New York's Strand bookstore fights back over landmark status • Hacker News Board

Re: New York's Strand bookstore fights back over landmark status

#71

Post by yostrovs » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 12:18 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #23

crimsonalucard wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These types of commons have no utility. How about upgrading the subway or building a high speed rail. Actual contributions to the common good rather then nostalgic addictions to preserving the obsolete.

You're probably best off moving to a city that hews more to that philosophy. There's definitely a tension. But personally I prefer cities that respect their history to a degree. Obviously individual cases can be controversial--as in this case. But then I'm mostly not much for very sterile modern cities.

Is the New York City subway a landmark that's preserved? There haven't been renovations in most stations for decades.

Re: New York's Strand bookstore fights back over landmark status

#72

Post by kapuasuite » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 12:21 PM UTC

kevindkeogh wrote: post #43

jzwinck wrote: post #41

Isn't the real story here that this family bought the building in 1996 and would stand to profit perhaps a hundred million dollars if they sold it today? The landmark status might cut that value dramatically, maybe by more than half. Isn't this a more likely reason for the lawsuit than "We won't be able to do exterior renovations as easily"? Wouldn't you be upset if the city devalued your property by fifty million bu…

Sure, but New York is not only for the property owners. I think it's good that we have a say in how our community develops. Think of it this way, without New Yorkers, this building would be worthless.

New Yorkers already do have their say in how the community develops - why do you think something like 40% of the buildings in Manhattan couldn’t be built today under existing zoning?

New Yorkers have made it illegal to build the very same buildings and neighborhoods they claim to love - while also demanding that existing neighborhoods be preserved because they’re so “unique.”

It’s almost like there’s some other agenda at play...

Re: New York's Strand bookstore fights back over landmark status

#73

Post by sjwright » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 2:21 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #38

sjwright wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it is eminent domain or seizure in its own way. Their autonomy has been stolen. I think the bookstore could make a compelling constitutional case out of it—if they can find a spare million or two behind the sofa.

The Supreme Court long ago gutted the Fifth Amendment to enable, among other things, zoning laws (which were conceived as a response to racially discriminatory covenants being held illegal).

Regular zoning and heritage are very different though.

Re: New York's Strand bookstore fights back over landmark status

#74

Post by rtkwe » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 3:31 PM UTC

nwallin wrote: post #52

protonfish wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unconstitutional? I am not aware of any part of the constitution that prohibits landmarks.

The equal protections clause of 14th amendment prohibits unequal application of the law. The business next door can do anything they please with their building lawfully, but the protected landmark building is prohibited by law from doing the same things. There's literally a set of separate set of much more restrictive laws the owner of a protected landmark has to follow that a business not similarly affected does not…

That's a real stretch and applied universally any kind of location based rules like zoning would be in violation...

Re: New York's Strand bookstore fights back over landmark status

#75

Post by selimthegrim » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 6:18 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #62

selimthegrim wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How constitutional are air rights such as in NY or transfer of development rights such as proposed for Calcutta in this article https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jul/02/calcutta-arch...

The Supreme Court thinks New York’s landmark designation laws are constitutional, and the air rights system is less invasive than that: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/438/104 . I think Penn Central was a fantastically wrong decision (Rehnquist and Stevens dissented in that case). Obviously, the fact that a regulation diminishes the value of property is not sufficient to amount to a taking. The governme…

The landmark laws have had essentially reverse blockbusting/gentrifying effects in poor neighborhoods in New Orleans like Tremé. It’s not uncommon for speculators to call in violations like broken stoops or split porch railings and then the same speculator leaves flyers in the mailbox of the “violator” offering to buy for a knockdown price...

Re: New York's Strand bookstore fights back over landmark status

#76

Post by jrockway » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 8:55 PM UTC

rkho wrote: post #32

red-indian wrote: post #5

Every year around a certain date, the meaning of which is opaque to me, I receive a package sent from the Strand bookstore containing a very nice expensive book. First couple years I called to ask who the sender was, they read back my name to me. I asked them to describe the purchaser, it took a bit of doing but indeed someone remember them and described what I look like. I've never been to New York or the Strand, bu…

Fascinating, have you ever changed addresses since then? Curious if the packages still found their way to you after a change of address.

Unfortunately, names and addresses are out there and easy to get. You can easily find my home address because the FCC requires me to keep it up to date in order to maintain my amateur radio license.

The main effect of this is that I get ads for car insurance in morse code.

Re: New York's Strand bookstore fights back over landmark status

#77

Post by red-indian » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 1:40 AM UTC

wanderer2323 wrote: post #47

red-indian wrote: post #5

Every year around a certain date, the meaning of which is opaque to me, I receive a package sent from the Strand bookstore containing a very nice expensive book. First couple years I called to ask who the sender was, they read back my name to me. I asked them to describe the purchaser, it took a bit of doing but indeed someone remember them and described what I look like. I've never been to New York or the Strand, bu…

Fascinating story, what kind of books do you send to yourself?

So far they have all been "coffee table books", large books with photos and some text. The theme has always been indigenous issues throughout the world.

I assume that my mysterious benefactor is someone who used to read a blog I used to keep and then shut down. When I had the blog my address and name were obtainable from my site's whois records. There's also a possibility it's some old friend who is just being anonymous for some reason. I doubt it's something else but it could be I suppose.

On a separate but topically related issue I also receive packages from amazon of fairly obscure things which are usually relevant to me. Imagine that I had dinner with a friend of a friend who turned out to be a former Chinese Circus Bear Trainer. A week later from amazon I receive a starter kit for Circus Bear Training. And I pass it on to my acquaintance who finds it interesting I got it. It's not that but a similar thing. I wonder if it's random shipments as part of some scam I can't imagine to comprehend. I think that it was a Bear kit after meeting with a Bear person is actually a coincidence and I'm reading too much into it since no interpretations other than weird scam make sense. I don't worry about any of these anymore and instead get excited when I receive a new bizarre shipment on an erratic irregular schedule, and show off the package to my friends and family who find the whole thing fairly hilarious. And some of them report to me that they too get random mis-shipments from amazon. While acknowledging that the Bear Kit takes the cake. So maybe Amazon's system is just messed up somehow.

Re: New York's Strand bookstore fights back over landmark status

#78

Post by joecool1029 » Sun, Oct 13, 2019, 7:48 AM UTC

red-indian wrote: post #77

wanderer2323 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fascinating story, what kind of books do you send to yourself?

So far they have all been "coffee table books", large books with photos and some text. The theme has always been indigenous issues throughout the world. I assume that my mysterious benefactor is someone who used to read a blog I used to keep and then shut down. When I had the blog my address and name were obtainable from my site's whois records. There's also a possibility it's some old friend who is just being anonym…

The amazon ones sounds like 'brushing' scam which is a pretty easy to understand. Read more about it here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/11/27/american...

It's something that is hopefully going to fall into decline now that shipping rates are becoming more balanced.

Re: New York's Strand bookstore fights back over landmark status

#79

Post by red-indian » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 12:06 AM UTC

joecool1029 wrote: post #78

red-indian wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So far they have all been "coffee table books", large books with photos and some text. The theme has always been indigenous issues throughout the world. I assume that my mysterious benefactor is someone who used to read a blog I used to keep and then shut down. When I had the blog my address and name were obtainable from my site's whois records. There's also a possibility it's some old friend who is just being anonym…

The amazon ones sounds like 'brushing' scam which is a pretty easy to understand. Read more about it here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/11/27/american... It's something that is hopefully going to fall into decline now that shipping rates are becoming more balanced.

Thank you. I've received some of those too, a small package of pencils for example shipped from China, and I agree those are probably that scam. The key is that the product is of incredibly low value.

This doesn't match though the higher value items, costing dozens to low hundreds of dollars, which I've inexplicably received, and which seem to be related to random things I've done recently that are unique. Those shipments I feel reasonably are bizarre and unusual and otherwise reasonable explanations of scams just don't explain them.