Assembly Bill AB 1506 ( which has been withdrawn) was sponsored by Assembly persons from Santa Monica. This article was written before it was withdrawn but I thought the information would be useful to those interested in the effects of rent control without Costa Hawkins. This bill proposes to repeal Costa Hawkins (Vacancy decontrol/recontrol) bill […]
Ted Edlin
Posted inOpinion
Op-ed: Berkeley is a city without a plan for projected population growth
Berkeley is allowing the construction of many new buildings, but not planning how to cope with a 20,000 person increase in population.
Posted inOpinion
Op-ed: Pension problem fairy tale
Berkeley has more than a half-billion dollar pension problem deficit which will increase substantially for decades to come. This appears to be an insurmountable problem. But it need not be. Consider: The city has about 216 miles of roads and 300 miles of sidewalks according to the Public Works website. The city website says Berkeley […]
Posted inOpinion
Op-ed: Berkeley government is failing and no-one has noticed
In the last couple of weeks there have been two daytime armed robberies reported in North Berkeley, according to my neighborhood listserve. One was in a private garage where the woman had left her house and gotten into her car to go to work and decided to make a cell phone call first. A man entered the garage with a […]
Posted inCrime & Safety, Housing & Development, Opinion
To City Council: A response to Berkeley balcony collapse
Once you own a hammer every problem looks like a nail. Over the past 20 years the City of Berkeley has had a number of deaths which have occurred in its rental housing stock. After each incident the response was the same: mandate inspections and charge the landlord. This rarely addresses the real problem but it […]