Proposal will help the community evolve
What Mr. Larkins terms "radical and extreme" is really
"evolution." The Glendale Tenant Assn. (www.glendaletenant.com) then
designed a rent-control law expected to withstand negative landlord
strategies.
Rent increases will be held to the Consumer Price Index (CPI)
amount or capped at 3%, whichever is lower.
If the CPI is a negative number, however, the landlord does not
have to decrease the rent accordingly.
The petition does not violate freedom of speech, building codes or
ethical business practices. Unethical landlords try to change the
conditions of tenancy, carving out elements previously provided as
"standard" and charging separately for them.
This is a common tactic used to jack up the amount a tenant pays
and calling it something other than a rent increase.
Nowhere in the petition is there a "rent cap." The petition does
cap rent increases, a different thing altogether.
Landlords build profit into the rental rates. The cap on increase
ensures that he/she can maintain his/her profit margin without
gouging tenants in the process.
The JC Penney thing is pure disinformation. Protection from
frivolous, arbitrary or retaliatory eviction should extend to
commercial tenants. If the Galleria evicts JC Penney without just
cause, totally disrupting JC Penney's business operation, the
Galleria should be required to compensate JC Penney accordingly.
Why would landlords risk renting to a disadvantaged minority? More
appropriate to ask why they would risk a lawsuit for discriminatory
housing practices.
Who will pay to run the city? Tenants will continue to pay
landlords' property taxes in the form of rents. Landlords will
continue to write off all or part of those taxes (the tenants get no
such break), and the city will run as usual; no added burden to
homeowners.
What about new apartment construction?
Glendale residential rental properties have already been
attracting new investors, as you put it, speculators who buy, raise
rents, then resell at a higher price, further inflating rental
housing costs in the community and putting nothing back into the
city.
ROBERTA GUTIERREZ
Glendale
Animals no longer 'wild' once they're fed
Don't feed the "wild" animals. A fed animal is a dead animal. When
you feed leftover vegetables or fruit to "wild" deer, you no longer
have a wild animal. You are teaching a wild animal to beg, and
destroying its ability to live in the wild without your assistance.
Feeding an animal overcomes the natural fear of humans. An animal
