Re: Brother, have you been converted?

Greg Goss <gossg@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Opus the Penguin <opusthepenguin+usenet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > (huey.callison@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
) wrote:
> >> Suppose the building owner / building management / condo
> >> association makes a sweetheart deal with one of the cable
> >> companies, so cable that for a single-family house would be a
> >> competitive choice on either price or features is now locked in for
> >> the residents, and potentially at a higher fee than they'd
> >> otherwise pay, and that deal precludes OTA or satellite antennas.
> >> Suddenly, your choices go from being between a couple different
> >> cable and satelite companies (any of which are cost and
> >> feature-competitive) or OTA (which costs you an antenna and some
> >> wire) to one company or rabbit ears that don't get anything.
> >> Suddenly, simply by virtue of living in a multi-unit building,
> >> you've been locked into paying more for a monopoly service, or
> >> getting degraded service on the otherwise free airwaves. That's
> >> anticompetitive and unfair. The law forces that building owner /
> >> building management / condo association to allow you to have the
> >> same choices you'd have in a single-family home. 
> >The coup de grace is when management pays the fees out of the rent or
> >the association dues and tells you cable TV is "free".
> It's a democracy.

No, it's not, it's a building. If it's a one-owner apartment building,
the residents have no say. If it's a condo or co-op, owners may have
some or all of a vote, but renters still have no say. If it's an 
exclusively owner-occupied building, owners may have some or all of a 
vote, but those votes still leave the minority screwed. 

> The strata council is hired by you.

Bees are in the what now? Have you ever lived in an apartment building 
anywhere in the US? 

-- 
Huey