Non-Sequitor Of The Day from Observation of New York housing market panel

huh??
The New York Observer ran a short (7 sentence) piece on November 4 about a panel discussion with New York residential real estate developers and a Bloomberg reporter, Henry Elghanayan ‘Frightened’ By Midterm Elections. There’s not much room in 7 sentences, so the Observer has only two quotes from the guy in the headline (CEO of Rockrose Development). The segue from the first quote had me scratching my head, but maybe that’s because Manhattan Loft Guy has never been fashion forward:

"I’m actually quite nervous about it as far as New York is concerned," said Mr. Elghanayan, CEO of Rockrose Development. He was wearing a black suit and gray tie with leather hiking boots.

You’ve got 7 sentences to work with (and two developers not quoted) and you devote one of those sentences to the guy’s attire??

Jared Kushner, call your editor
Now that I am here, there is one more thing that caught my eye in this short piece, and I mean that in the most negative way. The last paragraph (3 of the 7 precious sentences) does not make sense as the writer has paraphrased the Rockrose CEO. The highlighted words should probably be “to lend”, or else the entire thing means something else not conveyed:

With increased Republican control in Washington looking to rein in stimulus money, Mr. Elghanayan said, New York City’s banks will have less money for rent. "I’m nervous about our financial institutions. If they take a hit, we’re going to lose tenants and that’s frightening to me."

It is amazing how much can go wrong in only 7 sentences.

© Sandy Mattingly 2010