Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Dear Meeeeeeee-gan,

As I told you during our first phone conversation I saw your listing for a 4 bedroom house to rent on craigslist. From what I could tell in the photos supplied, your home is really quite cute and may be just what my friends and I are looking for. You seemed cordial enough on the phone during our first conversation. However I have since learned your true nature.....that of heinous spawn of the devil.

Your true colors shone through brilliantly yesterday when I called to make a follow up for our walk through of your rental. In my most friendly, yet efficient and responsible-renter tone I introduced myself again and before I had a chance to confirm our appointment that YOU MADE I was rudely interrupted.

You informed me that you had spoken with your husband and all the neighbors and decided that we weren't good enough for your precious little area. I guess at the neighborhood council last night you had them all up in arms about the 4 wild hooligans that were interested in turning their idyllic sanctuary of a neighborhood into the kind of place that little children wouldn't be safe out at night.

And I guess you're right to worry about the 4 faithful, church-going, full-time employed, college graduates and their tendency to not only bring down the property values of the neighborhood by parking our 23 broken down cars on blocks in front of the house, but also start a meth lab in the basement. That likelihood is very high.

Good luck trying to find a small family to rent your house....for $2000/mo.

I have a news flash for you. If I was a small family and had enough money to afford a $2000/mo rent I would BUY a house, not rent something in an overprentious, stuck-up, nosy, and not really all that nice neighborhood.

And I hope you take my suggestion to heart. Remember? The one where I said you should change your craigslist ad to say something like,

This renter is only interested in renting to small families. She heartily supports discrimination based on life circumstances outside of ones control. Don't even think of applying unless you are a small family with a ridiculously large income and don't have the brains to actually buy housing and start gaining some equity with all that money you throw around. And really, if you are anything but white, upperclass and own at least two audis (or equivalent) you will never be accepted in the neighborhood so you might as well not even apply.

Good luck finding a renter.

Sincerely,

Katie

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh the joy of the white middle class Americans. But I have to hand it to you Katie that if they don't bring a smile to ones face, you will more than make up for them. Thanks I needed that little, lovely....rant ;)

Eddie said...

We've talked about renting our house out if certain job opportunities come up in the future. You and your roomies would be exactly what we'd be looking for. Of course, we're about 2,200 miles out of the way.

Anonymous said...

That lady sounds like a typical hoity-toity Boulder-ite to me.

Sheesh, Cherry Creek would be more accomodating!
For all their crunchy-granola-hippy reputation, Boulder really is just full of snobs who like to spend too much for housing!

Anonymous said...

It's possible that this situation could be a cause for legal action - if you would really want to live in such a neighborhood! Housing discrimination has been illegal for about, ummm, 35 years!

Katie said...

Anon,

I know. I talked to a guy at work who has a bunch of rental propterties and he said I could probably get a fair chunch of change, but it would require some effort. I just don't care enough I guess.

Kelly said...

It's funny you mention that since it's being argued in the courts right now. Anti-discrimination groups are suing Craig's List for allowing the discriminatory ads.

One of the problems, as the amicus brief filed by Google, Yahoo and others pointed out, is that if CL has to monitor the free ads, then other sites might have to follow suit. That slippery slope could lead to monitoring of all free, but sponsored sites - like Goggle suddenly having to monitor everything on Blogger. So that's a little scary.

Um, do I sound like too much of a law geek now...? Sorry about that.