FranLab is getting evicted

[ebastler]

they both figured out that cheap real estate is the way to go to have the room to work and keep expenses down.

Brilliant!

[Nusa]

26*100/0.6 = 4333

And what number is 4333 supposed to be? You didn't say.

I'll give you a hint. Population of the USA is about 330 million. Some of those are children, so call it 250 million adults. 0.6% may be a small percentage, but it's still a lot of people.

26 out of 0.6%,  extrapolate to 100% you would expect 4333, the actual number is ~17000 iow the rate is less than 1/4 of the average for the population as a whole

You STILL haven't said 4333 what, although now that you've explained it a bit more I get where you were going from context.

Anyone with a teacher hat on would probably take points off for not actually stating the units or the conclusion.

[magic]

 

This should be obvious from the calculation itself.
Dividing the number of murders in a 0.6% subpopulation by 0.6% gives you the expected number of murders in the entire population, assuming the same density. Turns out, the actual number of murders in the rest of America is 4x higher.

Most likely "the activists" failed to count some deaths that happened or that SJW thinktank inflates their 0.6% statistic or both.

[EEVblog]

Fran is officially looking for an "investor" to buy her lab:

[maginnovision]

I hope that's plan B while plan A is moving along.

[EEVblog]

I hope that's plan B while plan A is moving along.

This is plan Alpha, preempting the need for a Plan-A

[maginnovision]

Got it.

[NiHaoMike]

I don't see how this is a gender issue, it's a common problem that anyone who is renting will need to figure out. If you live in an inexpensive older building in an area that is gentrifying there is a very good chance you'll soon be looking for a new place to live.

She refuses to move to an area with cheap real estate, claiming that as a woman, she wouldn't feel safe in those areas. (Yet she feels perfectly safe "grounding" outlets to the neutral wire, go figure...)

I wonder if she's aware that not too long ago, a little Chinese girl, faced with a similar problem, did just that - get a nice, big shop in a cheaper part of the city.

[rsjsouza]

I only hope she does not burn her credibility for new supporters and stretch the patience of her existing by having yet another unfallible plan that pretty much resembles the former one. The supporters may feel they are giving money to someone that is not making reasonable monetary decisions and the risk of a steep drop in income is quite real.

[BravoV]

Don't understand what the fuss is this all about ?

Isn't this exactly like ordinary problem that we're all facing in the world ?

Want to live "and work" in a nice cozy neighborhood but cheap and affordable ? This can't be right.

[beanflying]

I only hope she does not burn her credibility for new supporters and stretch the patience of her existing by having yet another unfallible plan that pretty much resembles the former one. The supporters may feel they are giving money to someone that is not making reasonable monetary decisions and the risk of a steep drop in income is quite real.

Agreed and to a fair degree she has lost me as a regular viewer while I am still a currently subscriber (along with 50 other channels  ). People airing their business issues publicly for sympathy or monetary gain for what most of us consider general life problems isn't conducive to viewing their other content. This doesn't mean don't do it but there is a downside risk to your bottom line when you make content for part of your living. Youtube if done as a business is just that and some last and some fail.

If the business model isn't sustainable in the current location/area she is comfortable with then time to move on either location or business wise.

[BravoV]

Personally, I would like to see her settled in Trump Tower, complete with living + her workshop space enough for all her stuffs, that will be perfect.

But alas, just don't have the spare money to help her, just supporting emotionally.

That place is pretty safe I guess, as US Secret Service personnel usually wondering around in vicinity.

[EEVblog]

Don't understand what the fuss is this all about ?
Isn't this exactly like ordinary problem that we're all facing in the world ?

It would be if it's just were she lived, and her lab space was separate, but this involves her lab, so automatically becomes part of the audience care factor.
AFAIK she lives in the same space.

FYI, I found houses under $250k within 5km of Philly central, and big townhouses for $120k. I can see no sensible reason to pay $389k to be were she is (presumably in a nice "safe" area of Philly CBD).
I can understand liking a city, but surely looking 5-10km out isn't such a big deal?

She could probably raise $100k-$150k to buy a place outright or put a huge deposit on if it was done right, but it can't be like last time were is just sold effectively as a "stop gap" fund raising to keep her going another year.
And it is very difficult to get loans in her circumstance, but with say a 50% cash deposit I don't believe for a minute that it shouldn't be possible if you find the right broker.

[Carl_Smith]

The last time this happened she went on for quite a bit about "gentrification" and how people purposely buy properties and whole neighborhoods for the purpose of improving them so that the lower income and "less desirable" people can no longer afford to live there.

I think that is assuming a lot about the situation that probably is not true.  What is boils down to most of the time is one thing:

People with money want to invest their money to make more money.  One way to do this is to buy a property and "add value" by improving it, then sell it for a large profit, or by rent it for a much higher rate than would have been possible before the improvements.  That's all it is -- an investment.

[james_s]

FYI, I found houses under $250k within 5km of Philly central, and big townhouses for $120k. I can see no sensible reason to pay $389k to be were she is (presumably in a nice "safe" area of Philly CBD).
I can understand liking a city, but surely looking 5-10km out isn't such a big deal?

This.

Sorry but I've just known too many people like that and used up most of my sympathy. What they are doing obviously is not sustainable so you offer them several viable solutions to their problems and they shoot them all down with various excuses and keep moaning about their situation and blaming external causes that they have no control over. Someone who lives and works in the same space has little reason to be stuck in a big city, and using safety as an excuse is just silly. Cities in general are statistically far less safe than the suburbs and either way there are only a few pockets scattered around the country that I would consider genuinely unsafe to live in.

I mean I get that she'd like to continue living in the area she's living in, ok well I'd like to live in a big house on a lake but the simple reality is that one has to live within their means. Fran has the fairly unique situation of being self employed in a field that relies only on having decent internet service and adequate space, there are countless affordable places all over the country that are arguably nicer and certainly much less stressful than moving from one dumpy building to the next in an area that is in the middle of gentrification. Count me as another who stopped watching the videos when they became soap operas that remind me of the circle of friends I had in my early 20s rather than interesting technical videos about random unusual stuff.

[james_s]

The last time this happened she went on for quite a bit about "gentrification" and how people purposely buy properties and whole neighborhoods for the purpose of improving them so that the lower income and "less desirable" people can no longer afford to live there.

I think that is assuming a lot about the situation that probably is not true.  What is boils down to most of the time is one thing:

People with money want to invest their money to make more money.  One way to do this is to buy a property and "add value" by improving it, then sell it for a large profit, or by rent it for a much higher rate than would have been possible before the improvements.  That's all it is -- an investment.

That is exactly it, it is nothing personal, it's strictly a business decision. If a property is available relatively cheaply in an area that is increasing or projected to increase in value, it's only natural that people are going to buy it, improve it and attempt to profit off it. I don't like gentrification either generally, I hardly recognize Seattle anymore but it isn't happening to get rid of undesirable people, it's happening because there is a lot of money to be made and by and large everyone likes making money. People love to ride their moral high horse until they themselves have an opportunity to profit.

[BravoV]

To me, she is just milking the audiences, purely opportunistic move, if it fails she has nothing to loose, and if succeed, yay .. hooray.

[EEVblog]

Well, I guess that's that. She's completely given up on other options
If the place does get sold and "flipped" then she's probably screwed given the amount of grief it was last time.

[sleemanj]

She has a 6 year lease, unless that lease was written on the back of a piece of toilet paper by a drunk lawyer, then she should just quit worrying about things that might not, and probably won't, be a problem.

Just because the property is for sale, doesn't mean that things are going to change.  Plenty of properties are bought and sold all the time with existing leases in place, it doesn't mean they are going to, or are able to, push you out, it means you get to change the bank account you are depositing your rent into.

I've never even met my commercial tenants, they were there when I acquired the property, and are still there today 6 years later, as long as the rent is in my account each month I'm a happy landlord.

Even if the property is sold to somebody who wants to redevelop, that doesn't mean they want or are even able to redevelop NOW, properties are commonly purchased and simply held for years, the new owners just sitting on the rental income until ducks are in a row, and that often means waiting for the existing leases to expire.

She has a lease, the purpose of a lease is to provide long term certainty, if it is not doing that, then that lease is terrible.

[rsjsouza]

Well, I guess that's that. She's completely given up on other options
If the place does get sold and "flipped" then she's probably screwed given the amount of grief it was last time.

Being honest, I think she correctly sees that a new crowdfunding will fail - after all, it would happen way too close to the previous one. IMHO people always deserve a second chance, but most feel they already gave that to her.

Regardless, what sleemanj mentioned is correct: would having a new owner automatically mean ejecting a steady source of income? Or is this a reasonable fear (but still only a fear) she has, due to her previous encounters with landlords?

[Psi]

There's no issue unless

A) The sale happens
and
B) The new owner makes things hard to try and make her leave.

For all we know, she could get a really nice new owner.

[EEVblog]

She has a 6 year lease, unless that lease was written on the back of a piece of toilet paper by a drunk lawyer, then she should just quit worrying about things that might not, and probably won't, be a problem.

She got royally screwed over last time, they literally demolished the building around her, so that would be the catalyst for the fear.
You could argue she shouldn't have told anyone (or even worried about it) until it was sold and the problems start.
But also it's not a bad strategy to float it out there like she did and see if someone guaranteed friendly wants to buy it.

I reckon paying some homeless people to conveniently hang around the building when the inspection times happen could extend the sale indefinitely

[GreyWoolfe]

I reckon paying some homeless people to conveniently hang around the building when the inspection times happen could extend the sale indefinitely

A couple of cases of cheap beer or wine should cover it.

[Mr. Scram]

She got royally screwed over last time, they literally demolished the building around her, so that would be the catalyst for the fear.
You could argue she shouldn't have told anyone (or even worried about it) until it was sold and the problems start.
But also it's not a bad strategy to float it out there like she did and see if someone guaranteed friendly wants to buy it.

I reckon paying some homeless people to conveniently hang around the building when the inspection times happen could extend the sale indefinitely

If all you have to do to make a healthy profit on real estate is to scare away a few hobos everyone would be jumping in.

[ebastler]

If all you have to do to make a healthy profit on real estate is to scare away a few hobos everyone would be jumping in.

I think you misread the proposal. Quite to the contrary, it suggests that all you have to do to scare away a real estate buyer is to invest in a few hobos.