Only 2 of the 8 candidates for City Council favor the rent control initiative: Measure V. The other 6 are endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce.

Competing Measure W is a sham. Under Measure W, the City Council could just authorize landlords to get rid of tenants by paying whatever tiny amount in relocation expenses the Council later requires in its relocation ordinance. Could be a dollar!

I call it the chicken little syndrome, where he tries to convince people the sky is falling.

Totally silly thinking. The Voice has pretty low standards



" What do you call a mass displacement of longtime residents forced out of their community? An exodus? A social tragedy? An epidemic?"

Total hyperbole. What constitutes a mass of people? There is no documentation of how many longtime residents have left Mountain View. because of rent increase. Many residents that I know of have left because they have retired and don't want to live here

" Have they not spoken to those forced to leave, needing to double up, or having to deprive their children of our excellent schools? Have they not visited families living in cramped apartments or even in vehicles? "

Again total Hyperbole , an illogical emotional argument. No one is forced to pay rent and no one is forced to leave. People ( landlords and renters ) are free to make voluntary exchanges that are mutually beneficial . People choose where they want to live and choose how cramped they are willing to accept. Please Name the renters that are forced to pay rent and forced to live in cramped housing. BTW. There are plenty of school districts that offer excellent schools besides Mountain View

I'd call it being a responsible and fiscally prudent adult.

While I agree that no one is forced to pay rent to live here, I think that too is an over-simplification. Many people who can no longer afford the rents have lived here for a long time and if they are forced to move, will be leaving family and long-term friends behind. If one considers a place to truly be home, it is not very easy to leave.

With that being said, neither measure V nor Measure W will resolve the issue of displacement. The primary causal agent for increasing rents in this area is the fact that new office spaces are being approved and build too quickly for the current supply of housing to absorb.

A moratorium on new as well as office space expansions would go a long way toward allowing supply to catch up with demand.

Rent control locks people into the apartments they are currently renting, with little to no possibility of moving into a newer or larger space, and can also result in the home/apartments being sold to be redeveloped into something that will generate revenue.

San Francisco is the perfect example of what happens when rent control is introduced; it is the most expensive place to rent in the US, and it is afflicted with rampant homelessness. Is that what we want for Mountain View?



Jim Neal (Renter)
Old Mountain View

Rent control causes escalating rents in the same way that umbrellas cause rainstorms. Bad argument, Jim.

Rainy day that was not my argument - Reread what I wrote. Where did I say that "Rent Control Cause escalating rents"? (This is a trick people use to distort an issue, claim that you said something you didn't)


What I said was that "Too much office" causes high rents and therefore rent control cannot solve the problem. If rent control was a solution, San Francisco would be one of the cheaper cities in which to rent in the US.




Jim Neal
Old Mountain View

So, if we don't use a umbrella in the rain, we will stay dry? Bad argument, Jim.

Your argument is that since umbrellas won't stop the rain from falling, nobody should use them. My contention is that we have a lot of people getting wet; actually drowning. Even the small umbrella of rent control keeps them mostly dry, until they can take more permanent shelter.

Rainy day - That is your argument not mine. I never said anything about umbrellas. You are mixing metaphors in an attempt to add confusion. What I said was clear:

" The primary causal agent for increasing rents in this area is the fact that new office spaces are being approved and build too quickly for the current supply of housing to absorb.

A moratorium on new as well as office space expansions would go a long way toward allowing supply to catch up with demand."




Jim Neal
Old Mountain View

Blaming rents on the escalating office/housing ratio is also your point, but you are making an argument with this statement:

"San Francisco is the perfect example of what happens when rent control is introduced; it is the most expensive place to rent in the US, and it is afflicted with rampant homelessness. Is that what we want for Mountain View?"

You explicitly blame "expensiveness" on rent control. Mind boggingly, you also EXPLICITLY blame HOMELESSNESS on rent control. Read the above quotation. Those are YOUR WORDS. Do you understand?

(Even worse, you accused me of "mixing metaphors." What metaphors are you referring to? Are you addressing my ANALOGY? There was only one--"umbrella/rain" to "rent control/escalating rents." So, even if that is a metaphor (it's not), I'm not sure where you get the "mixing.")

Rainy - I do not explicitly blame expensiveness on Rent Control. Your original accusation was that I said that rent control causes, high rents. Now you are talking about expensiveness.

San Francisco also has too much office space and as a result an imbalance in supply and demand. Rent Control locks in the expensive rents, but it does not cause them. Also, if rent control works so well, shouldn't that mean that there shouldn't be any homeless in SF? Again, my point is that it is not a solution because it does not make housing more affordable or create more of it, and does nothing to limit office space.




Jim Neal
Old Mountain View