\n<\/big><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
My dad, Toby,<\/strong><\/span> and I hired Charles Tuncle for kitchen-floor lino jobs.\u00a0 Tunkl<\/em> means dark<\/em> in Yiddish, which my dad never failed to point out.\u00a0 Tuncle — the man — was black. Also, he was a killer. He shot a man in a bar.<\/p>\n Armstrong no-wax. Tuncle, 1984. (2010 photo)<\/p><\/div>\n When Tuncle was sent to prison, my dad wrote the parole board about Tuncle\u2019s quality vinyl-floor work, and Tuncle got out early.\u00a0 My father never told the tenants — or our building managers — about Tuncle\u2019s record.\u00a0 My dad never said:\u00a0 \u201cYou see that guy over there with the utility knife?\u00a0 He\u2019s a killer.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n My dad called our business Reliable Management Co.<\/p>\n We should have hauled garbage with a name like that.<\/p>\n When I<\/strong><\/span> started an offshoot company, Acorn Management Co., my dad said, \u201cWhat the hell does \u2018Acorn\u2019 have to do with anything?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDad, I live on Oak Road.\u00a0 That\u2019s why.\u201d\u00a0 It was 1976.\u00a0 Environmentalism was the next big thing.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody is going to understand \u2018Acorn,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n I sometimes call my company \u201cReliable + Acorn Management companies” now.\u00a0 That makes me feel like a Danish architecture firm.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n I hired<\/strong><\/span> Standard Roofing for a roof tear-off.\u00a0 Standard Roofing went under.\u00a0 Too standard?<\/p>\n My electrician is Jack Kuhl, pronounced \u201cJack Cool.\u201d<\/p>\n I knew Emin Lyutfalibekov, a handyman.\u00a0 I told him to shorten his name, and he said no way; he was offended.\u00a0 He said he was royalty back in Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n Napoli<\/strong><\/span> Construction is a bricklaying firm. Art Gallo, chief mason.<\/p>\n I use Donnelly Heating once in a while.\u00a0 Dan<\/em> Donnelly.\u00a0 There are four Donnelly heating companies on the West Side: Dan, Tom, William and Original.\u00a0 They must have large Seders.<\/p>\n Lawrence Christopher Construction — that was Larry Vesely.\u00a0\u00a0 He filled a hole for me for $9,000 — a coal bin that had collapsed beneath a parking lot.\u00a0 The city wouldn\u2019t allow me to fill the hole with plain gravel. The city wanted a reconstructed coal bin that could practically double as a bomb shelter, complete with beams and concrete.\u00a0 Larry said the job would cost $3,000 and take several weeks.<\/p>\n The final<\/strong><\/span> bill was $9,000 and the job took nine months.\u00a0 One delay and complication after another.<\/p>\n I could not charge higher rents just because I had a nice coal bin.\u00a0 No tenant cared I had a bomb shelter.<\/p>\n I paid Larry back in nine monthly installments, just to get slightly back at him.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Tuncle the floor guy — I miss him.\u00a0 He died at 84 in 2008.\u00a0 A nice guy, except for that night in the bar.\u00a0 He didn’t have any other criminal record.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2.<\/big><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I was at<\/strong><\/span> a gathering of Jewish landed gentry — a landlords’ shabbat — in Pepper Pike.<\/p>\n Landlord A — to my right — owned a 17-suiter which her late father had bought in 1955.<\/p>\n Landlord B owned a building his father bought in 1936.<\/p>\n Buy and<\/span><\/strong> hold, chaverim<\/em>.\u00a0 Shabbat shalom.<\/p>\n I owned (with my sister) a building my dad bought in 1965.<\/p>\n In real estate — as in many fields — it\u2019s good to pick the right father.<\/p>\n In college Donald Trump bought his first building, using his father’s money: a 1,200-unit apartment complex in Cincinnati. \u00a0 Trump\u2019s dad owned property in\u00a0 New York’s outer boroughs.\u00a0 Trump\u2019s net worth upon graduating college in 1965 was $1.4 million, in today’s dollars.\u00a0 [Trump, The Art of the Deal<\/em>.]<\/p>\n Suites<\/em>,<\/strong><\/span> a local real estate mag, <\/em>did a profile on Marty Cohen, a Cleveland\u00a0 landlord.\u00a0 The article said Marty \u201ccouldn\u2019t shake his interest in property management.\u201d\u00a0 Marty worked at a bank for a while, but that wasn\u2019t a good fit.\u00a0 His family owned a 150-unit Parma apartment complex.\u00a0 Maybe that had something to do with Marty finding a good fit in real estate.<\/p>\n Buy and hold, brothers and sisters. Pass the strudel.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3.<\/big><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Griffith, the<\/strong><\/span> state boiler inspector,\u00a0 called.<\/p>\n I said to him, \u201cYou\u2019ve been around as long as me!\u201d<\/p>\n “Yes, sir,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cI was around even when your dad was still around!\u00a0 \u00a0You know, your father was a kinda guy.\u00a0 A good dude.\u00a0 I miss your dad.\u00a0 He was hoping you\u2019d take over the business.\u00a0 And you did!\u201d\u00a0 (My father died in 1986.)<\/p>\n \u201cHow long<\/strong><\/span> you been around, Griffith?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSince 1972.\u00a0 You were just a kid.\u00a0 You were in high school.\u201d (I was in college, Griffith!)\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u201cYour dad was a little worried about you, I\u2019ll be honest with you. I hope you don\u2019t take this personally, he thought you didn\u2019t have the fire.\u00a0 You know, he had went through some things that weren\u2019t easy, and he wanted to leave the buildings to somebody who would appreciate them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI gave my father some things to think about, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m proud<\/strong><\/span> of you.\u00a0 You come around.\u00a0 If he was around, I\u2019d tell him how good you\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t run the family biz totally into the ground.<\/p>\n My epitaph — if I’m lucky: I\u2019m in the Ground But My Business Ain\u2019t.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Next week’s post will be on Thursday, not Wednesday, due to Yom Kippur.<\/span> 1. My dad, Toby, and I hired Charles Tuncle for kitchen-floor lino jobs.\u00a0 Tunkl means dark in Yiddish, which my dad never failed to point out.\u00a0 Tuncle — the man — was black. Also, he was a killer. He shot a man in a bar. When Tuncle was sent to prison, my dad wrote the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coming-of-age","category-landlord-biz","category-toby-stratton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11086"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11324,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11086\/revisions\/11324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/home\/yiddis6\/public_html\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/w14-K-2-218x300.jpg\" "\\"w14")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/home\/yiddis6\/public_html\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/emin-lyut-handyman1.jpg\" "\\"emin")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n—<\/span>
\n<\/a>Here’s<\/a> an op-ed I wrote for the Sunday Cleveland Plain Dealer<\/em>\u00a0 (9\/16\/12). \u201cHigh Holidays beckon twice-a-year worshipers.”
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"