Comment by FeepingCreature | Hacker News Reader

Comment by FeepingCreature | Hacker News Reader

FeepingCreature

> Gideon sighs. “Violation of civil rights. Habitability. It’s all bullshit. They’d shit on the floor and take a picture of it. I had a guy who glued bologna sandwiches to his wall and sued me because his room had roaches.”

> “I’d close my eyes, and my mind wouldn’t stop all night long. I don’t mean not sleeping. I mean not sleeping. You go to bed and you’re up all night. And then, the next day, you go to work…”

> I think Gideon’s answer to that last question reveals some narcissism

> I appreciate Gideon’s candor, but our conversation demonstrates just how contemptuous San Francisco entrepreneurs can feel about the residents who aren’t rich or hipsters or tech workers.

This bit stood out to me because it's like... you're asking for empathy in the same breath as showing very little yourself. It shouldn't be this hard for this reporter to see how a guy can be without much empathy for people he dislikes. After all, he's doing it right there.

The reporter is being extremely disingenuous. There is a huge difference between "residents who aren't rich or hipsters or tech workers" and the kind of residents that end up at places like Gideon's. My wife's uncle is a landlord. One of his tenants let her dog shit and piss all over the floor all the time. To the point where he had to cut out the lower part of the drywall because of all the dog piss that had soaked into the wall from the floor. My wife could still smell it even after it was renovated.

Yup, that was exactly my thought. And it sounds like the root of the issue is the rent controls - intended to protect tenants - lead in practice to an incredibly messed-up relationship between landlord and tenants.

Not mentioned in the article is whether Gideon tried to find another buyer. Given the previous owner sold the place for just $10k, he was probably desperate to get rid of it. Gideon realised he'd been the rube that bought a massive liability, and I'm guessing he found it impossible to find another buyer. (If he could have sold it, he'd have done that rather than try and burn it down).

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