Campaign Launched to Save Rent Control

by Paul Hogarth, 2007-11-15

As I approached City Hall yesterday to attend the press rally to save rent control, I got nervous when I saw the large number of people carrying signs. Did the landlords come to stage a counter-protest? Nope, there were just a lot of people. The Howard Jarvis measure is so bad because it would repeal rent control, decimate environmental laws and make it impossible to build water projects – that a very wide coalition is coming together to set aside their differences and prioritize its defeat. The San Francisco Tenants Union, the Sierra Club, Senior Action Network, the Central Labor Council and others were all on hand yesterday to join the effort to kick off a statewide campaign. And to their credit, Assemblyman Mark Leno and Senator Carole Migden were both there – to stress the need for a united front.

“We’re here to expose this extremely dangerous ‘Hidden Agenda Scheme,’” said Mark Leno, “by a small group of landlords who want you believe that this is about eminent domain. Besides repealing rent control, it would endanger laws that protect our water and our environment. An uncommonly broad coalition will come together to ensure its defeat – just like we defeated Prop 90 last year.”

While Prop 90 went down last November, the right-wing proponents who are behind this new measure are planning to spend even more money to confuse voters. According to Leno, they are most likely to qualify enough signatures to place it on the June ballot – and plan to spend $15-20 million to run television commercials. Californians throughout the political spectrum will have to set aside their policy disagreements to defeat it, and to kill it decisively. And it won’t be an easy task.

“We have to convince the rugged individualistic property owner,” said Carole Migden, who graciously acknowledged her opponent – Mark Leno – for bringing together the groups at yesterday’s rally. “We have to let the California public know that there will be no threat to the hearth and home to defeat this measure. We must say to the people of California that we stand with them, and their right to own property.”

You don’t have to be a renter to oppose the initiative – you just have to drink tap water, something even real estate speculators do every day. “I am the General Manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission,” said Susan Leal, “and we provide water to 2.5 million people in the Bay Area.” The PUC is in the process of a seismic upgrade of Hetch Hetchy, she explained, and this measure would be a threat. “It would put us in jeopardy to profiteers who want to make a quick buck off our public health.”

But in San Francisco – where 180,000 people are protected by rent control and only 25% of existing tenants can afford the market rent – the rent control part of this initiative would be absolutely devastating. “This is not just the battle for the soul of our City,” said Ted Gullicksen of the Tenants Union, “but a battle for our lives – and for our right to live here. We will need everyone’s help in this fight to prevail.”

Other groups were on hand to launch the campaign to defeat this measure – Pride at Work, SEIU, the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, the Central Labor Council, the League of Cities, Senior Action Network, and community based non-profits from Chinatown and the Mission. “This measure is an attack on the middle class,” said John Rizzo of the Sierra Club, “and it puts property rights ahead of every single environmental protection. It would make the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) moot.”

Besides defeating the Jarvis measure – which is almost certain to qualify for the June ballot – activists are mobilizing to collect signatures for a competing measure: one that will only restrict eminent domain, and nothing else. Homeowners have a reason to worry about the government taking your property and selling it to a private developer, and an effort to reform eminent domain is justified. People can get involved by visiting the campaign website, as the deadline to qualify signatures is running out soon.

But the Hidden Agenda Scheme is not about eminent domain – it’s about throwing a massive wrecking ball to housing, water, environmental and land use laws, by the same people that gave us Prop 13 and other right-wing initiatives. Progressives are notorious for allowing their differences get the better of them – now is the time to come together to defeat the greater enemy.

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