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I've met Louis in person, he's truly a standup guy with a heart of gold. That said, he needs to pony up and get a lawyer. Making petty arguments on YouTube is

I've met Louis in person, he's truly a standup guy with a heart of gold. That said, he needs to pony up and get a lawyer. Making petty arguments on YouTube isn't going to help you with bureaucracy it's only going to make things worse. If government employees (state or otherwise) hate one thing, it's being called out point blank for how they either a) don't do their job or b) are effectively worthless. To be frank, I don't see why Louis hasn't left new york / the east coast yet. I was unfortunate enough to move to NYC just in time for covid. I still enjoyed my time in New York but I really understand a lot of what Louis has been saying about the city itself. Subsequently I left. He clearly hates the business climate, makes weekly videos about how much NYC sucks. Maybe for his own health it's time to move to another state?

Aromasin 5y ago
He mentions in his videos that it is largely because he has built up a team of people with a very specific expertise built over years working with him, that you can't just find - meaning training people up from scratch. He'd effectively be started the business from scratch in that case. He's offered them all very good relocation benefits but obviously if people are content they're not going to want to move and he doesn't want to forcefully coerce them to.
- sangnoir 5y ago
  Why would you move from a city in which your skills are in high demand, and you already have a rolodex of clients with whom you have established a relationship? The relocation benefits have to be obscene to counter that glorious opportunity. As long as New Yorkers still exist in their dense millions, service providers will always appear to fill a market need, even when they have to jump hoops (to a point). NYC knows this. China knows this.
  - genmud 5y ago
    I believe a large portion of his business is now mail in repairs vs walk in repairs. Laptop repair also isn’t something that people have a regular customer base to rely on, it is very inconsistent. Rent and taxes in NYC are a massive amount of money, I’m sure he has ran the numbers to determine what’s best financially.
    - sangnoir 5y ago
      Mail-in repairs require a lot more trust than brick-and-mortar locations, especially for new operations. I can accept that moving out of NY may save him money - my argument is that the same is unlikely to apply to his workers who have a specialized skill that is in demand in their current location. Would they choose the job over the city (and their friends, neighbors, leases, etc)? I have my doubts.
deleted 5y ago
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devwastaken 5y ago
He is leaving, they're planning to move to Florida, or another suitable area. He's big enough now that yeah, he needs lawyers on retainer. Part of the video is to show just how insane cities are, and how they don't play by the rules if you don't litigate. This isn't how any of it is meant to work. If Louis is successful in his move, no doubt others will follow.
- xdrosenheim 5y ago
  I remember seeing a video by Louis, where he talked about speaking to a lawyer. He was told to pay a fine, instead of going through the legal trouble. It would be both easier and cost him less, because it would probably happen again, and then he would have to lawyer up again.
- warent 5y ago
  I remember him saying in another video that NYC is going to become basically a ghost town in a couple decades if this kind of behavior from the government (along with its failure to fix the real estate problems) keeps up. It's curious to wonder if that is accurate. Only time will tell I suppose
  - philistine 5y ago
    That's obnoxiously self-centered to say that if the city government doesn't fix your personal issues with it, one of the five biggest metro area in the world will become empty in decades. Sure, New York could lose the ability to maintain a vital and legal small business sector, but the city is not going anywhere. The worst that could happen is a period similar to the horrible 70s, with difficult finances and poor opportunities for people, until the city gets its head out of the sand.
    - billytetrud 5y ago
      You seem to be massively misunderstanding what he meant by "basically a ghost town". All he meant is that lots of people will leave, opportunity will be reduced, etc. You seem to be taking it far too literally. And no, it's not obnoxious or self centered to say that if the NY government doesn't fix it's massive number of problems that bad things are going to happen. It seems pretty clear that's the case.
dylan604 5y ago
> makes weekly videos about how much NYC sucks. This coule be part of his appeal to his followers. If he left NY, then he'd just be an outsider complaining on the internet about something he's no longer affects him. Plus, you can dislike the bizenv, but love other aspects of the area.
crispyambulance 5y ago
> Maybe for his own health it's time to move to another state? He's doing just fine. His youtube rankings are pretty "up there" for that genre of channel. There is no way to know how that compares to the repair shop, but I suspect it's at least a comparable income stream. He makes 1st person videos of himself riding around Manhattan on his bike, free-associating and showing abandoned store-fronts BECAUSE it gets clicks-- otherwise it would be a waste of time. There's libertarian edge to it all. It looks like the commenters are heavily populated with red-state doom-scrollers rubber-necking at the "downfall" of NYC. If Rossman would move out of NYC to somewhere else, he wouldn't have as much grist for the youtube channel, would he? He would have to go back to making strictly repair videos, loose his whole staff, and probably have less volume in his repair business as well.
- 71a54xd 5y ago
  Yes, but he's also made numerous videos about how he makes less than a pittance of income from YouTube. Yes, the doom-scrolling applies here, but he's from New York originally and you can tell the amicus is how a place he grew up in is still going down-hill. I was in NYC for all of covid and can confirm that Fox News is full of it when it comes to "rampant crime in NYC" however it's not a perfectly rosy picture either in terms of the recovery of small business and character of the city.
- kmeisthax 5y ago
  Louis Rossman is one of the few people on YouTube who has over a million subscribers, but less than 1% of them actually watch his content. His YouTube rankings are "up there" because of off-platform factors - i.e. him heading up the Right to Repair movement and getting lots of subscribers for that. If he actually tried to monetize his YouTube channel he'd make very little money, because his videos are nowhere near as popular as you'd think. (Yes, he has talked about this.) You are correct that Louis has a right-libertarian mindset, but I'm going to disagree with you on the "he just shows abandoned storefronts so that right-wingers can circlejerk about the downfall of left-wing urban centers" thing. He's a business owner in NYC, so he sees a lot of bureaucratic incompetence and is willing to complain about it. Like I said, YouTube isn't his actual career; this comes straight from his lived experience in the same way that his Right-to-Repair lobbying does. He's equally willing to shout and scream about landlords jacking up rents, too, despite it being ostensibly "free market"; because it directly harms him and his business. And yes, Rossman is specifically planning to move out of NYC. Like I said before, he genuinely does not give a shit about his YouTube channel or selling outrage bait to conservatives. Hell, for a while he literally had a banner baked into every video asking people to watch on Vimeo instead of YouTube.
fallingknife 5y ago
> Making petty arguments on YouTube isn't going to help you with bureaucracy it's only going to make things worse. If government employees (state or otherwise) hate one thing, it's being called out point blank for how they either a) don't do their job or b) are effectively worthless. Don't talk about the problem or the useless government employees will retaliate. How do we get rid of them?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
systemvoltage 5y ago
I love this aspect of USA. Hate the gov? Move to another state. It’s not easy and slightly prohibitive, but less prohibitive than moving to another country. It also encourages states to compete with each other, try new ideas and attract businesses; for e.g. Arizona and Southwest chip industry: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-southwest-is-americas-new-factory-hub-cranes-everywhere-11622554044 https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-southwest-is-americas-new-f...
slibhb 5y ago
> Making petty arguments on YouTube isn't going to help you with bureaucracy it's only going to make things worse. Looks like you were wrong, from the linked video (an hour ago): > Thank you to everyone here who made a fuss, as I doubt I would've had someone on this case this quickly otherwise. The emails & calls I received this morning from the city made me feel like a customer at the Hilton... which I don't gotta tell you is NOT the way I usually feel when contacting NYC government bureaucracies. Apparently dealing with the NYC government is like dealing with Google. When they screw up, your best bet is to complain loudly in public and hope your complaints go viral.
- 71a54xd 5y ago
  :cryingemoji: someone on the internet said I was wrong :(
elihu 5y ago
> To be frank, I don't see why Louis hasn't left new york / the east coast yet. He mentions in the video that he's working on setting up another site, but he has employees in New York that don't want to move and he doesn't want to throw them under the bus by closing his New York location.

Aromasin 5y ago

He mentions in his videos that it is largely because he has built up a team of people with a very specific expertise built over years working with him, that you can't just find - meaning training people up from scratch. He'd effectively be started the business from scratch in that case. He's offered them all very good relocation benefits but obviously if people are content they're not going to want to move and he doesn't want to forcefully coerce them to.

sangnoir 5y ago
Why would you move from a city in which your skills are in high demand, and you already have a rolodex of clients with whom you have established a relationship? The relocation benefits have to be obscene to counter that glorious opportunity. As long as New Yorkers still exist in their dense millions, service providers will always appear to fill a market need, even when they have to jump hoops (to a point). NYC knows this. China knows this.
- genmud 5y ago
  I believe a large portion of his business is now mail in repairs vs walk in repairs. Laptop repair also isn’t something that people have a regular customer base to rely on, it is very inconsistent. Rent and taxes in NYC are a massive amount of money, I’m sure he has ran the numbers to determine what’s best financially.
  - sangnoir 5y ago
    Mail-in repairs require a lot more trust than brick-and-mortar locations, especially for new operations. I can accept that moving out of NY may save him money - my argument is that the same is unlikely to apply to his workers who have a specialized skill that is in demand in their current location. Would they choose the job over the city (and their friends, neighbors, leases, etc)? I have my doubts.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

devwastaken 5y ago

He is leaving, they're planning to move to Florida, or another suitable area. He's big enough now that yeah, he needs lawyers on retainer. Part of the video is to show just how insane cities are, and how they don't play by the rules if you don't litigate. This isn't how any of it is meant to work. If Louis is successful in his move, no doubt others will follow.

xdrosenheim 5y ago
I remember seeing a video by Louis, where he talked about speaking to a lawyer. He was told to pay a fine, instead of going through the legal trouble. It would be both easier and cost him less, because it would probably happen again, and then he would have to lawyer up again.
warent 5y ago
I remember him saying in another video that NYC is going to become basically a ghost town in a couple decades if this kind of behavior from the government (along with its failure to fix the real estate problems) keeps up. It's curious to wonder if that is accurate. Only time will tell I suppose
- philistine 5y ago
  That's obnoxiously self-centered to say that if the city government doesn't fix your personal issues with it, one of the five biggest metro area in the world will become empty in decades. Sure, New York could lose the ability to maintain a vital and legal small business sector, but the city is not going anywhere. The worst that could happen is a period similar to the horrible 70s, with difficult finances and poor opportunities for people, until the city gets its head out of the sand.
  - billytetrud 5y ago
    You seem to be massively misunderstanding what he meant by "basically a ghost town". All he meant is that lots of people will leave, opportunity will be reduced, etc. You seem to be taking it far too literally. And no, it's not obnoxious or self centered to say that if the NY government doesn't fix it's massive number of problems that bad things are going to happen. It seems pretty clear that's the case.

dylan604 5y ago

> makes weekly videos about how much NYC sucks. This coule be part of his appeal to his followers. If he left NY, then he'd just be an outsider complaining on the internet about something he's no longer affects him. Plus, you can dislike the bizenv, but love other aspects of the area.

crispyambulance 5y ago

> Maybe for his own health it's time to move to another state? He's doing just fine. His youtube rankings are pretty "up there" for that genre of channel. There is no way to know how that compares to the repair shop, but I suspect it's at least a comparable income stream. He makes 1st person videos of himself riding around Manhattan on his bike, free-associating and showing abandoned store-fronts BECAUSE it gets clicks-- otherwise it would be a waste of time. There's libertarian edge to it all. It looks like the commenters are heavily populated with red-state doom-scrollers rubber-necking at the "downfall" of NYC. If Rossman would move out of NYC to somewhere else, he wouldn't have as much grist for the youtube channel, would he? He would have to go back to making strictly repair videos, loose his whole staff, and probably have less volume in his repair business as well.

71a54xd 5y ago
Yes, but he's also made numerous videos about how he makes less than a pittance of income from YouTube. Yes, the doom-scrolling applies here, but he's from New York originally and you can tell the amicus is how a place he grew up in is still going down-hill. I was in NYC for all of covid and can confirm that Fox News is full of it when it comes to "rampant crime in NYC" however it's not a perfectly rosy picture either in terms of the recovery of small business and character of the city.
kmeisthax 5y ago
Louis Rossman is one of the few people on YouTube who has over a million subscribers, but less than 1% of them actually watch his content. His YouTube rankings are "up there" because of off-platform factors - i.e. him heading up the Right to Repair movement and getting lots of subscribers for that. If he actually tried to monetize his YouTube channel he'd make very little money, because his videos are nowhere near as popular as you'd think. (Yes, he has talked about this.) You are correct that Louis has a right-libertarian mindset, but I'm going to disagree with you on the "he just shows abandoned storefronts so that right-wingers can circlejerk about the downfall of left-wing urban centers" thing. He's a business owner in NYC, so he sees a lot of bureaucratic incompetence and is willing to complain about it. Like I said, YouTube isn't his actual career; this comes straight from his lived experience in the same way that his Right-to-Repair lobbying does. He's equally willing to shout and scream about landlords jacking up rents, too, despite it being ostensibly "free market"; because it directly harms him and his business. And yes, Rossman is specifically planning to move out of NYC. Like I said before, he genuinely does not give a shit about his YouTube channel or selling outrage bait to conservatives. Hell, for a while he literally had a banner baked into every video asking people to watch on Vimeo instead of YouTube.

fallingknife 5y ago

> Making petty arguments on YouTube isn't going to help you with bureaucracy it's only going to make things worse. If government employees (state or otherwise) hate one thing, it's being called out point blank for how they either a) don't do their job or b) are effectively worthless. Don't talk about the problem or the useless government employees will retaliate. How do we get rid of them?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

systemvoltage 5y ago

I love this aspect of USA. Hate the gov? Move to another state. It’s not easy and slightly prohibitive, but less prohibitive than moving to another country. It also encourages states to compete with each other, try new ideas and attract businesses; for e.g. Arizona and Southwest chip industry: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-southwest-is-americas-new-factory-hub-cranes-everywhere-11622554044 https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-southwest-is-americas-new-f...

slibhb 5y ago

> Making petty arguments on YouTube isn't going to help you with bureaucracy it's only going to make things worse. Looks like you were wrong, from the linked video (an hour ago): > Thank you to everyone here who made a fuss, as I doubt I would've had someone on this case this quickly otherwise. The emails & calls I received this morning from the city made me feel like a customer at the Hilton... which I don't gotta tell you is NOT the way I usually feel when contacting NYC government bureaucracies. Apparently dealing with the NYC government is like dealing with Google. When they screw up, your best bet is to complain loudly in public and hope your complaints go viral.

71a54xd 5y ago
:cryingemoji: someone on the internet said I was wrong :(

elihu 5y ago

> To be frank, I don't see why Louis hasn't left new york / the east coast yet. He mentions in the video that he's working on setting up another site, but he has employees in New York that don't want to move and he doesn't want to throw them under the bus by closing his New York location.