If I were a frog and the water started heating up
I’m sure glad I’m never going to die
If I were a frog and the water started heating up I would simply jump out.
Could be it’s impossible to jump out of the pot in the first place you might say but then the story is just “a frog got tortured to death” and where’s the lesson in that? We need new metaphors over here. Who is in charge of our strategic fable reserve anyway?
Today’s newsletter is mostly about catching you up on what you may have missed this week in Hell World. Subscribe to read all these pieces below and to get access to everything in the archives and also just because it’s nice to support work from independent journalists that you appreciate.
On Friday I sent out to paid subscribers this great piece by Mary Stathos, a tenants organizer, who wrote about the need for rent control and how untenable the situation has become for the average renter in the Boston area (and probably your city too).
Landlords already go to incredible lengths to limit access to housing and resources for the most vulnerable. They perform background checks, credit checks, and income verification, require illegal application fees, and four months of rent upfront for moving costs. They raise rents every year, forcing families and individuals to take regular displacement as a given, never allowing us to save money or know stability. They ignore the need for routine maintenance; even a new countertop or lighting fixture is a luxury for the average renter. Shelter is one of the most basic necessities for a human being to stay alive. But they don’t care who lives or not as long as the money keeps coming in.
She also pushed back against the infamous building owners Alpha Management and Anwar Faisal, aka “The Lord of the Sties,” whose lawyers sent her a bullshit letter threatening her to stop agitating and organizing tenants.
I don’t understand why people who can’t afford rent don’t simply go to their parents for a $100,000 gift for a down payment on a home.
Relatedly, here’s a fucked up story out of Ayer, MA, near where I live now, about a different property development group forcing 120 residents of buildings they just bought out onto the streets so they can remodel them then jack up the prices. Don’t worry though, after that the people are allowed to reapply to move back into their homes if they are in the right demographic. Presumably they’ll just vibe in the intervening months.
The Lowell Sun explains:
Devenscrest Village residents are on edge after a new landlord told them they would be evicted in the next 60 days.
One person familiar with the situation said the eviction notices were sent to residents on Wednesday. The residents will have 60 days to vacate their homes. It appears the evictions are being done so the landlord can renovate the properties.
The person also stated the apartments were recently sold to the real estate company Brady Sullivan Properties.
Residents will have the option to return home — but apparently with steep new requirements. They will be required to make a security deposit, pay the first and last month of rent, and provide income verification showing they make at least $72,000 a year.
“This whole thing is crazy,” one resident wrote online. “They told me the renovated units would be going for [$1,800 to $2,100] a month and you have to make at least 72,000 a year to qualify for them.”
“I spoke to them personally. They want a SINGLE income of $72,000 a year, and if there’s 2 incomes, $84,000 a year, pass a background check, and pay first last and security,” another resident wrote.
The median household income of the town is $67,411 by the way.
Brady Sullivan is such a fucking obnoxious name for a company isn’t it? Sounds like a chode in a Patriots jersey you want to knock the fuck out at a bar outside Fenway Park.
Before that I sent out this piece about the addiction and homelessness epidemic centered around an infamous open air drug market in Boston. Real Massachusetts hours this week. Sorry or you’re welcome for that depending on your perspective I suppose. Again though, like with the rental situation, you most likely have a place like this in your city too.
In this one I interviewed a recovering heroin addict and self described former violent convict about a group he started called the Mass Ave. Project that serves as something of a beacon of light and a bulwark of support for family members of addicts, people in recovery, and those still on the street looking for any sort of help they can get.
Scrolling through the Facebook page of the Mass Ave. Project it’s hard not to feel something like emotional whiplash. It’s a cascade of both heartbreak and hopefulness.
“Hey guys I'm looking for my daughters father...he has been on the ave for a while, if you see him please have him call me...I want to help him please!!!” reads one typical post.
Others go on:
“HEADING DOWN TO MASS AVE FIRST THING IN THE MORNING WITH SEVEN DEAR RECOVERY FRIENDS FOR THE BIG SEARCH AGAIN FOR MY DAUGHTER (she's been down there for 5 years) CAUGHT IN THE GRIPS OF ADDICTION. THIS TIME IS AN INTERVENTION. Prayers please that we find her and she's ready! TOGETHER WE CAN! Any help is greatly appreciated”
…
It’s great that so many people seem to give a shit, but do you think it’s a testament to how bad things are now with opioids that so many people have to give a shit? Reading through the page it seems like there are so many posts like has anyone seen my mother, my friend, last I heard they were down there. It’s evidence that this is touching almost everyone right now.
I know. Everybody knows somebody. Everybody has people out there. People have lost people. I think the fact is that people are also really disenchanted that there is no response from our public officials, man. You know what I mean? It’s the fucking saddest state of affairs. There’s no chairs down there. No trash barrels. No comfort. People are just fucking standing on the fucking hard concrete all day long just shooting meth, shooting heroin and overdosing. Nobody is doing shit to help them. It’s fucking sad, man. Me and my friend Jimmy couldn’t turn a blind eye.
Aaaaand with Covid cases spiking again around the country in Los Angeles and Florida and elsewhere, I thought I’d revisited this interview with a palliative care nurse from a couple months back. Not that I imagine anyone who reads this newsletter needs to be pressured into getting the vaccine but…
What about Covid skeptics?
We had families flat out not believe us when we told them their loved one was dying of Covid. I’ve never dealt with that before, and I have to imagine toxic media coverage was part of that. Like if I’m explaining to a family that a stroke or cancer progression or heart failure is what’s happening it’s still very sad but it makes sense. Telling a family member, over the phone, that they’re going to die from this virus and there’s nothing else we can do, I had a lot of people say I don’t believe you. Or I could literally hear them typing on a computer and they’d say did you give them zinc? It looks like zinc might help. Even the early news coverage about “running out of ventilators” hurt. It was never really a risk, but it was all over the news so lots of people thought if someone’s on a ventilator doesn’t that mean they’re going to get better? When in reality if you’re on a ventilator with respiratory failure there’s very high mortality. So we also got a lot of people saying you just want them off the ventilator so you can give it to somebody else. It sucked.
I think about this part a lot too:
What do people tend to say at the end of life? When they know they’re about to die? Are there any common themes?
It’s really unpredictable how somebody is going to react to the news.
…
A common thread I’ve seen is that if somebody felt loved during their life they have an easier time accepting the end of their life. It’s not a matter of success or accomplishment but if someone just feels like there was another person who cared for them when they were alive… The tragedy is that I’m not going to see my wife again, but at least I had that person caring for me the whole time.
It’s when people have unresolved fights in personal relationships, or that they’re processing that all the wealth they accumulated is not going to help extend their life…. Those are the people I would say where there’s not acceptance.
Hoo boy. I’m sure glad I’m never going to die.
Ok here’s three things in a row to look at:
This is unrelated (I think) but it’s the hardest I’ve laughed at anything in a long time.
Ok that’s all for today. RIP to Biz Markie.