Summary of position paper: All these issues are related. We need to completely deregulate and decontrol the private market.
Recently I had the opportunity to visit Republican Phoenix, Arizona. As one might know, Arizona has
a Republican Governor, Two Republican US Senators, and a Republican State Legislature. I picked up a copy of their local version of For Rent magazine and compared the rents advertised to those in San Francisco. Amazingly, in non-rent controlled, non-neighborhood preservationist, non-liberal Phoenix,
Arizona, there seems no shortage of $300-$400/month apartments for rent with swimming pools, air-
conditioning, free parking spaces, etc. Even "luxury" apartments seem to be available in quantity at
$500-$600/month. I could walk for miles without stepping over, what in San Francisco is, the omnipresent homeless population. So much for the benefits of our own rent controls, zoning restrictions, tenant unions and the demagogic pronouncements of both our Mayor and our President of the
Board of Supervisors.
|
