Wednesday, December 9, 2009

A Caveman Approach to Housing


To: -- San Francisco Chronicle

Re: -- Big Win for Tenants reporting on Mayor Newsom's promise to veto legislation extending for equal rent control standards to all rental units.

Welcome to Neanderthal Nation. Not only is the United States the only "developed" country in the world not to have universal health care, it is also the only one not to have universal tenant rights. Figures. Needless to say the neanderthals are proud of their primitiveness. Uggghaa Ugghhha Ughhaa Thump Thump Thump

No person's abode should be subject to the vicistudes of the market, much less the idocyncratic vicistudes of landlord moods. Every person deserves security of habitation.

Habitation, no less than health care, should not be an excuse for profiteering. People who want "freedom to play the market" should find other things to invest in.

Of course, landlords are entitled to a reasonable, regulated return on their investment and this includes factoring in the cost, value and condition of the unit. Landlords also require effective protections against having their property trashed.

The way to insure a proper balance is to take landlord tenant issues OUT of our inane and antiquated "justice" system and into a truly impartial adminisrative arbitration board that allows for quick and accessible resolutions of disputes (without lawyers).

A substantial measure of the injustice in landlord-tenant relations is due to the courts themselves with their imbecilic and antiquated procedural requirements to say nothing of paperwork and costs. Courts work only for vested interests and those with money enough to hire lawyers. Most tenants and a substantial number of small landlords have no effective access to the courts and this gives rise to uncertainty, self help and the perceived need for pre-emptive protections against the other side. Obviously such a system is inherently dysfunctional.

Just as obviously, yet another pseudo progressive demorat shows his true colours as go-fer for Big Buck.

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