Sure, big and small developers want highrises everywhere. But what city council would allow them? Only a city council bought and paid for by developers. The tenants' group was not "manipulated" by developers and will not be fooled by letters about restricting rent increases leading to demolitions and highrises. The city council has always had the power to allow or disallow highrises. The letter does, though, point to the importance of the city council race. What do you want for Mountain View's future? More of the same? Even worse?

@Fooled-

"But what city council would allow them?"

No city council would NOT allow them (highrises, that is).

Where have you been? Vertical growth, eventually replacing flat suburbs, is the edict of the new regional government that we neither decided to create nor voted for! They're called the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). "Regional Government" now exist all over the State and all through out the country. Voters have no say in their decisions, but THEY decide what we must do, like mandating projects like the "Grand Boulevard" demanding uniformity along the full length of EL Camino Real (ECR) from within San Jose all the way to San Francisco. Tall "stack & pack" housing is the plan to increasingly eliminate and replace car services, such as drive through fast food, gas stations, auto parts stores, car dealerships, etc. The plan is well underway.

REGIONAL decision makers are here to stay now that they have their giant, costly new building in SF that they share with the other mandator of the direction of our future: the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). This group pushes for designated bus lanes and such through each county's transportation agency, like our Valley Transit AUTHORITY (VTA). And they ARE the authority. They have officially stated that even if every city along ECR votes against designated bus lanes, they have the authority to go ahead with them anyway and will do so.

Catch up with what's afoot. The paperback: "Behind the Green Mask" reveals what's truly behind what they're doing and it's not "green" (ecological) as they claim. There's also a video that cities can purchase for a thousand dollars that instructs them on how to manipulate their electorate so each city can get on board. Ours has been aboard for a while. You should read up on it to inform yourself about what we're already being transformed into in this valley. The author, Rosa Koire, is from Santa Rosa (also under ABAG). You can get it from Amazon.

Not much real democracy left any more. Regional government is a dictatorship. They mandate what happens, what they believe should happen. They believe they know better than we do, so they are the bosses. Like they are the parent and we are the children.

Don't be fooled.

Linda is all over the board. In one posting, she complained that the property she bought for 900k may only be sold for 3 million instead of the 5 million she wanted. To Linda: "Oh, poor you!"

She blames the potential of rent control. She claims to offer very low rents--she is apparently the exception! But wait... She said she wanted to sell the property for 5million. The only company that would buy it for that much would be someone that would evict all the tenants and build a newer, higher density apartment building and rent it out at high rates.

So, it seems that Ms. Curtis is merely another profiteering landlord. Her rents are not sky high, but her building is pretty, uh, used... She is simply going to cash out to someone that will evict the tenants whom she claims to care for.

Rent control is EXACTLY to help Linda's tenants. That is the truth of the situation.

Hey What?
Your figures are all screwy. You're quite the troll. Nothing you said has any validity, except that I "am the exception." But actually one among many who rent for little & will forever be punished with the percentage of current rent increase mechanism capping the rent increases. The $900K is closer to a third what I paid, with steep interest, plus interest on the loan I took to purchase and install 96 solar panels for a quarter million dollars so all tenants could charge their clean cars for free. And, my building is appraised at half of what it was two years ago because of the looming rent control that only punishes the good landlords. As do you.

Economics. Study it.

When it no longer makes economic sense to try and run your business because unreasonable constraints have been placed on your business - by the government, in order to benefit a small percentage of the population - which in turn severely limits one's ability to earn income on their business and their investment, which was once a stable asset, all because of the spectre of rent control...well, that once stable business & asset is now rapidly losing value, because NO individual with a head for business would risk investing in a business with a lot of overhead, and increased annual costs and maintenance, yet with a hard cap on return on investment...in the form of fixed prices for rent aka, rent control.

What will happen when the owners of the older, smaller apartments decide to sell, because the economics of rent control, is going to force them out of business? Those buildings will be sold to DEVELOPERS with deep pockets, and the first order of business will be that the current tenants will be evicted, the old apartments will be demolished, and shiny new multi-story, market rate (EXPENSIVE) non-rent controlled apartments or condos or what ever will be built in their place.

Don't believe it will happen?

Watch, as your friends and neighbors begin to get eviction notices as those older smaller apartment buildings get sold if rent control passes.

Incidentally, 35 states have laws expressly prohibiting rent control, and 11 additional states have no laws expressly prohibiting it, but there is not rent control in those states.

46 out of 50 states in our nation understand the folly that is rent control.

Left is not always right. Think about it.

Look at 855 Park Dr, Mountain View. This is a ramshackle apartment building in the Cuesta Park neighborhood. Look at Google street view! yuk!

Now look at Zillow and see what the "poor owner" has to deal with:

Sold in 2009 for $1,394.000. The current estimated sale price is: $3,371,396!!!! That's right! In about only SEVEN YEARS, this property has appreciated by almost TWO AND A HALF TIMES!

This is not some impoverished old lady that will get thrown out on the street if rent control passes. This is a wealthy individual who is trying to squeeze every last dollar out of this property at the expense of the residents of MV.

Even worse, the entire property is only being assessed at 200K for tax purposes!!!! Wonder why our local schools are underfunded? Ask the IGotMine owner of this property!

It's time to tell these blood sucking landlords that the true residents of MV want a stable place to live. Charge what you want when we move into one of your units. But don't jack the rent way up because you can. Or because you took a bad loan to buy the property. Or your other business failed. Why should my family suffer due to YOUR incompetence?

Vote Yes on rent stabilization!

Public Info,

So you're apparently cool with the premise that you should have the right to determine what level of return on investment and compensation for labor is appropriate for others.

So I'm sure you won't mind sharing information about your investments, compensation & finances for scrutiny by others. We might think you're making too much and that an adjustment is warranted.