Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Holdout

99percentinvisible.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 64 posts

Re: Holdout

#31

Post by facepalm »

kghose wrote: post #16

I had Tibor Gergley's "Great Big Book of bed time stories". There is a story in it called "Make way for the thruway" by Caroline Emerson. It is about an old lady who refuses to vacate her house so that they can make a highway. It has a happy ending when sympathetic construction workers build the road around her house, and she becomes the famous old lady with the pretty house next to the highway. My favorite quote: "Y…

Isn't it rather antisocial not to sell for public building? I don't understand why everybody sides with the holdouts.

Also I feel sorry for everybody who lives next to a highway.

Re: Holdout

#32

Post by facepalm »

VMG wrote: post #2

I've said it before, the 99percentinvisible podcast should be right up the alley of the hacker news crowd.

Would that lady qualify as a 99%er? After all she owned a house and was offered a lot of money for it.

Re: Holdout

#33

Post by [deleted] »

facepalm wrote: post #31
kghose wrote: post #16

I had Tibor Gergley's "Great Big Book of bed time stories". There is a story in it called "Make way for the thruway" by Caroline Emerson. It is about an old lady who refuses to vacate her house so that they can make a highway. It has a happy ending when sympathetic construction workers build the road around her house, and she becomes the famous old lady with the pretty house next to the highway. My favorite quote: "Y…

Isn't it rather antisocial not to sell for public building? I don't understand why everybody sides with the holdouts. Also I feel sorry for everybody who lives next to a highway.

[deleted]

Re: Holdout

#34

Post by tinalumfoil »

facepalm wrote: post #32
VMG wrote: post #2

I've said it before, the 99percentinvisible podcast should be right up the alley of the hacker news crowd.

Would that lady qualify as a 99%er? After all she owned a house and was offered a lot of money for it.

No. It takes at least $6.8 million to be in the 1% [0]. She was only offered $1 million plus another house and some medical care.

[0] http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142412788732330040...

Re: Holdout

#35

Post by rprospero »

patio11 wrote: post #15

My father (commercial real estate developer) has great stories about persuading people to not be the holdout. The most common objection is that they're older and moving is a major hassle, and the most usual way for resolving it is paying way above "going rates" for the property. Interestingly, property owners theoretically can collude against a developer by sharing knowledge that the last person to settle has the bes…

I remember a holdout situation in my old home town that was resolved... differently. The developer offered way above market rates to the last holdout, who still refused. A few weeks later, while the holdout was out shopping, the developer had a "miscommunication" with a construction subcontractor, who drove a bulldozer through the building.

Obviously, the homeowner sued the developer, but wound up only winning the normal market for the building. No longer having an emotional attachment to the empty lot, the owner then wound up selling the land to the developer as well, just to move on with life. Not counting some probably substantial legal fees, it actually came out cheaper for the developer than their earlier offer.

Re: Holdout

#36

Post by scuba7183 »

facepalm wrote: post #31
kghose wrote: post #16

I had Tibor Gergley's "Great Big Book of bed time stories". There is a story in it called "Make way for the thruway" by Caroline Emerson. It is about an old lady who refuses to vacate her house so that they can make a highway. It has a happy ending when sympathetic construction workers build the road around her house, and she becomes the famous old lady with the pretty house next to the highway. My favorite quote: "Y…

Isn't it rather antisocial not to sell for public building? I don't understand why everybody sides with the holdouts. Also I feel sorry for everybody who lives next to a highway.

If someone showed up at your house and told you that you had to leave, would you?

Re: Holdout

#37

Post by imgabe »

facepalm wrote: post #31
kghose wrote: post #16

I had Tibor Gergley's "Great Big Book of bed time stories". There is a story in it called "Make way for the thruway" by Caroline Emerson. It is about an old lady who refuses to vacate her house so that they can make a highway. It has a happy ending when sympathetic construction workers build the road around her house, and she becomes the famous old lady with the pretty house next to the highway. My favorite quote: "Y…

Isn't it rather antisocial not to sell for public building? I don't understand why everybody sides with the holdouts. Also I feel sorry for everybody who lives next to a highway.

Isn't it rather antisocial to pave over someone's home?

Re: Holdout

#38

Post by onion2k »

facepalm wrote: post #31
kghose wrote: post #16

I had Tibor Gergley's "Great Big Book of bed time stories". There is a story in it called "Make way for the thruway" by Caroline Emerson. It is about an old lady who refuses to vacate her house so that they can make a highway. It has a happy ending when sympathetic construction workers build the road around her house, and she becomes the famous old lady with the pretty house next to the highway. My favorite quote: "Y…

Isn't it rather antisocial not to sell for public building? I don't understand why everybody sides with the holdouts. Also I feel sorry for everybody who lives next to a highway.

If you work in the construction industry I imagine this is the equivalent of an IE6 user.

Re: Holdout

#39

Post by mike-cardwell »

scuba7183 wrote: post #36
facepalm wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it rather antisocial not to sell for public building? I don't understand why everybody sides with the holdouts. Also I feel sorry for everybody who lives next to a highway.

If someone showed up at your house and told you that you had to leave, would you?

Personally, it would depend on why they want me to move. If it's so they can build something of huge public benefit and have sound reasoning for why it needs to go through my house, and I'm compensated suitably, then yes of course I would leave. Doing otherwise would be selfish.

But if they don't fulfill all of those requirements, I would probably still move if they increased the compensation offering enough.

Re: Holdout

#40

Post by raygunomical »

facepalm wrote: post #32
VMG wrote: post #2

I've said it before, the 99percentinvisible podcast should be right up the alley of the hacker news crowd.

Would that lady qualify as a 99%er? After all she owned a house and was offered a lot of money for it.

Just so we're clear, the podcast isn't about 99%ers. It's about design, and it just happens to have "99%" in its name.
Post reply on HN