Wahabi Capitalism at it's finest. Cleverly hidden in the fine print of an eminent domain petition that's being circulated along with the "Steal the State" petition, we have an initiative that could annihilate the working middle-class from San Francisco (and other CA cities).
http://www.sfgate.com/...
"Property rights activists are once again pushing a ballot measure aimed at restricting government's use of eminent domain, but this time there's a secondary target - rent-control ordinances.
The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the California Farm Bureau Federation and various property owner groups are expected in the coming weeks to submit more than a million signatures to qualify the measure for the June 3 ballot.
"Proponents of the Jarvis measure said it also would prohibit government officials from imposing price restrictions on the sale or lease of private property - a provision that would phase out rent controls including San Francisco's ordinance.
"It would be disastrous," said Ted Gullickson, spokesman for the San Francisco Tenants Union. "San Francisco is already going through intense gentrification that is causing lots of evictions. If this was to pass, you'd see tens of thousands of people being forced out of the city".
"In California, at least 17 cities have some form of rent control, according to the National Multi Housing Council, a Washington trade group representing large-building owners, managers and builders. Nearly half of those cities are in the Bay Area, including San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and San Jose".
It seems that there is a very rabid elitist Republican element driving this effort. The first thing the proponets of this initiative complain about is "Socialism"; we all have been conditioned to believe that socialism is bad. So are any forms of public welfare that assist WORKING people who PAY taxes.
We forget that socialism is what many European countries have and although they have high taxes and annoying govt bureaucracies, I don't remember them invading other countries, or telling people that they can't see a doctor. We also forget that socialism is the middle ground between corporate fascism and communism; that's a detail that the Fox News culture likes to ignore. The Europeans don't get it right all the time of course. There are advantages to allowing private sector involvement and competition, but without any oversight to protect the public good, we wind up with a caste system. But that's fine w/ some people; according to them, if we can't afford to live in S.F. anymore "we can all move to Antioch or Emeryville". Getting screwed out of your hard earned money & your livelihood is apparently acceptable as long as it's the private sector that's doing the screwing. Sounds fair to me....
There has to be a sense of social responsibility here even though people want to make money. I'm cynical, so I don't trust the market to behave in a socially responsible way. This doesn't mean that we should have some evil govt takeover of rental properties. It means that responsible local govts should be able to pass laws that serve the public interest (the entire public, not just property owners). There are a lot of potential negative economic effects if we do away w/ rent control.
a. Bedroom communities would flourish; anyone want to move to Tracy? We can share a a 1BR 1BA for $1,000 each per month. Don't think for a second that rents won't go up across the board in N. California once landlords get a whiff of the pending mass exodus. A public health worker or a teacher making 20-30K a year will have to commute 3hrs each way to make a living? And that's OK b/c "that's just how the market rolls"?
b. Traffic into the city would triple? quadruple? God forbid we raise taxes to fund a metro system like the ones they have in Holland or France.
c. You think teachers can't afford to live here now, wait until the city isn't allowed to allocate affordable housing for them. And what are the chances that salaries (in both the public and private sectors) will be adjusted in response to dramatic rent increases?
Anyway... if any Californians are interested here's what the dreaded petition looks like http://www.sftu.org/...
and here's the link to the statewide campaign opposing this Rent Control Repeal Measure http://www.eminentdomainreform.com/