6 ms·

When I was growing up Howard Johnson's were everywhere. Their hotels were in every mid-size town as well. In the mid seventies there were over 500 hotels and

by rmason 4y ago

When I was growing up Howard Johnson's were everywhere. Their hotels were in every mid-size town as well. In the mid seventies there were over 500 hotels and 1000 restaurants. Just like Sears Roebuck it was classic Americana and you could easily make the assumption that it would be there forever, but by the year 2000 it had mostly disappeared. I admit to not knowing why. Their hotels weren't anything remarkable but the restaurants were special. Perhaps tastes changed and once the restaurants retreated the hotels followed.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
donthellbanme 4y ago
- ChoGGi 4y ago
  I suppose it's okay to complain about foreign investors owning residences, but not businesses?
  - SantalBlush 4y ago
    - tamaharbor 4y ago
      - Applejinx 4y ago
        You might be pushing a narrative, not the truth. If restaurants in general are on such margins that behaving badly is the only way to keep them in the black and immigrants are capable of spotting this as quickly as native citizens or more so, then what you're observing is capitalism crowding out good places and replacing them with garbage, and immigrants gambling on the prospect of taking failing places and making them succeed in the only feasible way. If you then take this situation and spin it as wicked immigrants ruining everything, you're in the wrong and pushing a narrative for your own purposes. There are analogous situations in the context of inner-city crime and whether that's down to racial or economic drivers, and people who ignore economic drivers to attribute everything to easily spotted racial signifiers. Pushing a narrative.
  - woodruffw 4y ago
    I think there's a pretty clear distinction between foreign investment in real estate for tax or money laundering purposes, versus vague xenophobia towards the people who live in and serve your community.
- wrp 4y ago
  In my region of the USA, there are popular hotels and restaurants, even small chains of them, that were purchased by immigrants and then showed a dramatic decline in quality. Seriously, is there any way to address this without offending someone? We can talk about cases where the influence of immigrants from certain countries improved the quality of certain businesses, so we should be able to talk about the opposite.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    US real estate investment companies do the same thing when buying hotels (especially the big ones that immigrants do not have the funds to buy). And they are staffed/led by American people. Many Americans participate in the business of buying a business and then lowering its quality. Maybe they borrowed too much to buy it and the debt service is causing cash flow issues. Maybe the goal was always to trade in reputation for short term cash. Maybe it is an REIT that wants to hit a certain ROI so it stays competitive in people’s 401k, or helps a city’s underfunded pension fund try to meet an unrealistic target.
  - magpi3 4y ago
    To simply imply that immigrant owned == poor quality is lazy and incorrect. I am sure there is more to the story than that, and in order to have a proper discussion we need the rest of that story.
    - Spooky23 4y ago
      It has a basis in truth, although it is more of a 90s thing. Now many franchise operators are immigrants, with more money now. At one time something like 30% of motels were operated by Patels.
      - dang 4y ago
        It may have a basis in truth but to single that one thing out and make it the issue is to forfeit its basis in truth.
- woodruffw 4y ago
  You're getting "flack" because you've got the cause and effect backwards: immigrants are regularly suckered into purchasing or investing in losing schemes, with the hopes of attaining the "American Dream" that they've heard so much about. Running an independent hotel is an exercise in devaluing one's own (and one's family's) labor. Immigrants are one of a handful of demographics who are desperate or anxious enough to go in on it.

by rmason 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

donthellbanme 4y ago

ChoGGi 4y ago
I suppose it's okay to complain about foreign investors owning residences, but not businesses?
- SantalBlush 4y ago
  - tamaharbor 4y ago
    - Applejinx 4y ago
      You might be pushing a narrative, not the truth. If restaurants in general are on such margins that behaving badly is the only way to keep them in the black and immigrants are capable of spotting this as quickly as native citizens or more so, then what you're observing is capitalism crowding out good places and replacing them with garbage, and immigrants gambling on the prospect of taking failing places and making them succeed in the only feasible way. If you then take this situation and spin it as wicked immigrants ruining everything, you're in the wrong and pushing a narrative for your own purposes. There are analogous situations in the context of inner-city crime and whether that's down to racial or economic drivers, and people who ignore economic drivers to attribute everything to easily spotted racial signifiers. Pushing a narrative.
- woodruffw 4y ago
  I think there's a pretty clear distinction between foreign investment in real estate for tax or money laundering purposes, versus vague xenophobia towards the people who live in and serve your community.
wrp 4y ago
In my region of the USA, there are popular hotels and restaurants, even small chains of them, that were purchased by immigrants and then showed a dramatic decline in quality. Seriously, is there any way to address this without offending someone? We can talk about cases where the influence of immigrants from certain countries improved the quality of certain businesses, so we should be able to talk about the opposite.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  US real estate investment companies do the same thing when buying hotels (especially the big ones that immigrants do not have the funds to buy). And they are staffed/led by American people. Many Americans participate in the business of buying a business and then lowering its quality. Maybe they borrowed too much to buy it and the debt service is causing cash flow issues. Maybe the goal was always to trade in reputation for short term cash. Maybe it is an REIT that wants to hit a certain ROI so it stays competitive in people’s 401k, or helps a city’s underfunded pension fund try to meet an unrealistic target.
- magpi3 4y ago
  To simply imply that immigrant owned == poor quality is lazy and incorrect. I am sure there is more to the story than that, and in order to have a proper discussion we need the rest of that story.
  - Spooky23 4y ago
    It has a basis in truth, although it is more of a 90s thing. Now many franchise operators are immigrants, with more money now. At one time something like 30% of motels were operated by Patels.
    - dang 4y ago
      It may have a basis in truth but to single that one thing out and make it the issue is to forfeit its basis in truth.
woodruffw 4y ago
You're getting "flack" because you've got the cause and effect backwards: immigrants are regularly suckered into purchasing or investing in losing schemes, with the hopes of attaining the "American Dream" that they've heard so much about. Running an independent hotel is an exercise in devaluing one's own (and one's family's) labor. Immigrants are one of a handful of demographics who are desperate or anxious enough to go in on it.