2007.11.19
Attempting to Abolish Rent Control?!?
This is so patently stupid it goes beyond words. Yet I will try to write what needs saying.
Last week my friend Stinky Pork Chop (lovely handle, neh?) alerted me to the fact that there was a proposition in the works for California to do away with rent control. While alarming I didn’t think much of it because no one would be stupid enough to try and enshrine in our state constitution something so moronic. Then I read this article and it became clear. The proposition is primarily (but not only!) about putting restrictions on eminent domain because of the poorly thought out Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London. The trick is that the so-called “Californians for Property Rights Protection” group is sneaking in language that would ban rent control (among other things).
The provisions of this Act shall become effective on the day following the election (”effective date”); except that any statute, charter provision, ordinance, or regulation by a public agency enacted prior to January 1, 2007, that limits the price a rental property owner may charge a tenant to occupy a residential rental unit (”unit”) or mobile home space (”space”) may remain in effect… [emphasis mine]
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of eminent domain, no more than I am of modern homeowners associations and their neighborly fascism. Those smarmy bastards are trying to sneak in rent control abolishment under the guise of regulating eminent domain. Slowly but surely Californians are becoming aware of this situation and an alternate proposal called Eminent Domain Reform is trying to get their own ballot proposal up and running. It has one -and only one- clear mission.
The Homeowners Protection Act will prohibit the government from using eminent domain to take a home to transfer to a private developer.
I have no problem with that. I do have a problem with the slimy, underhanded, craptastic people at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. You might remember them from such brilliant schemes as Proposition 13, one of the single greatest problems facing the public and private economy of California today, if not the greatest. If this were exclusively about eminent domain I would have less of an issue but it’s not. Let’s see if they can fsck things up even more.
Categorized: grrr political rights san francisco
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One Response to “Attempting to Abolish Rent Control?!?”
- Tenderloin Heights Ken (yup, it's true) says (November 20th, 2007 at 11:19:24 )
Cut-and-pasted from my earlier email to Doug:
My fear is that San Francisco really *will* become Manhattan West, and
that this legislation will be the final twist of the knife. As I’ve said before, I often find myself thinking back to 1988-89 and 93-95 and
wondering what happened to “my” San Francisco. Don’t get me wrong, I still love it here and you couldn’t pay me to move; but I hate the white-bread financial district types that have overrun almost every single
neighborhood in this town with their fucking baby strollers and their
five-dollar soy lattes and their whinging (loudly, often and likely on a
crackberry/treo/iphone) about anyone daring to make noise after 10 p.m., ever - they want to turn the city into Concord, but with posher restaurants and more interesting architecture.One word of advice - dig your heels in *now*. Even if this nonsense becomes law, you’ll be able to continue to benefit from rent control if you’re legally “in” by the day of the June 2008 election. So, if you’re thinking of moving out of a roommate situation or upgrading from a ridiculously-overpriced studio to a wallet-raper of a one-bedroom, make haste.
