Location, Location, Location

Interesting that most of the vehicles in the overhead view are black or silver.

"Room to breathe". B-r-e-a-t-h-e.

Seeing this brings to mind a true story. As a manufacturers parts and service rep one dealership I used to call on in Manhattan had such a space problem they rented the entire 5th floor of their building just for parking (at five figures per month). That idea quickly became a nightmare. Shuffling cars up and down the freight elevator was intense enough until the freight elevator broke! The elevator was so old it took weeks...months to get the parts. You guessed it, all the cars on the 5th floor were stuck on the fifth floor! Talk about irate customers! Not the end of the story, when the freight elevator broke it was carrying an SUV. Since it could not be repaired while loaded, the broken SUV was pushed out of the elevator onto the 3rd floor into the New York offices of an international bank where it sat until the needed elevator repair parts arrived!

After that debacle, dealership management came up with a much better solution. If you were not able to pick up your car on the day it was completed, they ferried it to a local parking garage and paid for your first 24 hours of parking. The customer friendly part of this scheme is that the parking garage was open 24 hours so you could pick up your car at any time. If you didn't make it by the end of the first day, normal parking charges applied. Ahh, life in the big city! You just can't make this stuff up!

Lou

I worked in Telecommunications around the time of 9-11 and shortly (year or so)thereafter went to Long Island to add a bunch more cell sites for AT&T. When we first arrived, we went to Manhatten and got a quick tour, went by the Twin Towers site (I'd been up in them in 1981) and I noticed all these 4 post lifts on these uneven, empty lots just placed right next to each other with a car on top and one parked under, high dollar cars usually. It was like they tore the buildings down and moved in the lifts.

This makes me even happier to live in South Dakota. NYC would be cool to visit, but you can't beat ten acres 48x70 machine shop, horse barn and a four bedroom house for 125,000.

nobrakes said:

This makes me even happier to live in South Dakota. NYC would be cool to visit, but you can't beat ten acres 48x70 machine shop, horse barn and a four bedroom house for 125,000.

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Yes sir!

I went to NYC for the first time in June. Cool place...but I'd go stir crazy if I lived there. I need to have a certain amount in space, and I always get cranky if I have a hard time finding a parking spot no matter where I am!

Looks like the Mercedes Benz dealership I worked at in Honolulu, except of course it was sunny.

Some of the houses in the linked article seem pretty cheap to someone who's lived in London

http://corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&ListingID=1103080

for example, though I'm not sure I'd want to live in Crown Heights even now.

If you live in the Midwest, undoubtedly you’re accustomed to having space. Out here we can walk down the street without people crowding us. If we’re lucky, we can enjoy our backyard in our underwear with little fear that our neighbor will see. A three-car garage and we still have to park a car in the driveway? Who cares! We’ve got room to breathe out here…

On the minus side, you have to live in the Midwest

*runs away*

1320stang said:

I worked in Telecommunications around the time of 9-11 and shortly (year or so)thereafter went to Long Island to add a bunch more cell sites for AT&T. When we first arrived, we went to Manhatten and got a quick tour, went by the Twin Towers site (I'd been up in them in 1981) and I noticed all these 4 post lifts on these uneven, empty lots just placed right next to each other with a car on top and one parked under, high dollar cars usually. It was like they tore the buildings down and moved in the lifts.

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Parking lots like those are pretty common all over Manhattan. I lived in NYC for two years, it was cool for the first year, but after a while I had to leave - Everyone lives on top of everyone else. My neighbor parked his car in New Jersey. Any time he needed to drive somewhere, it took a half hour just to get to his car.

The northeast is not all crowded. I have some property in northeast PA. It's about 14 acres. It's rural with several cities about 10-15 minutes away. They have a program for property owners called "clean and green." You get a break on property taxes for keeping at least 10 acres undeveloped.

Besides that, it's on top of one of the largest natural gas deposits in the country. We're working on leasing the land for drilling. You get about $3000 per acre up front bonus money, plus royalties on the gas that's produced and free gas for your use.

Don't bother trying to buy land in the area now. It's too late.

I went to a city (Manchester) about three months back.
Didn't think much of it so I doubt I'll go back any time soon.

Frank Elson said:

I went to a city (Manchester) about three months back.
Didn't think much of it so I doubt I'll go back any time soon.

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It must be hard to get used to using money rather than bartering sheep

London now has a fee to drive your car into the central London area.....now, if you want to see crowded.....

I'm flying there tonight for a week....I'll have a rental car the first few days because I'll be down in the Guilford area (not far from Farmburgh). But the last couple of days we are going to be using my wife's cousine's flat which is very close to central London...hence, we turn in the car and just use the trains and tubes.

Driving there does not bother me.....but a car is almost useless in central London.....

So Frank, how much is a liter of petrol now?