Rent Control Equals No Control
Monkey business: As a retired real estate broker, I was amazed at your story, "Screwed" [Peter Jamison, Feature, 11/25].
Rule one in real estate: If it isn't in writing, you don't get it. Rule two: Read your title report carefully. The title company will disclose all the covenants and restrictions. Rule three: There is always a condominium document that discloses all of the rules, and these people should have received it at closing of title.
I'm no fan of rent control, since I am an ex-New Yorker and I witnessed how it destroyed the city. Rent control takes away the landlord's right to manage. The quickest way to get rid of a tenant who is obnoxious to other tenants is to raise his rent to the point where he can't pay it.
I could go on and on telling you how rent control hurts tenants. Rent control is a monkey trap. You know the story: You tie a narrow-necked jug to a tree. You drop a banana in, and the monkey reaches in to grab it and can't get his hand out. Of course, he could let go of the banana and get away, but he won't do that and remains trapped.
Kenneth Thomson
san Francisco
It Takes a Church to Raze a Children's Village
Highs and lows: As a parent of one of the children at Children's Village, I am not aware of any specific fundraising efforts for the center ["Suffer the Little Children," Peter Jamison, News, 12/2]. That said, we believe this untapped area holds much promise for the future. The issue is not whether existing parents are too privileged; it's about saving this resource for decades to come for all kids and families, high- and low-income alike.
Higher-income parents are happy to pay more to help support this resource for low-income families. If the center closes, low-income children would suffer the most, as many centers that provide the highest quality do not work with voucher programs.
Kathryn Shantz
San Francisco
School's out, forever: It is too bad that the Catholic Church is thinking of doing this [selling the land on which the prekindergarten resides] when in reality they are likely to let the land sit vacant for years when it could be in great use for one of San Francisco's best childhood development centers. They have a responsibility to do the right thing here and not walk away from the kids they serve.
Arwa Kaddoura
San Francisco
Snitch Blog Comments of the Week
In response to a blog post about a man eating oatmeal on BART: I have seen more than one instance of someone drinking coffee or tea on Muni without a cover and having it end up (mostly) all over themselves. They always have this look on their face of "Gosh, how'd that happen?" Maybe we need Mariska Hargitay to record some PSAs for Muni about drinks and hot food on trains in "The More You Know" style.
njudah
In response to a blog post about a woman being attacked by an unleashed dog: This incident is very unfortunate. There are indeed many irresponsible dog owners out there. One possible solution would to be to have mandatory certification for any dogs that are allowed to run off-leash. This could be a tag that indicates that the dog has passed the training, which would assess the dog's temperament and the ability of the owner to keep the dog under voice control.
There could be a requirement for a regular retest of the dog and owner to keep the tag current. Anyone letting their dog off-leash without current certification could be assessed a hefty fine, and it would be very easy to determine compliance: up-to-date tag, in compliance; expired or no tag, big fine.
AW
