Escape From Pianosa

My dinner was interrupted tonight by two young Hispanic males, knocking on my door, asking me if I spoke Spanish.

Yes, I do.

(unwrapping his wares) Would you like to buy a gold chain?

Mmm, no. Thank you though.

Anyone else on the street speak Spanish?

The lady on the corner…good luck fellas…

This is the second time I’ve had people knock on my door offering ‘discount’ jewelry. Does this happen in other cities?

Actually, one of my favorite Baltimore moments is when I was sitting on the steps of a row house on Carroll Street in Washington Village and a guy walked by me with one of those big plastic reclining chairs you find at public swimming pools. “Hey man, you need a chair?”

I’m a member of one of the local chambers, and the other day I got an email shouting the praises for the new minimum wage bill that was passed in congress.

I’m firmly in the camp that minimum wage laws harm unskilled workers by making it harder for them to find employment. There are arguments on both sides of the issue, but even if you think it’s a good thing for workers, it’s obviously not a good thing for small businesses (large supermarkets and other union employers are probably a different story).

So why on Earth would an organization ostensibly charged with the goal of promoting local businesses support a law that makes it more costly to do business!?

A recent report by the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore shows positive signs for job and population growth in downtown Baltimore.

Well maybe.. Here’s the link to the Sun Article. The community association is not pleased about having a 240 foot skyscraper(?) built on the waterfront..although I’m not really sure why. Right now the site is a parking lot, and there are lots of tall buildings there on the waterfront.

Anyway, this type of development seems inevitable–real estate on the Canton waterfront is so valuable and parking lots are clearly not the highest and best use. And for the city, highest and best use in this case also translates to higher tax revenue.

As for me, I have to see a better argument than “it obstructs some views” to oppose it. I think it’s wonderful that people want to build here. Ten years ago I doubt anyone imagined Canton as such a desirable place to live and shop.

I was looking for information on the redevelopment of the Oldtown Mall area and YouTube brought me this video short by some up and coming Baltimore film makers. If any developers are looking for some visionary ideas, these girls might have it… Or a good laugh if you’re into dark humor at Baltimore’s expense.

Not in Baltimore, at least not at the high-end of the market.

…I won’t be getting my land this way.

At the Washington Post Real Estate Mail bag, a discussion about whether or not buyers should ask sellers the question: “why are you selling?”

As a buyer, I always ask this question, and you should too. A good seller’s agent won’t give up any info, but you should still ask. Every bit of information that you can get your hands on about the seller and the circumstances of the sale will give you an advantage in the negotiation.

So find out what you can, and if the seller is in a hurry or doesn’t have a lot of options, use this to get better terms or a lower price. Be nice about it, but definitely use it.

Of course if you’re selling, don’t give up this information, especially if you’re in a bind.

Last night I went to a premier party for Season 6 of The Apprentice. My good friend Aaron Altscher is on the show this year and his parents threw a big bash to celebrate. He was also kind enough to link to me from his site. Something tells me he’ll be sending me more traffic than I send him!

We’re all super excited for him and so far it looks like he’s been playing the game well. Early on, you want to fly under the radar, something that Aaron managed quite well in the first episode. And something that Frank seems to have trouble with. NBC has dubbed him “The Mouth” and you’d be hard pressed to come up with a better nickname.

Being the project manager is always hard when you just met everyone on your team and you have no idea what their strengths might be. And the PM is almost always on the hot seat for the losing team, unless one of the team members screwed up royally, putting the PM in the awkward position of blaming his team for the failure. I’ve never been to B-school but something tells me that “When things go bad, blame your team” isn’t something they teach you in leadership class.

On the other hand, all that fighting makes for some good TV… I’ll be interested to see how Aaron handles this sticky situation if it happens to him.

For anyone who believes that Baltimore lacks affordable housing… I was talking with my commercial broker last week, driving around Northern Virigina, looking at some potential projects. I asked her about the market there, i.e. what’s selling these days, how’s the inventory, etc.

She said “well the mid range is doing very well, but the lower and higher ranges aren’t doing so well.”

I asked her what the middle range was. $700,000 to $1,100,000!