My city just bought the old Philips family estate for 29 million euros. That's a lot of money even though it was sold way below market value.
The municipality is planning to eventually open the park up to the public. It is larger than Amsterdam's Vondelpark, the same size as London's Hyde Park.
I'm in between this being a 'things that made you mildly pleased' and 'mildly upset' on this one.
Parks are nice, but 29 million could have done a lot of good in other areas. That size of a park is also kinda out of league for our country's 5th largest city (population somewhat over 200000).
Leg has broke off my glasses, now being held sorta' together with duct tape. Friday at earliest before I can do anything about it. Probably going to cause headaches, blegh.
Frame had a good run, I guess. Thing's at least six, seven years old, probably older. Gone through hell, pretty sure it's been run over before... flex frame titanium stuff is pretty damn sturdy. Finally gave out, though
Titanium flex stuff is amazing. I had the leg break off one of mine after 5-6 years, and was lucky enough that my optician still had a spare leg lying around in a fellow franchise holder two cities away. That saved me a lot of monies, titanium flex does not come cheap, but lasts long enough to warrant the price difference. Not to mention that my metal allergies kinda demand titanium.
EDIT: Heh, amongst the people that also showed interest to buy the property were Bruce Springsteen, Bill Gates, Russian olicharchs and Saudi sjeiks. The current owner bought the property from the Philips family in 2007, after Frits Philips died age 100 years in 2005.
He decided to sell to the city of Eindhoven way under market value because he felt that considering the history of Philips and Eindhoven that was the right thing to do. Philips Lighting literally designed and built half of my city, DAF trucks built the other half.
Some say that Philips was such a considerate and benevolent mogul for his employees and their families because he was a full nephew of Karl Marx.