Apartment City

by Nena Perry-Brown As DC continues to reckon with its dearth of affordable housing, some laws that passed years ago but were never implemented, are resurfacing. One of those is the Rent Control Amendment Act of 2006. The law amended the original rent control law passed in 1985 to put in place the following provisions: Eliminating rent ceilings and rent ceiling adjustments that haven’t been approved in accordance with petitions; Creating parameters for how much and how often landlords can raise the rent on vacant and occupied apartments; and Requiring that the Mayor issue reports on establishing an income-based set aside program. While rent ceilings have been abolished and the latter provision has arguably been realized through the creation of inclusionary zoning, landlords have long been able to take advantage of the vacant-unit loophole over the years in order to increase profits and remove units from rent control restrictions . story continues below loading... story continues...

I n the late afternoon of March 14 in the Toronto suburb of Woodbridge , a masked gunman jumped out of the passenger side of a black Jeep Cherokee , darted across a snow- dusted parking lot and unleashed a flurry of bullets into a black BMW. Thirty seconds later, he was back in the car, leaving Saverio Serrano – the son of a notorious Canadian Mafia figure and cocaine importer – wounded, and Mr. Serrano's 28-year-old girlfriend dead. Two weeks later, in the west end of Toronto, an SUV rolled into the driveway of a bungalow at the end of a suburban cul-de-sac around 2:30 a.m. As 53-year-old Antonio Sergi , a beefy, cigar-chomping showman known in Mafia circles as "Tony Large" or "T Large," got out of the car and lumbered toward the front door, he was shot in the head and killed, execution style. Convicted drug trafficker Diego Serrano , 69 is pictured in a police surveillance photo from Project OPHOENIX." class="article-media-photo__content_...

LOS ANGELES – The heroic tale of USC cornerback Josh Shaw rescuing his nephew from drowning turned out to be a lie. What exactly happened that night, causing Shaw to injure both of his ankles, remains unclear. Shaw admitted to school officials Wednesday afternoon that he fabricated the story posted on USC’s website, ending a two-day whirlwind of rumors and speculation. Shaw was suspended indefinitely from all team activities. “We are extremely disappointed in Josh,” USC coach Steve Sarkisian said in a statement. “He let us all down. As I have said, nothing in his background led us to doubt him when he told us of his injuries, nor did anything after our initial vetting of his story. “I appreciate that Josh has now admitted that he lied and has apologized. Although this type of behavior is out of character for Josh, it is unacceptable. Honesty and integrity must be at the center of our program. I believe Josh will learn from this. I hope that he will not be defined by this incident.” ...

WATCH: A fire broke out at an apartment building near downtown Maple Ridge , engulfing a number of suites in the top floor. The flames spread so quickly that some residents were trapped and had to be rescued. Jennifer Palma has the story. Fire crews in Maple Ridge spent much of Saturday fighting a large apartment fire that gutted several suites. Story continues below Firefighters from Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows were called out to Sunrise Apartments at 22292 122 Ave. early Saturday morning . Neighbours say they heard loud explosions . According to Maple Ridge Fire & Rescue Chief Dane Spence, the fire was immediately upgraded to a two-alarm fire.“We had people on the third-floor balconies,” said Spence. “There was already so much smoke they couldn’t get out. They were on the corners of the building on the balconies. We had at least one person with a disability that needed help down a ladder.”“Later on in the operations we heard a very faint call for help. The faintest voice said...

Buy Photo The new owner of Creekside Apartments , Rector resident Freedom Hobbs was on site Friday, preparing for tearing down the roof next week, he said. Hobbs will face the same deadlines as former owners Princeton Commercial B Holdings, LLC., according to Mountain Home Mayor Joe Dillard . (Photo: Josh Dooley/The Baxter Bulletin ) Buy Photo Once again, Creekside Village, an abandoned apartment complex , has a new owner, according to a warranty deed filed earlier this month in  Baxter County . The property was sold to Freedom Hobbs, of Rector, from its previous owner, Princeton Commercial B Holdings, LLC, based in Newark, Delaware. The deed was signed on Jan. 5 and filed on Monday. The document lists Quintin King, Princeton Commercial B Holdings national counsel , as the representative authorized to execute the sale on the company's behalf. The Creekside property, located at 105 S. Cardinal Drive, was sold to Hobbs for $175,000. Hobbs, the new owner, was at the Mountain Home c...

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What has been achieved in 30 years of redevelopment in Cardiff Bay? Future development of Cardiff Bay needs a more coordinated approach to ensure its success, the man behind its reinvention 30 years ago has said. Lord Crickhowell has hailed the overall regeneration of the former derelict docklands as a major success. But he is fiercely opposed to the latest plans to redevelop land for flats, including a 24-story building. Three decades after he sparked plans for one of the biggest overhauls the city has seen, what has been achieved? Image caption Cardiff Bay waterfront in 1977 - derelict before regeneration Once the epicentre of Wales' booming coal and export industries, by the 1980s, Cardiff Bay had become an abandoned wasteland of derelict docks and mudflats. A victim of a dramatic fall in trade following World War Two and competition from other ports saw its decline and a plan was put in place to bring it back to lif...

It’s a sparkling winter’s afternoon on Sydney Harbour but inside the Sydney Theatre Company ’s Walsh Bay headquarters , veteran actor John Bell is contemplating some altogether darker issues . “Where will I finish up?” Bell ponders aloud . “Will I die in the arms of strangers or will I be looked after and spared that condition? What does it feel like as we’re heading into that dark night?” Thankfully this extraordinary actor , named an Australian Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, is not discussing his own imminent demise, but his upcoming role in the STC production The Father . Written by French playwright Florian Zeller and adapted by Les Liaisons Dangereuses ’ Christopher Hampton, The Father is told through the eyes of 80-year-old Andre (Bell). A former tap dancer-turned-engineer who lives in a Parisian apartment, he grows suspicious when a number of people claiming to be relations continually turn up on his doorstep. To make matters worse these people seem to...

When Tigris Holding Company bought land on 34th Street and Milwaukee Avenue about eight years ago, they felt they were on to something good. “They had recently paved Milwaukee , and just studying traffic counts out there, we just felt like it was a good growth area in Lubbock,” said Ty Craft, a directing principal at Tigris. Leasing recently opened for Tigris’s third complex in the area, El Mirador. If their nearby properties - Escondido and Elm Creek - are any indication, the newest multi-family concept is sure to fill soon. Craft said Elm Creek, a single-story facility, is almost always at full capacity and has a lengthy wait list . This is is a trend throughout Lubbock, according to recently collected ALN Apartment Data . In June, apartment occupancy was at almost 91 percent, suggesting nearly every available unit is full. This rate has stayed consistently high through the first half of 2017, according to monthly data from ALN. Suzanne Comer, executive officer with the Lubbock ...

To the credit of the Locarno Festival, the films in the 2017 selection don’t waste time trying to tell universal stories that transcend their time and place. Falling in love varies depending on the social conditions behind it, as Xu Bing’s found-footage film “Dragonfly Eye s” aptly proves, while weaving a story about obsession and surveillance in contemporary China. Similarly, working in a mine in Serbia has a wholly different routine than mining for gold in Suriname, as Ben Russell’s latest documentary “Good Luck” takes its time to show. Even something as widespread as the notion of the work/life balance varies considerably in films from Locarno coming from different parts of the world and set in different milieus, and enough of these films either circumvent or contradict traditional depictions of the home. It’s telling that new films in which the home is a sooth place are either set in different eras (Todd Haynes’ “Wonderstruck”) or built upon obviously artificial narrative ...