Now also in orange. Recs and comments appreciated there as well.

Today, in the LA Times, Patrick McGreevy has an article about the funders of what will become, unfortunately Prop. 98. A sidebar real quick about the ballot designation of propositions. I’ve always felt that the initiatives that are particularly noteworthy should have their ballot designations retired. Take 98 for example. When somebody says Prop 98 to you, what do you think of? Education, probably. Well, now you’re going to have to start thinking of the the Hidden Agendas Scheme as well, so for the next 4+ months, you’re going to have to remember No on 98/Yes on 99. Put them together, remember them both. It’s vitally important that, just for these few months, we hear, we know, and we repeat the phrase: “This is the WRONG Prop 98!”

So, back to the LA Times story. Basically, the fact that this is about rent control, pure and simple, is made plainly clear by the sources of funding: Apartment and mobile home owners. And coincidentally, Sam Zell.

In the spring, voters will decide whose interests prevail. More than 100 owners and operators of apartment buildings and mobile home parks spent nearly $2 million to put an initiative on the June 3 ballot to phase out California’s rent control laws. About 1.2 million people statewide are covered by such laws.

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Big financial backers of the California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act include the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., which gave $100,000 to the effort and lent the campaign $200,000; the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Issues PAC, which contributed $150,000; and the Apartment Owners Assn. Political Action Committee, which put in $100,000.

Among the donations is $50,000 from Equity Lifestyle Properties Inc., which owns 27 mobile home parks in California, and many more in other states. Equity Lifestyle’s chairman is Sam Zell, chairman of Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times.(LA Times 1.29.08)

More evidence of the hidden agenda over the flip.

The landlords continually plead poverty as an excuse, but that is far from clear.  Take Jade Bay Mobile Lodge. They just declared for bankruptcy, allegedly because they couldn’t afford rent. But what, they forgot to cover their tracks:

Kubota, for his part, says rent control helped ruin Jade Bay Mobile Lodge. He says financial problems developed at the 75-unit park after Chula Vista adopted a rent control law in 1986, and there’s been an operating loss in each of the last five years. The site is now fenced, and the mobile homes have been removed.

“The income never matched the expenses,” Kubota said. He couldn’t afford to make improvements, and “the whole park deteriorated.”

Some tenant activists say that Chula Vista’s rent control law allows landlords to petition for increases so that they can make a “fair return” on their properties. To do so, they must open their financial books to the city. Tim Sheahan, president of the Golden State Manufactured-Housing Owners League, said Kubota’s firm did not take advantage of the appeal because it wanted to shut the park down so it could be redeveloped with condos. Kubota declined to discuss the current status of the park, but city officials said an application had been submitted for a zone change that would allow apartments or condominiums on the site.

The fact is that too many people rely on rent control, like Mary Kubancik, who will have to leave her mobile home park in Sylanmar because her $919 social security check just can’t cover the $702 rent. You can find this same story repeated over and over again throughout the state. Rent control helps REAL people. REAL Californians. That’s why we need REAL eminent domain reform, not some hidden agenda meant to eliminate rent control.

As Mark Leno suggests, there are many reasons to oppose what will soon be known as Prop 98, not the least of which is rent control. You could also oppose it based on environmental factors, or water storage factors, whatever.  We just need to keep reminding ourselves that “This is the Wrong Prop 98!”

I’ve already told you a little bit about the Hidden agendas scheme to eliminate rent control. (tag here). On sfbg.com Ted Gullicksen, the president of the San Francisco Tenants’ Union, writes to kick off the campaign to save rent control:

If you think the mortgage foreclosure crisis is big, imagine what would happen to San Francisco if rent control were repealed.

With 180,000 rent-controlled apartments currently housing more than 350,000 San Franciscans, the end of rent control would be disastrous. Literally hundreds of thousands would be forced from their homes and forced to leave the city.

The pain and suffering people would face as they lost their homes would be immense, making the foreclosure problem seem insignificant by comparison. Maybe even worse, repealing rent control would destroy forever the soul of San Francisco, eliminating altogether the city’s character and diversity and leaving it nothing more than a wealthy enclave affordable only to the very rich.

Devastating indeed.  While I think Ted’s vision of SF without rent control is within reason; I personally can’t imagine it all.  As Ted says, the soul of San Francisco would be indescribably altered for the worse. Ghettoization, already quite visible in the City, would become more and more pronounced. Many older and long-term San Franciscans would be forced to flee the City. To where they would go, I have no answers.

It’s just not a City in which I would like to reside. So, for those of you in the City this Saturday, I recommend that you attend an event on Saturday: Save Rent Control Campaign Kicks Off With Citywide Tenant Conference on January 19, 1:00 PM at 474 Valencia St (at 16th), nee I implore, beg, plead, grovel, whatever. You can download the flyer (PDF) here. Spread it to all of your friends. It will be a rocking good time, I’m sure, and it’s a very important issue.

Crossposted in orange ,tips and recs certianly appreciated over there. Disclosure.

Way back during the times of the Romans, Odysseus, before he set out upon his journey back home, filled a large wooden horse with a whole mess of heavily armed soldiers. Clever, so clever that the tactic is still seen to this day. At any rate it’s alive and well in California’s ballot initiative process.

Last year, the opponents of Proposition 90 (including Oakland City Attorney John Russo at CPR)pointed out that a trojan horse was indeed in our midst.

Well, today we get a report(PDF) from the Western Center on Law & Poverty that says Howard Jarvis’ latest attempt is just another one of their spiffed-up Trojan Horses. Oh, sure, they’ve blinged it out again with some eminent domain “reform”, but the Hidden Agendas are hiding right inside that Shiny New Horse Sculpture, just waiting to get inside the walls of our Civil Code.

The armed mercenaries inside the 2008 Model T-Horse go beyond the elimination of rent control. Sure, this initiative would eliminate that, but it doesn’t stop there.  From the WCLP:

The report cites even more far-reaching potential effects. The measure prohibits government regulation of the ownership, occupancy or use of private real property. The report concludes that private property deregulation would eliminate nearly all renter and home buyer protections.

For homeowners, laws on foreclosure protection and homebuyer disclosure requirements could be eliminated. For renters, the measure could repeal laws requiring that dwellings are maintained in a decent and safe condition, the fair return of rental deposits, and 60 days notice before a no-fault eviction.

“Unpublicized provisions of this measure would undo countless laws dealing with property and tenants’ rights that have evolved over centuries,” added Minnehan.

“Whether by oversight or design, the initiative could turn back hundreds of years of property law and consumer protections,” said Minnehan.  “Home buyers and renters would have to negotiate every detail of a sale or lease. Our clients, the lowest income Californians, don’t have the bargaining power to get the protections now in law,”  she added.

Sure, California, it’s got a shiny exterior, but don’t let this Hidden Agendas Scheme inside of our walls. We can have real reform in 2008, it’s called the Homeowner’s Protection Act. It’s real reform. No mercenaries inside.

(Added YouTube Video from Tenants Rights Folks. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Disclosure: I do some outreach work on behalf of the Real Eminent Domain Reform Initiative

Next year there will be two eminent domain reform initiatives.  The Howard Jarvis Taxpayer's Association, has their Hidden Agendas Scheme to end rent control and to make land use planning difficult, if not impossible.  They submitted signatures a few days ago.  Well, today the Real Eminent Domain Reform Initiative, the Homeowners Protection Act, has submitted their signatures, over a million strong. So, we are looking at a face-off on the June ballot.  

While both of these initiatives claim to help property owners. One (the Real One) protects homeowners without ending important programs like rent control. One of them (The Fake One) redefines how government would work, or in actuality, not work.  The Hidden Agendas Scheme creates a litany of collateral damage in our government and follows along with the HJTA historical policy of slash and burn politics.  

Sure, HJTA will tell you all about how they want to save you from the tax man/ the law man/ the Man in general. But what HJTA really desires is an entirely new definition of property. A definition so broad as to practically halt much of our work to build build strong communities, and protect the environment. And more specifically, our decaying water infrastructure could be in the balance with this Hidden Agendas Scheme.   Could eminent domain use some tweaking? Sure. We should be very careful about using eminent domain for anyone's home.  And that's what the Real Eminent Domain Reform does:  

“It's been well over two years since the Supreme Court ruled in the Kelo case, and it's high time that California enacted strong protections for homeowners against eminent domain for private development,” said Ken Willis, president of the League of California Homeowners.  “This measure would provide California homeowners with new, constitutional protections against eminent domain. We're confident that we've collected the necessary signatures to place this measure on the June ballot, and are even more confident that voters will overwhelmingly support our measure when given the chance.”

The Homeowners Protection Act, the Real Eminent Domain Reform Initiative, doesn't have any hidden agendas. How novel and exciting!   For more information on Real Eminent Domain Reform, see EminentDomainReform.com. For more info on the landlords' Hidden Agenda Scheme: NoLandlordScheme.com

See Also:

Prop 90 Tag  

Using the Hidden Agendas for our Own Agenda