Bob wrote:
> Ken, I've been to Whittier three times ... one of which stayed for two
> days, staying over in that condo building you mentioned. At the time they
> were renting them out to travelers -- don't think they are still doing so,
> but perhaps that's changed.
Yes, rooms, rent, etc., available. One aspect that is intriguing to me
is to go ahead and buy a unit and rent it out. There are about 90
(give or take) year-round households in the building, the rest are
seasonal. A month or two of rental pays for the entire unit and then
some. It's quite the bustling community during the tourist months. One
cruise ship is 20x the population of the town.
> Very interesting building. People too.
They recently redid the exterior and windows. Quite a change. The old
windows were drafty, narrow, and just plain nasty. It's much more
pleasant now. And it mostly looks inviting now, rather than something
straight out of Soviet era Siberia. Mostly. It's still what it is, a
large post-war apartment block building not too different from any
other large apartment block building in any city around the world. The
difference is that this is the ONLY large apartment block building in
this town. There is no segregation of the haves and have-nots.
Whittier doesn't have suburbs, nor locations with better addresses. It
is not true that EVERYONE lives in the building, but it's nearly
everyone.
The people are certainly interesting. I think that's one thing that is
intriguing to me. Everyone has a story, and I want to hear their
stories. I'm told that the culture of the building is some cross
between a college dorm, trailer park, native village, and extended
family.
> My impression of the building: picking the location in it (e.g., north vs.
> south end) is critical as there's (at that time, three years ago) very
> large air handling equipment which - even on the top floor - contributed a
> quite loud background noise.
The occupied residential areas are mostly lower in the building. The
higher you go, the more the units cost. Most of the units I'd be
looking at occupying are between the fifth and ninth floors.
A fascinating bit about the building is that it's not a single
building. It looks like a single building, but it's actually multiple
buildings that have a structural gap between them. During an
earthquake, they move independently of each other.
Anyhoo, it's a wild-hair concept that I'm checking out. I doubt all
the pieces will fall in place, but at least it's something unique and
interesting.
AK Schnozz
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