Saving Rent Control in California

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

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If you think the mortgage foreclosure crisis is big, imagine what would happen to San Francisco if rent control were repealed.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 on 2/19, 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.