Letter - Don Walters

While I feel bad for Robin Frakes, and the big rent increase suffered,

I'm afraid we can't legislate away the law of supply and demand.

If rents are artificially held to a certain level, landlords will not

spend money to fix up their places, and potential new landlords will not

build new rental units.

If rates continue to climb, eventually owners will be left with empty

units that they're unable to rent -- at which point they will have to

lower their rates, or improve their units (or leave them empty. It is

their building after all.

Democracy is a messy business, but it really does yield the best

results over the long haul.

Don Walters

Glendale