Responses to "a letter to a heartless landlord"
Saturday Oct 11 1997
<mia@leland.stanford.edu>
I've been looking for a room - not even a lease, just a room - in SF for
more than four months, and so check in to Craig's list daily. I just read
your email, and it articulate so many of my frustrations so well that I
wanted to respond.
I can't presume to give you any advice about wehre to take your
grievances, because it seems that you are persuing all avenues open to the
average voter (I'm excluding lobbying and large campaign donations) but I
want to lend support to your argument that the SF rental market, and the
landlord move-in provision in particular, are having terrible consequences
for quality of life in this city.
My own story is familiar: I grew up in the Bay Area, and lived in SF a few
years ago when I was taking some time off from school, lovd it I knew I
wanted to return when I graduated. Saying that the market has worsened
isn't enough, although the fact that in four months I haven't been able to
find a share that meets my modest criteria (under $650/month, in a
relatively safe neighborhood, not with speed freaks) speaks for itself.
It's that people like me - young folks who are excited about SF and what to
invest their energy into the city - that are being priced out of the market.
It's the Manhattan syndrome - when a miserable room on Florida and Harrison
in the Mission is going for $600/month, it tolls the end of an
economically intergrated city. I've had many conversations in the past
few weeks about what to do next, and it looks like I may have to give up
my hope to live for a while in a city I love and care about (and where my
closest friends and boyfriend of three years live).
Now, part of this is a pure supply-demand thing. But part of it is not
the competitiveness of the market, but a surge in market prices - if I were
able to pay, say $1,000/month, I would have vastly more options open to me.
But a person in my just-starting-out income bracket of $22-30,000/year
can't do that. And I don't need to remind you that $22,000 is the AVERAGE
salary of the working American. You made just this point in your letter
- that the rent crisis is changing the character of the city by making it
available only to upper middle class folks. And part of this surge in
prices is due to SF's vague landlord move-in law, which offers no
realistic provisions for recourse by tenants and is one giant loophole for
landlords eager to evict rent-controlled and/or long-term tenants, and
seems to be abused in a majority of cases by landlords who have no
intention of using the apartment for family.
I want to support your actions by affirming that this needs to be a
political issue. The rent crisis and the landlord move-in clause need
to be addressed, either by the board of supes or by a ballot referendum.
I'm surprised and dissapointed that the Tenant's Union hasn't done more
already, but who knows? I also might suggest following up with Sup.
Ammiano on this issue, since he is the only genuinely progressive supe and
probably would be very sympathetic.
I also wanted to express my conviction that this is part of a broader
nexus of issues about what SF will become in the next few decades.
As I've been totally thwarted in my efforts to find a place, I've also done
some thinking about other aspects of quality of life in SF - the incursion
of chain stores, the dissapearaance of neighborhoods, the dysfunctional
transportainon system - and worry that this is becoming a place I
no longer want to live in.
Sympathy and best wishes in your struggle to keep your place,
Mia
email kevin@whisperdesign.com
home www.whisperdesign.com