If you're willing to dive further, I'm curious what your personal justifications are for your position. What has brought you to your current opinions on the matter of for profit housing?

Thank you for posting your own experience. I'm excited to take on the adventure of home ownership, but watching my friends and strangers alike struggling with rent prices is awful.

But that's the thing, why was it ever allowed for your sole income to be someone else's home?? Investments come with risk and your only investment should never be something that can fail so easily and devastate you financially if it does. That's investing 101, diversify.

If I am selling a home I presumably used it for long enough that the land it's on increased in value and I could make a profit from its sale, but that profit will likely go into the cost of a new home (that's also increased in value) or retirement if I am downsizing and on a fixed income. The sale of a house isnt meant to be just for profit and it why many people, myself included have a problem with flippers.

Landlords are allowed to exist, people will always have a need for rentals, but no landlord should be allowed to gouge their renters for their own profits because someones home isnt like any other investments. Investing in rentals should come with very strict rules that protect the renter.

Exactly, thank you. I dont think that it shouldn't be allowed to be profitable and I dont even think that landlords shouldn't exist, but affordable housing should have always been a human right.

As an investment, rentals are okay in my opinion, but not as sole income and not at the expense of affordability. There is no moral justification for a massive % increase in profits year after year because you arbitrarily increase the rent just because you can.

Thank you for including the link, after giving it a read here are my thoughts. The researchers seemed to have analyzed their data on the rent control methods alone. While this made for good take aways on the effects in some areas and the differences in the method, I feel it didn't do enough to highlight how the landlords themselves let it fail. No measure to reform exists in a vacuum and when they put the rent control measures into effect I dont feel enough was done to punish landlords that let rent controlled units fall into decay. Or where the forprotfits moved nothing came to fill the void, non-profit or government funded.

With that said I don't think building more housing is a problem, but I dont think it is the only answer and it bothers me that the idea of holding landlords responsible for price gouging isnt heavily considered.

Housing should have never been made for profit, but since it is and that is nearly impossible to change, it should be regulated to a degree that means it is a safe, but NOT exponential investment.

Profit itself isn't a problem, it's the degree that landlords are able to make profit at the expense of their tenants and society as a whole.

It's happening everywhere, price gouging is seemingly the norm right now because there are little to no checks in place to stop a business from charging what every they want. With something as important as housing it is leaving people desperate and sometimes even homeless.

I'm not ungrateful to feel I got a good deal, it's just important to me that more people see the reality of prices increasing this dramatically for renters. I can afford a house only because I got lucky on rent and could save, that feels like it will be near impossible for the very next person who lives there after me, it sucks.

Nothing you've said is inherently wrong, but that doesn't mean it should just be acceptable. Why is it even a joke that the responsibility falls to me if I dont like the way another person/renter is being treated.

We completely agree that changing the system as it exists would be very difficult, but it shouldn't be considered impossible just because its always been this way.

The point of this post was to call out the drastic increase that I'm seeing first hand and call attention to the need for solutions, not to argue over why it's a problem.

I dont misunderstand business, but its awful to me that housing is being run as a business in the first place and that it's been left unchecked for so long. It's fine to make a profit on an asset, but this assest is someones home and should come with different rules that protect the tenant. Why is this situation okay, just because its "business as usual"?

I'm not saying they arent allowed to do it, but in my opinion it is immoral, and should be something that is made illegal. There are some places already looking into caping rent increases and I really hope it is something we can adopt in Pittsburgh. Increasing rent is expected and normal, but to the degree and values it is happening is alarming, and boarders on price gouging

Very well said. Its awful how unwilling so many people in charge are to admitting the root problem is capitalism. It's not the children's fault at all, they are literally children. Capitalism means their parents dont have time to care if they want to also keep a roof over their heads, their teachers dont have the time or energy to handle problems for individual students even if they care. Our shitty healthcare system means that parents and their kids alike cant get accessible treatment for physical, emotional, or mental issues. Our justice system means many students dont have both parents, or are targeted before they are even adults.

So many problems in our society come from unchecked greedy and capitalism and tragically children seem to be bearing the brunt of it.

Are you serious....

This entire thread is about options to address the problem. The only person who said otherwise and to not understand is you.

In order to park an inch from the curb you have to angle your tires.. angling them often means you bump the curb in the process, then straighten out to be perfectly in the spot. You would know that if you have ever driven a car.

The vehicle doesn't have to be oversized to do that, it just naturally happens when you parallel park, especially if you are trying to do the actual public service of parking as close to the curb as possible.

Again, bumping a curb while parking is normal. It is common, even expected most places and does no harm to anyone. Bumping a curb does NOT equal parking on it, and OP has perfect reason to complain that doing the normal act of parking is risking their tires due to someone else's negligence.

You just dont understand the difference between on a curb and bumping a curb.....

Omg stop while you're behind...

If you've never driven that's fine, but it means you have no room to talk about how hard/easy it is to park. These people arent suggesting they are parking ON the curb, but it's pretty often that when parallel parking your tire BUMPS the curb while its angled to pull in. If you bump the edge of this metal, while still fully on the road and not violating "vehicle code", it could pop your tire. That is the complaint and your comments are way off base...

That is certainly a good guess, but no they were never track rails. They were put where they are to give longevity to curbs that were expected to get bumped alot because metal is stronger than the corner of stone/concrete. Now that they are so old, they no longer really serve that purpose, but thats what they were for.

It is and it isnt.

It would bring attention to it, and possibly lead to more 311 complaints for vulgar images in public spaces and there go the city might get to fixing it faster. But you run the risk of 1) no one reports the penis so no attention is brought 2) the city just removes the paint and doesn't fix the curb 3) you get caught for defacing public/private property and face a fine. Not much reward for the risk with an issue this small.

That particular committee, sure. They have been accused of over stepping their authority and being far too personal than objective.

Seems we otherwise agree :)

It is unfortunate that so much of our infrastructure is in dire need of repairs, because in a better world we'd be planning big projects far in advance so that we CAN take the time to see every angle and make as many voices on the matter heard. The aesthetic of a bridge or other big structure Should matter, so it's a shame we so often don't give ourselves time to consider it because we just need the work done done done.

With big infrastructure projects its pretty darn important to have some checks in place before the plan is carried out. Especially a measure of community engagement because they should have a voice in something that could change their daily life. What is a bummer is that the checks in place currently are not very streamline and are always ALWAYS underfunded so they can take time to save for and then to continue. Regulations, procedure, and engagement aren't the problem, its funding and priority management.

Jack Swing has a fun vibe and has brought a good turn out for shows at Thunderbird

Gosh those are powerful and painful photos. It's nice they threw in some more pleasant ones, but this year was not a good year for so many people around the world.

Are you willing to pay shipping costs?

I follow a lot of IG restoration people and a lot of them have sourced their antique or other vintage finds on Esty.

https://www.etsy.com/search?q=vintage+32x80+doors

If possible, could you list some of your skills/offerings?

Someone in my family is fixing up a property and often needs an extra set of hands. They pay hourly and frequently have additional work.

A fantastic idea! I hope the full project moves quickly so more people can actually get use out of it soon.