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I think feckless is a word which hasn’t gone out of style for Reggie ever.

Props to him for putting his adjacent-to-builder expertise to use here.

Reggie should report this or atleast let his father know about it…those are some serious issues that could cause problems in the future if anything were to happen…I understand why he isn’t wanting to say anything though. In his position I wouldn’t want to either

If he reports it, there’s a chance(possibly a good one) that the entire building will be condemned, putting all those shops out of business(albeit less devastatingly than stock clearance by fire). He’s between a rock and a hard place here, and chose a fairly reasonable middle ground: Make sure the people that actually rent space in the building are aware of the problems.
THEY can pressure the landlord to fix things, as they have a leverage he does not. Or they can secure better-maintained facilities and move shop before something unfortunate happens.

Not reporting it probably hurts his pride as a once-and-future professional, but he’s trying to be accommodating. He doesn’t WANT to be a human wrecking ball, no matter how much it appears to be his calling in life.

That’s assuming that the landlord will even give a fuck. Most slumlords can easily ride on the backs on those desperate for cheap rent to continue their property negligence. If businesses go out or tenants are evicted due to deplorable conditions, it’s not exactly the problem of either the court of law or the government to compensate.

On the contrary, if your home or business burns down/gets condemned/etc. because of a situation like this, you have a quite solid civil case for damages due to the landlord’s neglect. Which is precisely the sort of thing the govt./courts exist to enforce.

Cold comfort when they declare bankruptcy & you get nothing anyway

It depends a bit on the jurisdiction, but plenty of judgements survive US bankruptcy law. Granted, they can generally structure the payment so that it’d take a while to get your money, but there are companies that will pay cash for such a settlement.

That’s if the landlord will even have enough to compensate the evicted to the point that they can find secure housing somewhere else.

ride on the backs on those desperate for cheap rent to continue their property negligence.

So … raise the rents so the landlord can afford to renovate the property?

No, it’s not assuming that the landlord cares. He said, “yet”.

“Hey, landlord, the building inspector’s son came by, and there’s problems you gotta fix soon or he’ll tell his dad.”

Except, I don’t think his dad is the building inspector. Sure, his dad *does* inspect buildings, but he feels more like the owner of a construction company who cares enough to double check the work of his employees before they get the actual inspectors.

Be that as it may, it was still a threat. Reggie knows how these things get reported so he knows who to report them to. As a construction company heir, he probably has an aversion to reporting something to an inspector but that doesn’t mean he won’t.

Kinda depends on who the person who owns the area is and what they feel about the idea of all that burning down. As far as we know they turned the safe(er) areas into a shopping center and just kinda boarded up the older parts, I don’t think it has been said if there’s any apartments in the same block. The landlord may just not be aware of how bad things have gotten in the old hotel areas since they may not have a lot of experience in maintaining old buildings, and are using the shopping center as a way to generate income through the property.

I don’t buy that whole “unaware” argument. If you’re going to hold ownership over the area, it’s common sense to assess for any potential faults in structural integrity for the purposes of improvement later on. If a shopping center helps generate income, the earnings can be put towards structural improvements for the sake of attracting new tenants to help generate further income. I have reason to believe that any disrepair or disarray is usually the fault of either negligence or the owner themselves suffering from a mental illness that may prevent them from further responsibility to their property.

I knew someone once whose photo could have been used for the ‘feckless’ entry in my mythical illustrated dictionary. His theme song really could have been ‘Call Me Irresponsible!”

Stop trying to make “feckless” a thing. It’s not going to happen. And neither is “fetch”.

@Steve how on earth do you think fetch isnt a thing? It is used ALL the time especially in the RPG/MMO communities. It gets plenty of usage. Feckless though is one I have not heard in awhile however its meaning is relatively still clear. Bit hostile a response on your part though

Bruh. BRUH. IT’S A MEAN GIRLS QUOTE, GET WITH THE PROGRAM. I know they should have used quotes, but sheesh. Also, not everyone has the strength to resist getting addicted to rpg/mmo stuff, not everyone uses it, so I’m not sure they use it the same way “fetching” was used…I do know Kingdom Hearts uses feckless. “feckless neophyte…”

This puts me in mind of the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells.There has been an effort to raise money for refurbishment but I wonder if it isn’t just past the curve in terms of structural integrity.

@Steve how on earth do you think fetch isnt a thing? It is used ALL the time especially in the RPG/MMO communities. It gets plenty of usage. Feckless though is one I have not heard in awhile however its meaning is relatively still clear. Bit hostile a response on your part though

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