Word: landlordism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
After a nippy no-more-than-65° F day at the office, Urban Dweller returns to his rented apartment, flicks on the light-and watches as his sigh forms a frozen cloud in the indoor chill. The thermostat is controlled by his thrifty landlord. A woodburning stove is banned by his lease. Improved insulation, not to mention a solar water heater, is hardly on the tenant's list of options. So what does the city dweller do to keep warm...
...York, Chicago, Boston and other major cities, he can call for heat on a hotline. While the federal ceiling of 65° applies only to commercial and public buildings, most cities enforce local laws requiring landlords to keep residential buildings at a minimal 68° by day and 55° by night. Scofflaws reported over the hotlines are generally given a day to adjust the thermostat before they face fines or jail sentences. "Our big club," says Chicago Building Department Director Nick Fera, "is that we can haul a landlord into court within 24 hours." That may not deter...
Even if the landlord abides by the law, 55° or 68° is not exactly the smothering warmth Americans, unlike Europeans, have come to expect. In apartment buildings with fireplaces, urbanites are joining the national craze for wood power. When Chicago's park district had some trees chopped down in Lincoln Park last month, the loggers outran the joggers to haul away the wood before the city could remove...
...council voted 5-4 not to allow a vote on the permanent ban, proposed by councilor Raymond Flynn after a recent attempt by a Brighton landlord to evict tenants in a large apartment complex...
...Jesse James Gang were amateurs compared with crowd who want to put our elderly out in the streets," councilor Albert L. "Dapper" O'Neill said, adding, "I wouldn't put it past my landlord to evict...