Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Empty Houses Home to Crime As Loans Fail: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

We need a TV series on the mortgage meltdown. Episode One: Zombies roam the streets of abandoned subdivisions searching for interest-only loans.

"Eighty-five bungalows dot the cul-de-sac that joins West Ontario Avenue and East Ontario Avenue in Atlanta. Twenty-two are vacant, victims of mortgage fraud and foreclosure. Now house fires, prostitution, vandals and burglaries terrorize the residents left in this historic neighborhood called Westview Village."

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Colorado Town Wants To Ban Red And Green Lights:
Another signpost on the road to American cities becoming exactly like HOAs:

"The town of Fort Collins, Colorado, and its Holiday Display Task Force are in the process of making their Christmas decorations more politically correct. The task force plans to recommend that the city displays only include white lights, winter symbols that aren't linked with any particular holiday and other non-secular items. Additionally, Christmas trees will no longer be permitted to be put up outside of public buildings or on public property. The city plans on voting on the recommendations on November 20th."
Income gap among black, white families up - Yahoo! News "Incomes among black men have actually declined in the past three decades, when adjusted for inflation. They were offset only by gains among black women. Incomes among white men, meanwhile, were relatively stagnant, while those of white women increased more than fivefold."
Miami condo at ground zero in mortgage fraud | Reuters
Here is a dubious distinction.

"...the 643-unit condo known as the Club at Brickell is a leader in mortgage foreclosures and it appears also to stand at ground zero in a blizzard of fraud that may lie behind many of the failed loans threatening to bury the U.S. property market."
New York mulls $1,000 fine for feeding pigeons - Yahoo! News
When Hemingway was living in Paris he used to shoot pigeons for dinner. Has anybody in NYC considered that option? Just trying to be helpful.

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York City lawmaker wants to declare war on the city's pigeons and says he will not be dissuaded by the difficulties faced by London and Venice in ridding themselves of the ubiquitous birds."

Monday, November 12, 2007

Woman Asks to Keep Horse in Apartment
Good thing for the neighbors that she didn't get emotionally attached to an elephant.