Hey, remember back in January 2009 when we said we thought Wallingford (and the world) would be better off without the predatory lending monster Payday Loans? Our prayers have been answered and the neighborhood is one storefront cleaner. We just saw this tweet from GrrlGotGame (aka Jacqui Kramer) on Twitter:
Yay! The Wallingford Payday Loans is gone. I hope they lease the space to someone classier. High bar, I know.
Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
Discover more from Wallyhood
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
In memorial to Pay Day Loans I will be offering loans at my fire sale rate, by which I mean I will only torch your house and not involve your family if you “just need more time”.
That’s one space I wouldn’t mind seeing “go condo”.
perhaps it can beused as a homeless shelter
bus access
up the road from Dicks and the Food bank
likely has room for showers and cooking ( it was a fast food place, once long ago)
WOO HOO!! Great news!
Back in June, 2001, right after the demise of the Boston Chicken outlet, the owner of the lot next door (Steve) got a permit to build a $1.5 million mixed-use building. Steve lives in Wallingford and worked hard during design review to create a nice design that respected the prominence of his property sitting right at the top of the hill as you enter Wallingford on 45th Street from the east.
Construction never began and the building was rented first to UpTime, then the little fast food places. The story we heard was that Steve would only be able to get his project funded by including the empty lot next door. The owner, listed as Corliss Associates (perhaps David Benoliel, Exec VP, Morris Piha RE in Bellevue?), refused to sell, choosing to rent to Pay Day Loans and appeal twice for property tax relief instead.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Steve and Mr. Benoliel could try again? Seems possible if they could come to terms, we might all end up winners.
I thought I saw something about Check Masters having been acquired by The Money Tree – the location at 105th & Aurora has been shut down too.
This was on the Check Masters website: “Because of recent legislative changes to our industry, we have decided to close 10 of our 22 locations.”
Good riddance, all around.
Heh, I don’t care why they’re gone – I’m just glad they are.
How’s the building? Tear it down or convert it for farmer’s market use? (evil grin) Maybe use that space while Steve/Benoliel work something out?
Cathy – you and I have disagreed on a few things here on Wallyhood, but this, my friend, is an excellent idea! Chris – also not bad. Why not both? Shelter by night with a farmer’s market out front one day a week?
@Raffaella — perfect!
How about we move the Dim Sum restaurant?
I do not understand why so many of you are against this place. I must say, that when I was unemployed payday loans where the only way I was able to survive. It is not the industries fault that people cannot manage their money. They offered a service at a price (High yes, Unfair maybe) it was the consumers choice to take that service or not.
Cory, while you’re right that nobody is forcing anybody to take out these types of loans, the same argument can be made for meth and heroin. Nevertheless, our society has decided that impact on the individual and society as a whole of these are sufficiently negative that it warrants restricting access to them (and neighborhoods don’t want them sold in their backyards).
I know you meant it as a figure of speech, but these loans are not the only way you had to survive. Nobody is dying of hunger in this country.
Instead, I would argue that you would have been able to extricate yourself from debt and poverty more quickly if you had not relied on these loans, because the money you DID have could be spent on food, rent, hygiene and other elements that would help you re-enter the workforce, instead of building up the bank accounts of the corporate owners of Payday loans through usurious interest rates.
If you were unemployed and without money, than I’m guessing the money you used to make payments on the loans were coming from public assistance (i.e., taxpayers), which is why I would argue that the public has a right to restrict how Payday loan behaves: ultimately, it’s the taxpaying public that has to pay the bill.