Shakedown Street

Here's a preview of this weeks column, from NYPRESS.

We had a long-standing and dubious arrangement, a deal with the devil, but in this case, the devil is an incompetent half-wit, and I’m getting very little for my unblemished soul. For every deal we do, my company kicks back half of the fee to the building managers. They in turn provide us “exclusive access.” The big problem is the access is no longer exclusive. A few other shops get the same arrangement. So for an average deal we’re kicking-back a couple thousand dollars, but the wheels aren’t getting greased, and we aren’t getting any real preference. It feels more like a shakedown than a smart business move. They get paid on every deal, regardless of who brings it.