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Venerable Nawth End connah store is no maw
By adamg on Wed, 01/03/2024 - 4:33pm
NorthEnd.page reports that the Connah Store, which never failed to give tourists something to chuckle about as they sauntered up and down Hanover Street, but which also provided a late-night spot for both locals and restaurant workers to stock up on some essentials, has closed for the last time, victim of a huge rent increase. Venerable North End restaurant owner Frank DePasquale will be expanding his neighboring Dolce ice-cream and coffee place into the space.
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Comments
“ the Connah Store's lease
“ the Connah Store's lease was not renewed after the property owner sought to hike the rent by nearly 250%.”
Rent gauging and greed puts an end to another community friendly small business. Disgusting!
One neat trick
Change the laws such that landlords can not force a rent increase unless they have another tenant on record as committed to signing a contract for the higher amount. But give the existing tenant 48h first right of refusal to renew at that amount.
Basically, prohibit a landlord from raising the rent only so the unit will sit vacant while they shop it around.
Another idea
Vacancy tax.
If it sits unleased more than a couple of months, hit them with a tax surcharge. Vacant commercial properties cost cities revenue from lost sales and meals taxes, costs to secure the area, and other problems like rats.
London taxes vacant commercial property. Vancouver taxes vacant housing at higher rates than occupied housing, as do San Francisco and Berkley (other US cities, too, but I can't find a comprehensive list).
Lisbon does the same …
…. with vacant housing.
It works.
Nah
Why should anyone have a say in what a property owner asks for rent? Next you will want to control what a sub shop charges for a steak & cheese.
Let's say we have a law that says a sub shop can't raise the price of a sandwich unless we have another sandwich eater on record as committed to paying the higher amount?? Cue Magoo for another silly comment.
For the good of the community.
Obviously.
Ah,
So you are ok with losing some of your rights as long as it is "good for the community"
History has proven that is not a good idea.
Clearly you learned history …
… watching Fractured Fairy Tales.
First they came for the
First they came for the shitty landlords, and I said nothing...
Because
we live in a civil society. Because life isn't a zero sum game to collect as much currency as possible and then hoard it. Because living in a nice place shouldn't be contingent on your millionaire status.
I'm just about fed up with stupid libertarian assholes. Move to Florida.
In general you’re right, but…
In general, I’m all for the government staying out of financial transactions between consenting adults.
By there are exceptions. For example, no gouging for food or water during a crisis. And monopolies need to be regulated. And cases where grossly unequal bargaining power exists, such as between me and a big employer or a big bank.
Real estate in a crowded city is kind of right on the edge; I’m not sure how I feel about regulating rents.
But I’m all for vacant real estate being taxed at a significantly higher rate; that doesn’t seem to infringe on anybody’s liberties.
A convenience store is needed
A convenience store is needed in every neighborhood of the city, it’s kind of sad that the rising cost of rent all around Boston is eating up neighborhood staples like this mom & pop convenience store , someone should create a convenience store Truck similar to the size of a Food Truck you see on city streets and park it on Hanover street.
DePalquale
Is that Dan Pal Quayle?
(I assume this is DePasquale)
Yep
I can't spel, obviously. Fixed.
Frank…
Frank is a great guy. Just ask him.
Yay!
Good riddance! We have too much cool shit as it is. God bless the limitless appetites of our landlord class!!!!
Moxie
they used to have it in the fridge, so the Connah will be missed.
Also those Italian bitter drinks
They also had another bitter type of beverage besides Moxie. Usually red in color—chinotto/bitter imported drinks, which I might have been their only customer who bought those.
North End becomes a non-neighborhood
Stores that provide basic goods to residents of the North End can't afford to pay what the property owners want. The property owners have no moral incentive to support businesses. For property owners the North End is just a vein for sucking out the economic blood that keeps this a health neighborhood.
Meanwhile DePasquale continues to push North End business properties into being little bits of his personal business domain.
The free flow of capital can generate benefits for everyone. Like the body's blood capital needs to flow. But when capital concentrates in fewer hands it becomes like blood that coagulates. The blood can not flow; the body suffers a heart attack.
Capital that concentrates becomes a poison. Capitalism stops giving beneficial results to the majority of people when the fewest people control the majority of the capital (i.e, property, wealth, money, etc.)
in defense of Frank
he has delivered quality for many years, in both low- and high-end restaurants. I've had many panini.
I also miss the old Umbria on Franklin Street. That was prime cougar hunting ground.
A neighborhood needs to be more than just restaurants…
I get it, the North End is for tourists but it’s also a place where people are trying to live and the amenities necessary for a community are disappearing.
I lived in the North End over a decade ago and the hollowing out of the neighborhood was speeding along then too.
RIP Salem’s True Value Hardware Store, White Hen, and all the other places gone and replaced by mostly mediocre restaurants and parasitic realtor’s offices.
A DePasquale business that isnt (quite) a restaurant
There’s his boutique hotel and a little bakery behind the hotel and down the stairs. Also a little store and sandwich counter back there.
I do miss the White Hen even though it got replaced by a Sev. And the hardware store was legendary.
"Connah Store"
I've lived here 25 years and I have never heard of this place. Then again, I rarely venture in to the North End.
But also.. really "Connah Store" . (making fun of the Boston way of saying Corner)
I always thought the correct term of "spa" (or Spahhh in Boston speak)
Yep
I mean, I had heard of the place, but had never gone in it, because I don't have much need for Boston tourist tchotchkes, but it seems it had a dual role as a neighborhood market.
Zero tchotchkes at the connah
Zero tchotchkes at the connah store...it was a simple mans convenience store with a soul...lotto, keno, cigars, candy, ice cream ect.
Most importantly it was a central hub of the neighborhood that is sadly losing its soul.
RIP...and f depasquale and his mediocre businesses. Dolce's gelato is an absolute insult to the craft...cheapest ingredients and phony colors...
I don’t even remember it having tchotchke stuff…
… but maybe it’s because I just made a beeline for the drink fridge.
Someone tried to rob that place with a hammer or screwdriver (the hand tool, not the vodka beverage) a while back. Person behind the counter told him to go schtup himself and the guy left without any $ IIRC. I believe it was reported here on UH at the time.
Cybah
isn't that making fun of how a true Bostonian would say "cyber?"
LOL
yup. Although this is the shortened version of a handle I've used for years.
oh my god!
I've been pronouncing it "see-bah" in my head for years, not "cy-bah"
I’ve been hearing “siba”.
It will be a hard habit to change.
Sad
Sorry to see that store go! I don't see why the huge rent hikes. Just because you can chargemore rent doesn't mean you should.
> I don't see why the huge
> I don't see why the huge rent hikes.
The landlord makes more money that way and they aren't especially concerned about "should". Here's a Wikipedia article that might help if this is a novel concept: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greed
Forget it, John.
It's DiPasqualetown...
Because in the greatest religion of Americans
Greed is good, Greed is God.
America is the nation of religious plurality. Binding together many of adherents of all religions is America is religion that surpasses all other religions. The religion that say money, power and control are the most important values in life.
Not truth, honesty, love, caring for neighbor, etc. But greed expressed in whatever dogma is required.
Slavers of the Confederacy were extremely religions. Pious beyond piety. But that piety was nothing when compared to the value of a society that included slaves,
Evangelical Christians claim to be the most religious in America. Yet they are among the worst of bigots and haters.
The beauty of the religion of Greed (or whatever you want to call it) is that it utterly ecumenical. The religion of Greed is open to any person no matter what their other faith tradition. The benefits of the religion of Greed are open to anyone willing to be a supplicant to the ways of Greed.
In a more academic context we might call America's ultimate religion the Religion of Capitalism. Whatever words are chosen, in America Greed is Good, Greed is God.
I don't see why the huge rent
https://www.theonion.com/landlord-forced-to-raise-rent-due-to-thinking-o...