Either they work in a high paying field, have rich parents, or both.

At risk of sounding like a curmudgeon, what a tacky idea for a bar.

Honestly, Villa di Roma makes a pretty nice gravy that they sell in quart containers (not entirely certain if they’re full on open again).

“Dis here’s Don Shipley, today we’re gonna be exposing a bum who decided to steal valor from the hardworking men and women of the Center City District Beautification department.”

That’s possible, I guess. I just don’t like to pretend that people who make ungodly amounts of money off of housing and speculation are moral or admirable people because of it.

No, but it just seems like a fluff piece for a politician that makes a shit ton of money off of real estate development. I guess I was wanting to know why it wasn’t critical of that in the slightest.

Fair point, but the article raised none of those concerns. It literally talks about his “rags to riches” story. It’s a breathless article talking about how interesting it is that this guy bought a bunch of property and then sold it or rented it out for a fortune.

I mean, from what I read, he funds them with Stephen Starr or sells/rents space to bars and restaurants. I guess that’s “behind” them in some capacity, but once again, not particularly unique in large American cities.

Not trying to sound like a complete hater, but I don’t really find his journey that awe-inspiring or worthy of support (and I think most people probably don’t either). He’s a guy who buys, sells, and rents real estate.

Edit: and I think the way I described him is also relatively charitable. There are a lot worse ways to describe a guy who buys up old properties in order to gentrify them and make shit tons of money by making them unaffordable.

I ask this not to be a complete snarky asshole, but because I’m newish to Philadelphia and want to know: is there anything noteworthy about this guy besides the fact that he scoops up real estate/parking lots and then capitalizes on it by holding it for years? This article was pretty much a light hagiography of the guy and just dryly mentions his business dealings, which honestly, aren’t that unique. Every city in the country has a guy who buys real estate, gouges people for rent, and/or sells it for a killing.