Waaambulance to W-Burg (NRR)
funky16corners
7,175 Posts
Oh brother... 
Parental Lifelines, Frayed to Breaking By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEYFor the past five years, Ernie DiGiacomo has been able to count on parents to guarantee the $1,500 to $2,500 rents he charges for the 15 apartments he owns in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. When he called renters who had missed payments, he often heard, ???My parents will send you a check.??? But in the past six months, the parents are pulling back financial help, he said, and as a result, he has watched more renters move out.???Most of them are moving back with parents,??? Mr. DiGiacomo said.Luis Illades, an owner of the Urban Rustic Market and Cafe on North 12th Street, said he had seen a steady number of applicants, in their late 20s, who had never held paid jobs: They were interns at a modeling agency, for example, or worked at a college radio station. In some cases, applicants have stormed out of the market after hearing the job requirements. ???They say, ???You want me to work eight hours???? ??? Mr. Illades said. ???There is a bubble bursting.???Famed for its concentration of heavily subsidized 20-something residents ??? also nicknamed trust-funders or trustafarians ??? Williamsburg is showing signs of trouble. Parents whose money helped fuel one of the city???s most radical gentrifications in recent years have stopped buying their children new luxury condos, subsidizing rents and providing cash to spend at Bedford Avenue???s boutiques and coffee houses.For 18 months after graduating from Colby College, Jack Drury, 24, lived the way many Williamsburg residents do: He followed his passions, working in satellite radio and playing guitar. He earned money as a bicycle messenger and, on occasion, turned to his parents for money.But as the recession deepened last fall, his parents had to cut the staff at their event planning company to 30 workers from 50. Asked for his help, Mr. Drury cast aside his other pursuits and started work as a project manager for his parents. But he still plays the guitar in two bands, Haunted Castle and Rats in the Walls.???My future is in the family business,??? he said. ???Music is just for fun.???The real estate market, too, is shifting as wealth evaporates. Ross Weinstein, a managing partner of the Union Square Mortgage Group, has worked with hundreds of Williamsburg apartment buyers in the past two years. ???A lot of the money came from family,??? he said. ???That piece, it???s gone for a lot of people.???In the boom years, Mr. Weinstein said, 40 percent of the mortgage applications he reviewed for buyers in Williamsburg included down-payment money, from $50,000 to $300,000, from parents. About 20 percent of the applications listed investments that gave the young buyers $3,000 to $10,000 of monthly income.But in the past two months, Mr. Weinstein said, he has handled two to three deals a week in which the parents cut back their down-payment help. The number of sales in Williamsburg dropped nearly a quarter in the first three months of this year compared with the same period a year ago, according to HMS Associates, a Brooklyn appraisal firm. And in three recent cases, Mr. Weinstein said, owners sold their apartments in short sales ??? selling for less than the bank is owed, to avoid foreclosure ??? because they were no longer receiving parental help. Mr. Weinstein has been advising two brothers in their late 20s who wanted to buy a $700,000 apartment with $250,000 from their parents. But their parents??? investment portfolio has lost so much value that they now can give only $50,000. Since the brothers make about $45,000 a year each, they are now shopping for a $500,000 apartment. The parents still wish they could help, Mr. Weinstein said, but ???right now, they???re in a situation in their life where they need to ensure their own security.???It is an adjustment that many have to deal with. Eric Gross, 26, a construction worker, was going to buy, with help from his father, a $600,000 one-bedroom condo with city views at Northside Piers, a luxury building, he said.But his father, who works in the auto industry, said he had to reduce his contribution. ???He???s pulling back the lifeline,??? Mr. Gross said.So Mr. Gross is scaling back, shopping for a $300,000 apartment, said his real estate agent, Binnie Robinson of AptsandLofts.com.It can be hard to see the signs of financial troubles in Williamsburg because residents are so loath to show that they had money in the first place. Robert Lanham, author of ???The Hipster Handbook,??? said in an interview that many newer residents tried to blend in with the area???s gritty history and dressed ???half the time like they???re homeless people.??? But parental help was obvious in the intersection of residents with low-paying jobs and $3,000-a-month apartments.???You can put two and two together, that they have money coming in from somewhere else,??? Mr. Lanham said.The culture of the area often mocks residents who depend on their families. Misha Calvert, 26, a writer who relied on her parents during her first year in the city, now has three roommates, works in freelance jobs and organizes parties to help keep her afloat while she writes plays and acts in films. There is a ???giant stigma,??? she said, for Williamsburg residents who are not financially independent.???It takes the wind out of you if you???re not the independent, self-reliant artist you claim to be,??? she said, ???if you???re just daddy???s little girl.???The cutbacks for the more privileged residents are a welcome change for locals who have struggled to support themselves without parental help. Katie Deedy, 27, an artist, works two bartending jobs to shore up her designer wallpaper business. Gazing out from the bar at the patrons playing darts and sipping bloody marys during a Sunday shift at the Brooklyn Ale House, she described how refreshing it felt not being the only local resident trying to live on less.???If I???m going to be completely honest, it does make me feel a little bit better,??? she said. ???It???s bringing a lot of Williamsburg back to reality.???
Parental Lifelines, Frayed to Breaking By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEYFor the past five years, Ernie DiGiacomo has been able to count on parents to guarantee the $1,500 to $2,500 rents he charges for the 15 apartments he owns in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. When he called renters who had missed payments, he often heard, ???My parents will send you a check.??? But in the past six months, the parents are pulling back financial help, he said, and as a result, he has watched more renters move out.???Most of them are moving back with parents,??? Mr. DiGiacomo said.Luis Illades, an owner of the Urban Rustic Market and Cafe on North 12th Street, said he had seen a steady number of applicants, in their late 20s, who had never held paid jobs: They were interns at a modeling agency, for example, or worked at a college radio station. In some cases, applicants have stormed out of the market after hearing the job requirements. ???They say, ???You want me to work eight hours???? ??? Mr. Illades said. ???There is a bubble bursting.???Famed for its concentration of heavily subsidized 20-something residents ??? also nicknamed trust-funders or trustafarians ??? Williamsburg is showing signs of trouble. Parents whose money helped fuel one of the city???s most radical gentrifications in recent years have stopped buying their children new luxury condos, subsidizing rents and providing cash to spend at Bedford Avenue???s boutiques and coffee houses.For 18 months after graduating from Colby College, Jack Drury, 24, lived the way many Williamsburg residents do: He followed his passions, working in satellite radio and playing guitar. He earned money as a bicycle messenger and, on occasion, turned to his parents for money.But as the recession deepened last fall, his parents had to cut the staff at their event planning company to 30 workers from 50. Asked for his help, Mr. Drury cast aside his other pursuits and started work as a project manager for his parents. But he still plays the guitar in two bands, Haunted Castle and Rats in the Walls.???My future is in the family business,??? he said. ???Music is just for fun.???The real estate market, too, is shifting as wealth evaporates. Ross Weinstein, a managing partner of the Union Square Mortgage Group, has worked with hundreds of Williamsburg apartment buyers in the past two years. ???A lot of the money came from family,??? he said. ???That piece, it???s gone for a lot of people.???In the boom years, Mr. Weinstein said, 40 percent of the mortgage applications he reviewed for buyers in Williamsburg included down-payment money, from $50,000 to $300,000, from parents. About 20 percent of the applications listed investments that gave the young buyers $3,000 to $10,000 of monthly income.But in the past two months, Mr. Weinstein said, he has handled two to three deals a week in which the parents cut back their down-payment help. The number of sales in Williamsburg dropped nearly a quarter in the first three months of this year compared with the same period a year ago, according to HMS Associates, a Brooklyn appraisal firm. And in three recent cases, Mr. Weinstein said, owners sold their apartments in short sales ??? selling for less than the bank is owed, to avoid foreclosure ??? because they were no longer receiving parental help. Mr. Weinstein has been advising two brothers in their late 20s who wanted to buy a $700,000 apartment with $250,000 from their parents. But their parents??? investment portfolio has lost so much value that they now can give only $50,000. Since the brothers make about $45,000 a year each, they are now shopping for a $500,000 apartment. The parents still wish they could help, Mr. Weinstein said, but ???right now, they???re in a situation in their life where they need to ensure their own security.???It is an adjustment that many have to deal with. Eric Gross, 26, a construction worker, was going to buy, with help from his father, a $600,000 one-bedroom condo with city views at Northside Piers, a luxury building, he said.But his father, who works in the auto industry, said he had to reduce his contribution. ???He???s pulling back the lifeline,??? Mr. Gross said.So Mr. Gross is scaling back, shopping for a $300,000 apartment, said his real estate agent, Binnie Robinson of AptsandLofts.com.It can be hard to see the signs of financial troubles in Williamsburg because residents are so loath to show that they had money in the first place. Robert Lanham, author of ???The Hipster Handbook,??? said in an interview that many newer residents tried to blend in with the area???s gritty history and dressed ???half the time like they???re homeless people.??? But parental help was obvious in the intersection of residents with low-paying jobs and $3,000-a-month apartments.???You can put two and two together, that they have money coming in from somewhere else,??? Mr. Lanham said.The culture of the area often mocks residents who depend on their families. Misha Calvert, 26, a writer who relied on her parents during her first year in the city, now has three roommates, works in freelance jobs and organizes parties to help keep her afloat while she writes plays and acts in films. There is a ???giant stigma,??? she said, for Williamsburg residents who are not financially independent.???It takes the wind out of you if you???re not the independent, self-reliant artist you claim to be,??? she said, ???if you???re just daddy???s little girl.???The cutbacks for the more privileged residents are a welcome change for locals who have struggled to support themselves without parental help. Katie Deedy, 27, an artist, works two bartending jobs to shore up her designer wallpaper business. Gazing out from the bar at the patrons playing darts and sipping bloody marys during a Sunday shift at the Brooklyn Ale House, she described how refreshing it felt not being the only local resident trying to live on less.???If I???m going to be completely honest, it does make me feel a little bit better,??? she said. ???It???s bringing a lot of Williamsburg back to reality.???
Comments
Welcome to the real world fucktards.
As the lyric says, "God bless the child that's got his own..." The flipside is "teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime." Twixters (see An Old Time Magazine Article on 'Twixters') must realize that their parents won't live forever, so they must learn to how to get it on their own. I used to hate it (as a young lad), but now I truly appreciate Big William (pops) teaching my older brother and I how to be independent, self-sustaining MEN. As he used to say, "the world doesn't owe you anything, you have earn what you get."
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
My folks made me pay rent from the time I had my first job at 15. All my friends made fun of me....when I moved out of the house at 17 my Mom gave me a check for a little over 3 grand.....it was the "rent" money I had paid her. Taught me how to be independent and prepared me for the real world. Too few parents do this today.
"My folks were gonna give me $250K to buy a condo but now all they can give me is a lousy $50K"
GTFOOHWTBS
same here
Also, this means less easy money on the streets to be spent in record stores, restaurants, nightclubs etc.
This is why so many 20 somethings I meet are unprepared for life in the real world and have an amazing sense of entitlement.
Even if I could I wouldn't do this to/for my kids.
i'm trying to buy a first home. except in our case double the first number and halve the second one. And we still can't get a mortgage company to get their shit together for us.
Tell me this really exists
B/c if they slack off in their 20s, what the F*ck is to stop them from slacking off in their 30s? Or 40s?
I'm assuming that you rarely come across these types of well-to-do arrested development cases but believe me, there are few things more annoying than people who act like they run shit but never earned their way to that position.
BTW: I find it funny that someone who has professed never ever wanting to have kids is opining on parenting style!
I find that folks who never have kids always know how best to raise them.
File under: Born on third base and think they hit a triple.
lol it kind of does exist. there was this really good barber shop in the west village. cheap too. my barber was this creepy guy with stringy hair and a coke pinky nail. never really got his name but great haircuts and again, cheap.
went out of business for six months. came back under new ownership: Freeman's Sporting Barbershop or some shit. the whole place is paneled in vintage salvage wood and antique tile. all the guys are dressesd like newsies. my first and only time back in there i said fine i'll do the $40 cut but please i don't want a prohibition era haircut.
I'm pretty sure they not only realize it, but are counting on it. Inheritance = the big payday.
Thousands,if not Millions of New Yorkers do this.
And miss out on the "Glamorous Life"??
For shame.
Kids have always wanted to come to New York and live, but one HAD to hustle to stay in this City.
It seems like in the past 10-15 years its cool to just show up here and just do nothin'.
The City's softness has created these Fat Monsters. Bring back the CRACKHEADS!
It was only a matter of time the shit would level out. Stay in New Hampshire w/ that shit.
Sayin'! Water parks and mini golf like woah.
In the last few...
I saw a lady with purple hair run across the sidewalk, squat down and straight drop deuce in between two cars, in front of the school on 128th/Park... I was disgusted, but it made me feel a little nostalgic. Can't lie. You don't see that much anymore.
Some crazy guy was running down Lafayette & Bleecker going "yeaaahhhh! wooooh! yeaaaah!" running in front of speeding cars and yelling and stuff.
A guy fell into my shop, badly beaten and bruised, stinking of alcohol and bleeding out of several cuts on his face (and out of his ear!). He calmly came up to the counter and asked me if we were hiring.
That schitt makes the new arrivals nervous. To me it's just always been in the character of a big city.
I didn't have to pay rent, but I had a job from 14 on and though I wish my parents had been more supportive (not in the monetary sense) when I was young, I would rather grow up independent and resourceful than a spoiled 28 year old retard who doesn't know how to do laundry or make change for a dollar.
Now that's a guy with "hustle"! What's gonna stop him from being on time every day? Besides the beatings, I mean. HIRE THAT MAN.
The crazy shit is when they just walk in front of your moving car, stop and stair at you and just wait for you to drive around. That or when they walk across the street right into traffic without looking or any notion they might get hit.
I always thought that "parenting" happens before the age of 20... and nice touch to deny me the right to an opinion just because I can't see the benefits of breeding.
I feel that if people are wealthy enough to let their kids have a comfortable lifestyle without having to hold down a 9-5, I can't see the harm in that. I find the whole "look at me, I had to run my own shit since I was 16" attitude a bit laughable. Big deal, making it in one of the richest countries on earth and earning your own living hardly qualifies for any realness award. That's just normal. Someone's got a shitload of money and wants to pay their kids to spend some years living life easy and taking time to figure shit out, I don't feel the need to hate but maybe I'm just way too happy with my own life to be jealous on anybody else.
well put.
if i make a lot of money, i can't imagine being the type of parent that says - this is my loot, not yours...now go work at burger king in the summer so you can pay for your school clothes while i sit back on my yacht and sip champagne.
there are many life lessons, not all have to be learned the same way.
Hey,
The problem with the above responses is that they breed dependency. There is nothing wrong with making a comfortable life for your children as long as they are taught how to fend for themselves in that "cruel world" out there. So, to the contrary, I'm not jealous at all but GLAD I was not raised like a 'twixter.'
Another issue is that such rearing does not teach kids the contingencies that exist in the "real world." For example, in the "real world" you do not always (a) get what you want, (b) have favorable outcomes, (c) have someone come to your rescue, (d) have people cater to your whims, etc. I've had students cry in my office because they received a 'B' grade. What kind of shit is that? I've had a parent call my dean (at a previous university where I worked) because his daughter received a 'D.' These examples illustrate how some people seem to "overparent" and not let their children learn how to deal with adversity on their own. These kids respond to negative outcomes with disbelief (i.e., I'm really gonna fail the class?), although I have given them consistent negative feedback (e.g., "If do not improve your performance in the class, you're going to fail. Please come by my office so we can discuss ways to improve your performance."). My theory is that these kids have never had things NOT go their way (which I call "magical thinking" wherein there are always happy endings), so they can't fathom when it happens. This is not preparing folks for "real life." Cats are soft and lack the adaptability to cope with life's varying contingencies.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
there really is no right answer on this. attacking the loafing hipster straw man is like shooting fish in a barrel.
i do see Frank's point. as much as i hated kids in their early twenties "working" non-jobs and cruising on their parent's dime when i was that age, in many ways the greatest luxury for me would be to extend that to my own children in the event of being successful in my older years. 1-2 years to figure shit out, maybe work a non-profit if they want to. i'm not subsidizing any coke habits tho.
it seems like a lot of these young people are just flaneurs about town, but in certain cases they are building valuable professional networks that are incredibly useful later in life.
Yeah, it's not necessarily a bad look for the parents, but it often turns out to be a bad look for the kids.