even in a town where everyone knows everyone else, it is better to get it in writing.

I grew up in a town like that - and when my parents borrowed money from me, and when we lent money to my niece and nephew - the loans were documented by promissory notes. The former at my parents' request; the latter two at our request - even though we would not have tried to collect from either of them.

My parents were farmers, and always had loans from the bank. I had money in savings. They could pay me less interest than they were paying the bank - and I would earn more money than the then current interest rate. My niece and nephew had just run out of good will from anyone in their immediate family.

[IronLionZion]

18. Landowners are the new aristocracy

instead of titles of nobility. Renters are the serfs who have no choices in life.

We see a lot of gentrification in many cities. Lower income tenants are thrown out so nicer buildings can be developed for those with more money to pay for it.

[DemocracyMouse]

35. Understood. But you can't call it "gentrification" when there's nothing gentle about it.

In Brooklyn we call it "development dumping."

Or just "dev dumping."

Vote for ANY Democrat who hasn't been shy about stating that the system is rigged (and in this case against renters who are indeed the new serfs.).

[catrose]

19. Things like that are happening all over our town

Long-time family businesses shutting shop because they can't afford inflated rents

[DFW]

25. Our town has been here for over 800 years

One used to think there was more respect for tradition. There is not, unfortunately.

[catrose]

26. Austin TX is technically not a village any more

and we've gone to the mat for restaurants and taco stands being crowded out by Walgreens and hotels, but now stuff like this is happening every day, too much to keep up with or make up with citizens' money. (Walgreens did end up building María's Cocina a new place, though not with the same funky vibe. But as María said, "Honey, I want to be blonde and weigh 100 pounds too. But I'll take what I can get.&quot

[Hulk]

33. It's happening all across the country....

We finally had to leave the Portland/Vancouver area...which in a way, I'm glad we did. The rents were going up every year...another hundred or two...and just the basic expenses were climbing daily it seemed. Finally, I had to drive Uber and Lyft to make ends meet with my Social Security, half a teacher's pension and my VA disability. My wife tried four different jobs one fall, and I knew it wasn't going to work out for her/us. Think they call it "gentrification". The folks on fixed income finally have to make a move. Those working simple 40 hour jobs are living with other families or in the worst parts of the city. It's sad. It changed the way Portland was when I grew up there for 55 years.

It's a sad story, but I hear it's happening all across the country. Until we bring some sort of jobs to rural America and the small towns, this is going to continue to happen; and it only makes life more miserable for everyone but the wealthy - who can afford to step outside the rising water.

[McKim]

54. My Landlord Experience

I have had prospective tenants tell me that their landlord just raised their apartment rent by $400!! This went on here in Portland Oregon until the state legislature made it illegal to raise the rent more than 7% per year. Then if evicted tenants get $4000 moving expenses and you have to have a reason for eviction like a complete remodel, sale or occupation by a family member. They finally put a stop to the greed here! I tried to never raise the rent by much.

[Hulk]

57. We actually lived on the other side of the Columibia River...in "Vantucky"...

So we don’t have that price control. I shouldn’t complain too much, as we had a sweetheart deal with a friend who rented us a very nice 3 bdrm ranch in a nice neighborhood for probably $500 under the market going rate. But when the rent went up $100 a year for the last 3 yrs, we just couldn’t do it any longer. We also needed to move on, as it wasn’t fair to my one-time friend to pay rent several hundred under what he could be getting from someone else.

It’s just that when people are FLOODING the area, “supply and demand” take over. The road network was probably four times what it was intended for; nice neighborhood got renovated to cater to the yuppie social scene; the basic infrastructure was under maintained and becoming awful; and finally the grocery bills were rising daily. My income wasn’t.

It’s not the same quaint, friendly little city it once was. Rude drivers from CA and the East Coast made driving unpleasant. AirB&B has taken over a chunk of the housing market for “investment” purposes, and housing prices have gone up by at least 75% over the past 10 years. People are thrilled to move there, as it’s so much more pleasant than the crowded urban cities they are coming from, or the small towns that are drying up because of lost jobs and mega-farming that has driven out the small town farmers.

“Make America Great Again” holds some meaning for old timers like me, but it’s all bull shit. We aren’t going back to those days...ever. Nobody expects that. But the inflow from small towns and urban areas 10x’s the size are killing what once was “the best kept secret.” I’m glad I got to enjoy the 50-90’s living in the area, but there is nothing there any longer for me...except my kids and grandkids. No regrets...no anger; just disappointed and a bit sad.

[DemocracyMouse]

38. This is why the universe invented revolutions.

Vote for any Democrat who is addressing the rigged system.

[OldBaldy1701E]

61. hehe

The type of revolution required to fix all this demands two things that I don't see happening, as our society doesn't seem willing to do them. Sacrifice and effort will be the key to repairing this corrupt government, but it seems the vast majority of this nation isn't going to sacrifice that third car, or be willing to stand for what is right even when your greedy boss fires you for it. People just won't do that. And, you won't change shiat if you don't put real effort into it. Talk is cheap, after all...

[KY_EnviroGuy]

40. The cultural and social loss is immeasurable.

Just like in America when Walmart, Home Depot et al ran all our mom and pop retail stores out of business......

[DemocracyMouse]

42. Have you read EF Schumacher's Small is Beautiful?

We totally need to decentralize and re-cultivate culture and civility from the ground up. Small, locally owned shops and GOOD public schools is the path to a city on a hill (Just as John Winthrop, the first governor of the Mass. Bay Colony might have hoped for).

[KY_EnviroGuy]

43. No, but will add to my reading list.

Thanks, DM for that recommendation.

As a child, the social connections in small stores, our schools and churches were what kept my little country town in TN humming with unity regardless of politics. I really miss those days.

KY..........

[DemocracyMouse]

41. Down with dev dumping! Break up corporate oligopolies!

Tax the overpaid! (I refuse to use the term "rich" because it has positive overtones... and prefer "underpaid" for poor. Same problem, but "poor" has lousy undertones.

[DFW]

48. No corporate anythings were involved here.

This is strictly a one on one issue.

[diane in sf]

45. Sounds like what has happened and is still happening in SF. All my favorite businesses

have gotten rent-jacked out of there. Some before and some since I got turfed out by rich people. Fortunately for me I got old enough they had to buy me out...

[lunamagica]

46. Boycott

boycott the gas station, and let them know why. Tell your family and friends to do the same.

[DFW]

49. They won't care.

I'm sure they're getting enough money out of this that they could close their gas station down and retire.