Real Music & Real Estate . . .

Yiddishe Cup’s bandleader, Bert Stratton, is Klezmer Guy.
 

He knows about the band biz and – check this out – the real estate biz, too.
 

You may not care about the real estate biz. Hey, you may not care about the band biz. (See you.)
 

This is a blog with a gamy twist. It features tenants with snakes and skunks, and musicians with smoked fish in their pockets.
 

Stratton has written op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post.


 
 

IN REVERSE

by Bert Stratton

I grew up in New York and never liked it there. I went to college in Ohio. I’m never going back east. To do what? Live in Williamsburg and write a blog about beer?

My roommate at Kenyon College took me to his hometown, Shaker Heights, a couple times. Cleveland has lawns and you don’t pay $2000/month for a one-bedroom apartment. I moved there. I have a one-bedroom for $850. Tricked out too — marble counter tops and a dishwasher. My dad thinks I’m crazy. He said I should enroll in accounting school at NYU. 

I work in property management in Cleveland. I’ve gone back to New York once. I can’t stand it. Going to the deli for a sandwich is a major deal — the crowds, the lines, the elevator. People say I’m going the wrong way. Wrong! I am Jay Gatz in reverse. For a million dollars I could buy almost all of Cleveland. And I will.
—
fiction

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6 comments

1 Ted { 08.31.16 at 10:46 am }

I wonder who this is about ;)

Fact-check! From yesterday’s New York Times:
“At 7 DeKalb, a new 23-story tower atop the City Point mall complex, the landlord is offering two months of free rent with a 14-month lease, and use of the building’s fitness center and other amenities for a year without charge. That means a one-bedroom, one-bathroom place can be had for $3,428 a month; a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment goes for $5,057.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/30/nyregion/the-market-is-saturated-brooklyns-rental-boom-may-turn-into-a-glut.html?_r=0

2 Ted { 08.31.16 at 10:52 am }

Also, you can delete this, “For a million *doors* I could buy all of Cleveland???”

3 Charlie B { 08.31.16 at 11:06 am }

Give Jersey City a shot. Proximate to jaw-dropping industrial wastelands that make the Cleveland Flats look like a walk in the park.
20 minutes by PATH to thrumming midtown Manhattan island—-about the same time to reach the gritty rigors of Newark. What more could you want?

4 Dave Rowe { 08.31.16 at 11:19 am }

For a better set-up look to the west side.

5 Bert Stratton { 08.31.16 at 12:35 pm }

To Ted Stratton:

Thanks for the correction. Have changed “doors” to “dollars” in final sentence.

6 Seth B. Marks { 08.31.16 at 12:44 pm }

I liked “doors”…that’s what happens when you eat your fist once a week…typing is mech mor difi.c.t

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