No Times de hoje #123

Foreclosed houses in Florida are being rented to needy families. On the face of it, seems like a pareto improvement (some people are made better off, while nobody is left worse off). In the past few years, many houses have been left empty as the owners went broke and became unable to pay the mortgage to the bank. Banks, on the other hand, have their own issues and are so overwhelmed with foreclosed homes that leave them be. Mortgage brokers in Florida take up an 1869 law that allows for seizing of abandoned property; if it's not reclaimed for seven years, the ownership is changed. The particular mortgage broker of the article chose 20 such homes that could be easily renovated and sent letters to owners and banks letting them know of his plans. Only one replied. As a result, he is now renting 17 out of the 19 houses, to which he made minor renovations or allowed tenants to make them in exchange for rent. The number of people testing the limits of the law is unknown, but whether they are do gooders or thieves is still to be defined; some are being taken to court, so new developments on this legal loophole are expected soon.
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What is a world city? It may be a city with lots of inhabitants from all over the world that has partially lost its national traits, but has gained a world identity with the little parts of other cities in the world that compose it. Beyond that, is it a city where you can have whatever you fancy from whichever part of the world, or is it a city in which the members of such parts of the world participate in the cultural exchange that the city offers? Not sure if there are straight answers to these questions, but the late Tony Judt op-ed article in the New York Times made me think of how volatile the concept is. It's an article about New York's intense cultural mix that attracts so many. For people born in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, or Russia, that moved to New York for professional reasons and enjoy the multiple offers of the panoply of cultures available in town (and not just the Brazilian, the Arab, or the Russian), it may well be a world city. But what about the Italians, the Portuguese, or the Chinese that live there for a few generations now (the Italians for more than a century, the Portuguese perhaps for a little over half a century, and the Chinese for a couple of generations) that do not interact outside of their communities? Is the concept too theoretical and subjective to be freely applied? More questions than answers... excellent food for thought!