Buckle up, we care about you (really!)

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Language matters.

Walking down the street near Belmont Ave. today, I noticed the following sign at the exit of an apartment complex’s parking lot. The sign caught my eye for its choice of words and for its callous connotation. Can you guess why?

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Hint:

Tenant=person who lives at the place

Tenancy=agreement to pay rent in exchange for the right to live there

There is a subtle, but very important, difference between saying “we value your tenancy” and “we value our tenants.” By valuing tenancy, the sign implies that they want you to buckle up so that you can pay your rent. I am sure (well, I hope) that whoever wrote the sign for American Property Management intended to say they value their tenants but made a mistake in the writing/editing process. Surely, they care about the people that live in the apartments, right?

It could be an innocent mistake, or perhaps it was a Freudian slip.

Then again, maybe they were just being honest.

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