Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Things fall apart

Deferred maintenance, that one time bugaboo of university campuses, has set in in the office hotels of Wall St. At least ours, that is. As 2008 has dragged on, the place has been slowly depopulated, dropping from maybe 85% occupancy to perhaps 55. So revenue is scarce, and the 2nd law of thermodynamics has kicked into gear.

For some time now, the sensor that you walk under when exiting the secure area into the elevator and rest room lobby has been broken. You have to press the button on the wall. And you have to really press it right.

The carpet by the leatherette sofa is worn and rent in one spot.

But what beats all get out is the bathroom stall enclosure on the floor below ours that was ripped from the wall up by its upper hinge and leaning precariously. The nice young lady at the front desk was not aware of this, but she smiled and dialed when I told her it was a lawsuit waiting to happen.

And yet, there are signs of life in the old hotel. This afternoon a happy lot of polycultural folk took occupancy of a couple of vacant offices near us, and I saw other prospective tenants being given the tour. Have they had to dramatically reprice? Not unlikely. But it's good to see new faces in there, even if they're going to compete for space with us. I may just make them a casserole.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is access to every crackpot's ideas instantly via Google and the internet a good thing or a bad thing? What is this enhancement cream? Why is it a recurring theme on such an erudite blog? Is my hair falling out? Should the US government be overthrown? Will this blog now be on the NSA watchlist? What is entropy? For those who are losing their minds, are they interested in finding them? Is tragicalness a word? Was I really worth 880K more 12 months ago than I am today?

Cleric Mikhailovich de Troi said...

In answer to one -- perhaps the most important -- of your questions (though I'm not sure you're really asking since you're in Raleigh), the enhancement cream is a running gag from my rock steady crew in the Southern Part of Heaven. For years the anonymous band kept up a high level of satirical commentary, though lately the quality has, sadly, slumped. Or, rather, become flaccid.