re: Stories where the "good guys" are actually the "bad guys"

While RENT has more than its share of issues, frick Bennie. He is the goddamn worst. You want to be a landlord, then act like a landlord. But he lets his friends squat for free, then next year not only charges them rent, but charges them for the back rent. The dude doesn't even have a written contract, just a handshake agreement with them.

Then, in order to evict the squatters, he doesn't go through the courts or call the cops on them for trespassing, but he locks them out and shuts off their power (which during a weather event, is against the law because that's a step away from murder).

Sure, the leads of RENT are squatters, but Bennie volates their oral contract, doesn't have a written lease, and then fails to go through proper eviction procedures and instead takes the law into his own hands, foregoing his actual legal options. Through his own ineptitude, he puts the squatters into the legal right.

Seriously, he is the goddamn worst. This recent attempt to rehab the reputation of Benny is just sucking up to entrepeneurs, even when they brazenly break the law. Go jerk off to Amazon HQ or something.

Also, eventually the only reason that property would become valuable is because of the creative types who moved in and made it desirable. It's like housing in Silicon Valley or, in real life, hipsters revamping formerly terrible neighborhoods in NYC.