This is an endemic problem with real estate when debt is too high. Take a storefront on Madison Avenue in New York that the owner bought for $1.2 million thinking that rents would be $100,000. The owner borrowed $1 million at 8%. But rents have fallen to $75,000. Now the real economic owner of that storefront is the lender. But the landlord is still in charge and will not rent the store for $75,000 because there is no financial incentive to do so. So the owner sits, holds out, and hopes for things to change.
In time, however, the lender will take over the storefront or force the landlord to sell for a loss.
A closed pub is obviously far worse than a shuttered storefront that might sell luxury clothing. But in both situations, the debt holder will eventually call the shots and they will be far more rational.
Have you tried to contact TDR? I looked at their website. One third of their investors are pension funds. If there are public British pension funds invested, that might be in the public domain. If you could get to their investors, that could put a lot of pressure on them.
Private inequity, indeed. I’m holding out hope on this. I don’t think these stonegate fellas know who they’re messing with. You literally wrote a brilliant hate piece making their intentionally boring clawback-whatever-clause not only easy to understand, but also, rage inducing. Thus, more of the right rage, out in the world. Keep it up.
The right rage!!! 🎯🎯🎯 Yes, that’s exactly what I was aiming for. Heck knows the world doesn’t need more bile but I think it does need the right rage… or at least less uninformed apathy? I don’t know… but thanks for reading Lindsey.
The centerpiece of this is the con in play, but another line jumped out about subscriber counts.
Every time someone posts their numbers I either feel shitty in a bad way or shitty in a good way. And I think of how many other people feel shitty reading them. It’s like posting your income. Actually, it’s exactly that. It’s bad form. It’s either bragging or it’s oblivious.
Either way, you’re making someone sad. That’s the right word. If you’re making people sad at scale then you’re the problem. Don’t post your numbers like it’s a community event. People know where to find them.
And now to pile shit on my own head I realized I broke my own rule recently in a related way. I’d like to go to a pub right now, have a pint, lighten the fuck up and then unwind my own damage.
It's ok, I did it too, back at Christmas. What a shitty lump of coal that was to lob at a merry crowd. We'll do better 🤝 and maybe someday be able to have a drink in a pub
PE is really a scourge upon modern democracies, in part because it’s actually a bad business model with almost zero culpability that governments everywhere seem to be too weak to legislate against. But… I realize the pub’s current sale price is grossly inflated and all that, but what about a massive crowd-funded campaign to get a local community org (or even the village itself!) to buy the pub and run it and keep it as a pub forever? And thereby stick it to the PE firm, because even while they’ll sell at their posted price, they’re not actually making much profit on a pub that’s sat there for a year, and land that will never see them make profit as a result of clawbacks. I’m just saying, I don’t even live in the UK but I’d donate to a campaign to take back your pub any day.
Hi Nika, thanks for your message. If you select Read Previous, you’ll see a number of other essays detailing my community’s ongoing efforts to try to buy our pub! Great minds think alike. We have a Crowdfunder but, as I mention in an earlier essay, are struggling to get people motivated to care and invest. It’s really dispiriting. Thank you for caring!! Maybe I’ll repost a link to our Crowdfunder one of these days… Hope hasn’t fled quite yet…. X
I just dropped in to share a link for an essay you might be interested in - “Go Viral & Get Substack Subscribers! Find Your Notes Network” - but I’m sensing maybe this isn’t the right time for you? Should I circle back later? Just kidding! You always rant about the very-most-rant-worthy topics. “(whisper it) Selfies…” I am both angry and laughing.
I came to Substack to write about nature, because I’m constantly amazed by nature, and I think we can all benefit from noticing nature and being amazed. If that doesn’t somehow end up being enough to make me “Go Viral and Get Subscribers” I suppose I’ll just have to find a way to live with that 🤣
Also, Stonegate sounds a lot like our notorious Mr. Donald Trump. I suppose they’re all alike at a certain level. There must be so, so many of these boring, evil, soulless corporations in this world. For every one that you find out about, how many countless others are just blending into the background? I truly wish you the best in your fight, your pub is most certainly worth it.
Go viral? Notes network? Now you’re playing my tune 😍😷 But seriously, I’m with you. Nature is amazing. Five minutes in my garden never fails to make me feel better about almost everything, even the pub. That’s why all the rage-y pub essays are balanced with a para or two about garden sits or walks. Everything in moderation, even Stonegate-targeted bile, rage and poop on the muck pile. Thanks for reading, Sydney, and for holding out hopes for the pub.
Hear hear. I feel like you're really putting your finger right on the thing that is fucked up. I think the counter argument (which I don't agree with, but it seems to prevail because it benefits those with power/capital) is that demand (e.g. demand for housing- but actually high end condos and big retail) drives the optimal outcomes. But it is only optimal in terms of the highest number that can be valued on a balance sheet in order to raise more money. All of it is made up value in a system that is just made up that could be corrected if we just made up something different.
The result in the States is the same looking fabrications of high-end condos (going up everywhere, but nobody can afford to live in them) and the same looking buildings and retail everywhere. I thought the recent film Civil War was great, and one thing that made it so realistic and frightening was that many of the locations looked like everywhere in America. The same design and stores and bullshit that is everywhere, because it is literally just a copy of an idea from somewhere else. AI is not even needed to just make a copy of the same revenue generating BS from place to place, but it will probably make it even easier to do.
Agreed that the same financial concepts are applied to Substack. Raise the user numbers, raise the value, please the capital holders. There is no way it actually benefits quality or more people. It may be a transfer of a broken system of publishing to another broken system of publishing with a very small percentage of writers and artists marginally succeeding. It's another network being built on free labor, free content provided by the users under the guise of self-determination. Some quality content, sure, but nontent- that's much easier to increase the numbers. Anyways, it's definitely better than instagram!
Haven't seen Civil War but I will. You are bang on the money about the counter-argument btw. That is all over the FT: oh, but the housing market is so scarce, surely it's a GOOD thing if failing pubs get repurposed as shiny million pound homes. Vomit bile in my mouth. I'm just so angry. I really should smile more.
We are fortunate to have a thriving "rural center" very close to us. It includes a tap room which feels more like an English pub than many over there. It took the will of the community and a generous angel to rescue the building and make it happen. I hope you find an angel.
I suffered through years here where domestic beer was Budweiser and import was Molson. Then the microbrew revolution happened, and Washington State is well provided for.
Along with the taproom, we have two brewpubs, one of which over in the next village is decent. It's only been open a couple of years, but it's already become that village's pub. It's where I go to solve the world's problems with the public works and planning directors, the mayor and her wife.
There's also a corner store/gas station/biker bar/music venue/pub where we go to listen to live music.
Sad to say that we have better pubs here than in England. I should do a post on it, but you'd probably unsubscribe!
This is an endemic problem with real estate when debt is too high. Take a storefront on Madison Avenue in New York that the owner bought for $1.2 million thinking that rents would be $100,000. The owner borrowed $1 million at 8%. But rents have fallen to $75,000. Now the real economic owner of that storefront is the lender. But the landlord is still in charge and will not rent the store for $75,000 because there is no financial incentive to do so. So the owner sits, holds out, and hopes for things to change.
In time, however, the lender will take over the storefront or force the landlord to sell for a loss.
A closed pub is obviously far worse than a shuttered storefront that might sell luxury clothing. But in both situations, the debt holder will eventually call the shots and they will be far more rational.
Have you tried to contact TDR? I looked at their website. One third of their investors are pension funds. If there are public British pension funds invested, that might be in the public domain. If you could get to their investors, that could put a lot of pressure on them.
I might be able to help you figure that out. Let me know. robertsdavidn@gmail.com
I'll email you David. 🤝
Private inequity, indeed. I’m holding out hope on this. I don’t think these stonegate fellas know who they’re messing with. You literally wrote a brilliant hate piece making their intentionally boring clawback-whatever-clause not only easy to understand, but also, rage inducing. Thus, more of the right rage, out in the world. Keep it up.
The right rage!!! 🎯🎯🎯 Yes, that’s exactly what I was aiming for. Heck knows the world doesn’t need more bile but I think it does need the right rage… or at least less uninformed apathy? I don’t know… but thanks for reading Lindsey.
The centerpiece of this is the con in play, but another line jumped out about subscriber counts.
Every time someone posts their numbers I either feel shitty in a bad way or shitty in a good way. And I think of how many other people feel shitty reading them. It’s like posting your income. Actually, it’s exactly that. It’s bad form. It’s either bragging or it’s oblivious.
Either way, you’re making someone sad. That’s the right word. If you’re making people sad at scale then you’re the problem. Don’t post your numbers like it’s a community event. People know where to find them.
And now to pile shit on my own head I realized I broke my own rule recently in a related way. I’d like to go to a pub right now, have a pint, lighten the fuck up and then unwind my own damage.
But now there’s no fucking pub!
It's ok, I did it too, back at Christmas. What a shitty lump of coal that was to lob at a merry crowd. We'll do better 🤝 and maybe someday be able to have a drink in a pub
Hear hear.
PE is really a scourge upon modern democracies, in part because it’s actually a bad business model with almost zero culpability that governments everywhere seem to be too weak to legislate against. But… I realize the pub’s current sale price is grossly inflated and all that, but what about a massive crowd-funded campaign to get a local community org (or even the village itself!) to buy the pub and run it and keep it as a pub forever? And thereby stick it to the PE firm, because even while they’ll sell at their posted price, they’re not actually making much profit on a pub that’s sat there for a year, and land that will never see them make profit as a result of clawbacks. I’m just saying, I don’t even live in the UK but I’d donate to a campaign to take back your pub any day.
Hi Nika, thanks for your message. If you select Read Previous, you’ll see a number of other essays detailing my community’s ongoing efforts to try to buy our pub! Great minds think alike. We have a Crowdfunder but, as I mention in an earlier essay, are struggling to get people motivated to care and invest. It’s really dispiriting. Thank you for caring!! Maybe I’ll repost a link to our Crowdfunder one of these days… Hope hasn’t fled quite yet…. X
Your anger — it’s inspiring, Jill. It inspires me, that’s for certain.
Thanks so much for reading Taegan. ❤️
Can we find an alternative name for the “Karen” like Donald/ Donna
I just dropped in to share a link for an essay you might be interested in - “Go Viral & Get Substack Subscribers! Find Your Notes Network” - but I’m sensing maybe this isn’t the right time for you? Should I circle back later? Just kidding! You always rant about the very-most-rant-worthy topics. “(whisper it) Selfies…” I am both angry and laughing.
I came to Substack to write about nature, because I’m constantly amazed by nature, and I think we can all benefit from noticing nature and being amazed. If that doesn’t somehow end up being enough to make me “Go Viral and Get Subscribers” I suppose I’ll just have to find a way to live with that 🤣
Also, Stonegate sounds a lot like our notorious Mr. Donald Trump. I suppose they’re all alike at a certain level. There must be so, so many of these boring, evil, soulless corporations in this world. For every one that you find out about, how many countless others are just blending into the background? I truly wish you the best in your fight, your pub is most certainly worth it.
Go viral? Notes network? Now you’re playing my tune 😍😷 But seriously, I’m with you. Nature is amazing. Five minutes in my garden never fails to make me feel better about almost everything, even the pub. That’s why all the rage-y pub essays are balanced with a para or two about garden sits or walks. Everything in moderation, even Stonegate-targeted bile, rage and poop on the muck pile. Thanks for reading, Sydney, and for holding out hopes for the pub.
Hear hear. I feel like you're really putting your finger right on the thing that is fucked up. I think the counter argument (which I don't agree with, but it seems to prevail because it benefits those with power/capital) is that demand (e.g. demand for housing- but actually high end condos and big retail) drives the optimal outcomes. But it is only optimal in terms of the highest number that can be valued on a balance sheet in order to raise more money. All of it is made up value in a system that is just made up that could be corrected if we just made up something different.
The result in the States is the same looking fabrications of high-end condos (going up everywhere, but nobody can afford to live in them) and the same looking buildings and retail everywhere. I thought the recent film Civil War was great, and one thing that made it so realistic and frightening was that many of the locations looked like everywhere in America. The same design and stores and bullshit that is everywhere, because it is literally just a copy of an idea from somewhere else. AI is not even needed to just make a copy of the same revenue generating BS from place to place, but it will probably make it even easier to do.
Agreed that the same financial concepts are applied to Substack. Raise the user numbers, raise the value, please the capital holders. There is no way it actually benefits quality or more people. It may be a transfer of a broken system of publishing to another broken system of publishing with a very small percentage of writers and artists marginally succeeding. It's another network being built on free labor, free content provided by the users under the guise of self-determination. Some quality content, sure, but nontent- that's much easier to increase the numbers. Anyways, it's definitely better than instagram!
Haven't seen Civil War but I will. You are bang on the money about the counter-argument btw. That is all over the FT: oh, but the housing market is so scarce, surely it's a GOOD thing if failing pubs get repurposed as shiny million pound homes. Vomit bile in my mouth. I'm just so angry. I really should smile more.
Just try not to vomit while smiling :)
We are fortunate to have a thriving "rural center" very close to us. It includes a tap room which feels more like an English pub than many over there. It took the will of the community and a generous angel to rescue the building and make it happen. I hope you find an angel.
The only way it happens isn't it... an angel (or a mum in publishing). I'm glad you have a tap room. I miss my pub. Raise a glass for me, John.
I suffered through years here where domestic beer was Budweiser and import was Molson. Then the microbrew revolution happened, and Washington State is well provided for.
Along with the taproom, we have two brewpubs, one of which over in the next village is decent. It's only been open a couple of years, but it's already become that village's pub. It's where I go to solve the world's problems with the public works and planning directors, the mayor and her wife.
There's also a corner store/gas station/biker bar/music venue/pub where we go to listen to live music.
Sad to say that we have better pubs here than in England. I should do a post on it, but you'd probably unsubscribe!