A Gentleman’s view.

Bloomberg’s ego is too big for him to see the damage that he has done to this once beautiful city.

First let me say this; I had to leave New York in order to grow up and mature, if I had stayed here, I believed it would never happen. I left and joined the Army and served six years stateside and in the European tour of duty in Hanau, West Germany as it was called at the time. After four years overseas, I came back stateside, reclassified out of combat arms and into the administrative positions attempting to save my marriage and ears from all the noise and field duty that went along with the Combat Arms division of the Army called Field Artillery. My job was called Fire Direction Specialist, we told the large artillery cannons of the six firing batteries that made up an artillery battalion in the United States Army where to shoot, how far away they are and whether or not they are sitting in a valley or on top of a hill. We do this in the rain, snow sleet or the gloom or dark of the night, but unlike the post office, failing means someone may die, maybe some of our own. My ears damaged and the lost of my mother, I decided that the civilian life was the way to go and made my way in Tacoma, Washington working in the brokerage field and many community organizational activities using art and sports. I eventually would up having two houses in Tacoma at different times even though I had terrible credit and an attitude to match about it, almost to the point of pride. My attitude had to change to pull that off even in a town as financially strapped as Tacoma was. After owning my own home for over three years before heading back home east here to the Big Apple, I looked forward to finding employment and purchasing a home here. But reality kicked in just about that time about who can and can’t own property in the isle of Manhattan.

The American dream supposedly consists of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness represented by the ownership of at least one humble abode where the average citizen considers being theirs, being safe, and always being something of an accomplishment, of pride and respect in ones standing within a community. If a Junior High School dropout (8^th), can manage his way past his own self-inflicted state of horrendous credit and actually convince the establishment I could be trusted to honor my obligations as a productive member of my community in a place with a weak economy that existed in the small town of Tacoma, WA, then I sure could pull it off back in my own home town of New York City. I wrote in a previous article that I believed as a young man in my twenties that if I could break the 50k salary bracket, I would consider myself successful and would be able to go after most anything I want. Well I came back home to resolve some family issues which turned out much better than I had ever expected, but obtaining an house here in Manhattan is outrageous. I have seen several divergent options to acquiring property in the Big Apple, none of them offer the average person a chance at honest home ownership here.

First and the worst in my humble opinion is the owners who are allowed to sit on property in varying states of disrepair without the least intention to improve said property or allow interested parties purchasing or leasing access, much to the detriment of the city and its desire to improve its financial state of affairs. Second and almost as bad is what the owners have been allowed to do against the safety of the renting public and what had to be serious manipulation and enabling around code and ordinances with the way the apartments have been allowed to be broken up and still be considered legitimate residences. The worst is prices being charged under the false pretense of limited rental square footage in each borough and rational for charging inordinately high prices per square foot while not counting all those boarded up buildings all over the city. The magic mini-Mike ‘I am really the Mayor of the World, not Giuliani’, Bloomberg, has been in office for the last eight years, of which 6 years ago, I came back thinking I could own a home here in my dearest of places; New York City on the isle of Manhattan, after growing up on the mean streets of this town and surviving them., decided this place is for the rich and/or famous or no one at all.

The American Dream of home ownership in my hometown of Manhattan, New York City where I might cook one or two chickens in one pot on the stove in the kitchen of my home in my hometown which I could proudly look up to the heavens and be thankful and tell my mom that I did it! I really did it, here in New York City! I was told that I have a bad attitude because there are programs in place to help a person like me, making what I thought would be a decent salary in a respectable field working for a major corporation in the great city of New York. There are houses in Brooklyn and Queens, and even in parts of the Bronx where I could find homes going for 600k to 900k with down payment assistance. Between me and my wife, earning a decent middle classed salary combined, we qualify! Woo Hoo! Have you guys read my column, I owned a home in Tacoma made of Brick with 22000 square feet of space, the one I had before that was 25000. I am 55 years old, and would like to find a place that I still have a chance of celebrating an age old tradition before or around the time I retire, officially and that would be the burning of the mortgage, something you don’t hear much about anymore. That still doesn’t for me address the fact that I want to live on the isle of Manhattan and can’t. Good ‘Ole Bloomy is looking out for his version of average citizens, and it is clear it doesn’t include the likes of me. I will never be able to own my own home in the place I love most in the world because the writing is one the walls of this town; many vacancies, only the rich need apply!

© 2009, agentleman.