Hey, there! Log in / Register

Big landlord finally shows up before city councilors

BostInno reports on Anwar Faisal's appearance before a City Council committee yesterday, notes Faisal and his lawyer know how to look up Councilor Josh Zakim's campaign contributions.

Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 
Free tagging: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

The City Council's ability to come out of this looking worse than the guy every last Bostonian knows is a slum lord is just amazing. Seriously, quiet an achievement.

up
Voting closed 0

Aren't you?

up
Voting closed 0

In fairness, this is a new height of achievement even by the city council's usual standards.

up
Voting closed 0

How did the City Council come out looking bad in this? Because one of them got campaign contributions? The article is also hardly a bastion of disinterested journalism. Not sure whether this guy just charmed the author or what...

up
Voting closed 0

Yeah, I mean Josh really held this guy's feet to the fire! We're gonna see big changes soon, I CAN FEEL IT.

up
Voting closed 0

it's more the fact that the city council have been pounding their chests and acting like they are ready to lay the hammer to this guy, and now they might not even have another follow up request and the issue may be dead

up
Voting closed 0

either most Boston City Councilors aren't as smart as they make themselves out to be, they really just don't give a shit, or Anwar Faisal is an extremely crafty, sly and sleazy individual who's clearly aware of various laws and how they're supposed to work, and knows how to get around them to avoid suffering consequences of the wrong-doings that he's committed. Or, perhaps it's a combination of all three of the above. Who knows?

All too often, when people are confronted with wrong-doings they've committed, they tend to use the race or ethnicity card in order to avoid punishment, which, imho, makes it extraordinarily difficult for people with legitimate grievances that need redressing under perfectly legitimate anti-discrimination laws. Having done my own research on Anwar Faisal just out of curiosity and read about what he's done as a slumlord, something tells me that he's a pretty slimy person who'll do/say anything to get around the laws and elude punishment.

up
Voting closed 0

i admire this guy's savvy and cajones to be honest. also, in a different article about it ( i think the globe) it mentions how basically his lawyer was a complete dick in the chambers, while faisal was soft spoken & polite.

some good cop/bad cop. truly remarkable

up
Voting closed 0

From what I understand, however, Anwar Faisal has made a fortune and formed a huge empire by being a big slum lord and by totally taking advantage of vulnerable tenants (namely college students, who are either new here in town and/or who are desperate to move off campus and live independently of dormitory rules), or even poor people generally, who don't know the ropes, and deliberately and knowingly violating all the rules. This guy, along with other slumlords, really knows how to work the system, which makes it possible for him to do all that.

This is not to say that many of the college students (though certainly not all.) don't engage in the kind of behaviors that help put them at risk, in already super-substandard housing, because a lot of them do, but guys like Anwar Faisal should either be forced to clean up their act and at least maintain decent, safe and secure residential places, or be forced out of business.

His lawyer was a dick, because those are the kind of lawyers who defend people like Anwar Faisal.

up
Voting closed 0

That article from BostonInno is pretty skewed in Mr. Faisal's favor as I read it. How did the writer know Faisal was answering questions with "utmost sincerity" as he wrote. Wouldn't only Faisal know if he was actually being sincere?

up
Voting closed 0

The exact wordking: "defending his company's practices with the utmost sincerity."

From what I've heard, Faisal really is that lacking in self awareness that he can believe the crap he says.

up
Voting closed 0

Either it's bought and paid for, or so badly reported that it would've gotten a first-year journalism student weeded out of the program.

up
Voting closed 0

I like how a students mom had to come out to praise the scumbag. Who are these people that actually like him?

up
Voting closed 0

if someone’s son or daughter is getting a little rent discount next year

up
Voting closed 0

From the Israeli consulate.

up
Voting closed 0

Everyone's so down on the big developers who are charging 2600/mo for new studios, but this idiot Faisal reminds us all why people are willing to pay those ridiculous rates, just to ensure their roof doesn't collapse on them while they're sleeping.

up
Voting closed 0

...enforcement when a ready 'market solution' of making basic habitability the new luxury is at your fingertips.

It's the feature without bugs.

Roll on Ponzi Rental roll on.

up
Voting closed 0