When political corruption morphs into social corruption
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by 2503830
I haven't written anything in a while, so my pen is itchy. As always i will cover real life events not game related, i like incendiary stuff so here we go.
About a month ago a nice little story popped-up in the New York Post and other media outlets subsequently before they could be kept silent about a development of luxury condos in the Upper West side of NY.
The condos, with prices of over 1,000,000 dollars/unit are developed by a certain EXTELL corporation.
First a little recap
january 2013 - a bill is passed exempting five developers in NYC from having to pay the normal taxes they would have to pay on building luxury condo apartments.
As a side note the SAME legislature was telling us in the same month of january 2013 how strapped we are and that we cannot afford to fund firehouses, schools or whatever. Hmm...interesting.
One of the five beneficiaries of this bill is...surprise surprise, the afformentioned EXTELL company.
Also in january two affiliates of EXTELL contributed a total of 100,000 dollars to the democratic party commitee in the state of NY.
I don't know if there is a connection between the two.
The official response is there is none. So...who are we to argue.
The building is at 40 River Side Drive between 60th and 61st street. It is a wonderful building built by the EXTELL development corporation, it has 33 stories and in it there will be 219 condominiums.
BUT, part of the reason they got this tax cut is that they had to include "Affordable Rental Units", and indeed they have 55 of them. Ok so far so good, nothing special right?
But here comes the best part. Ready?
Here's the best part:
It turns out there are two different doorways in the same building. One doorway has a 24/7 doorman, it has plants, flowers and fountains, and concierge service.
And the other doorway has...bathroom tiles..aaaand apparently that's it.
Now, i don't have to explain to you which part of the building goes through which door. Because you can only reach your apartment if you enter the 8ahem* appropriate doorway. So there's no reason for you to enter the "other" doorway.
Now the punchline - this is the development of TWO TIERED society. This smacks of Victorian England mentality: "The servants go around the back".
The lower folk shouldn't disturb the view of the wealthy while they admire the plants, fountains or give orders to the concierge. They don't want to be bothered by those..."other" people.
By the way this is NOT the only building doing that, this is the only building that got CAUGHT because of this other issue of the tax exemption.
Food for thought,don't you think?
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Corruption often occurs when one groups hold power for too long, regardless of political affiliation. This is true of New York, Detroit and Chicago with the Democratic Party Machine. However, the same can be said of those cities in the South controlled by Republicans. Like food in the refrigerator, politicians have a spoil date and need to be tossed out before the become spoiled. Alas, too many of us vote for the same people/party over and over due to laziness, because we are getting free stuff or due to undying party loyalty regardless of results. In other words, we get what we deserve...Liked the article, voted.
Could you please tell me what free stuff I am getting?
No, I don't know you, nor do I know your personal situation. Are you trying to say that there isn't a record number of people receiving benefits in this country? That more people have left the workforce than ever before in history? More people receiving "disability" than ever before? Read and do research, it may lead you to some new conclusions, If not, then that is ok, we don't all have to have the same opinions.