Mark— I’m confused. Is this an editorial or a news story? I guess you missed the journalism class about the importance of providing your community with neutral, objective, and nonpartisan reporting. I would love to read news that provides insights into both sides of an issue. Have you considered interviewing a group of local landlords and listening to and reporting on their side of the story.? Is that too fair for you? How can we respect all community members if you don’t provide all members a voice.

Yeah Mark, go ahead and include some Alternative Facts next time. The real ones make some people very unhappy.

Corporate landlords have no legitimate complaint with this coverage. Look at the article's title. Measure to curb rent control? That's not accurate. Better would be Measure to completely end rent control. Or - Measure to remove all meaningful renter protections. Or for those who have read the fine print of the landlord ordinance, Measure to make crying babies a cause for immediate eviction. It is one mean spirited ordinance the corporate landlords hope to dupe us into voting for.

The Lenny Siegel-Job Lopez activist camp is planning another attack on these rental property owners, who are mostly Mom & Pop businesses.

They want a permanent ban on any of these property owners to prevent them from going out of business.

Lenny Siegel wants a mandatory law requiring these properties to do a systemic retrofit, yet, in most cases none of these fees will be allowed to be passed on to tenants.

With all these expenses that these 60 and 70 year old buildings have, they are at the end of there life and only razing these buildings and building new is cost effective.

These crazy activist groups have no right to prevent a business from going out of business.

I support a full repeal of Measure V, because it has been clearly shown how radical this law is and unfair. These activists are not satisfied, they want more.

I say enough is enough.

City council should not ban these buildings from going out of business and from being razed.

So let's think about about Measure V:
* We now have a 2.6 Million dollar bureaucracy
* Which takes over a year to process rent increase petitions by landlords
who assert they have been under pricing the market (hurts the landlords
who have believe that have trying to keep their rents reasonable)
* Pricing set by lawyers and retired judges, not the market
* Old apartment being demolished because no longer economical
* Now we have Lenny seeking to further control private property by talking
about a moratorium on demolishing old apartment complexes. Kinda like,
"lets make it hard to run an economically viable operation, and by the
way, we won't let you exit the business" The unintended consequences of
amateurs intervening in the market
* Claimed that the landlords where getting 3.4% (2017) rent increase but in
reality excluded increase costs in terms of Measure V fees, garbage,
water. What this means is that actual costs are excluded for political
reasons. In reality, housing providers pay these added expenses. In the
private sector, we have GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles)
and we would be regulatory trouble if we started excluding expenses to
to make our revenue look higher. But that is what is going on here.
* Rental increases are capped at 5% if inflation exceeds 5%. In other
words, housing providers can't cover inflationary cost by governmental
mandate. This is inappropriate to penalize housing providers like this.
Measure V was written by economic amateurs. We have had extraordinarily
low inflation for a decade now (as reported by the Federal Reserve- Fed).
But we are in an increasing interest rate and inflation environment since
the Fed change from a policy of QT (Quantitative Easing) to Quantitative
Tightening). Net/Net: Inflation is increasing, and in normal times,
can exceed 5%. The behavior of the Fed since 2008 has been extraordinary,
but the Fed is now trying return to normal.
In summary, Measure V is classic market intervention by amateurs which is resulting in un-intended consequences. To non-aligned voters out there (e.g. excluding both pro-rent control and housing provider) does Measure V sound like something you voted for when you read you ballot? I will guess not. So please repeal Measure V. It is amateur hour economics

This initiative doesn't go far enough. MV rent control should be totally repealed.

Yimby #2, stop pretending to be a YIMBY and making us look bad. We believe in more housing for everyone and protecting existing residents from displacement. That you are throwing in the lie that the RHC is costing the city money (it's not) makes it even more clear you aren't aligned with people trying to solve the housing crisis. Your likely membership in the CAA shows when you say "housing providers" instead of landlords. Did that focus test really well?

I was active, as a volunteer, in educating our community about what the CAA's petition would really mean, in terms of addressing rent control.

If the CAA, or anyone, thinks that rent control is a terrible idea, and wants to repeal it, then, by all means, sponsor and circulate petitions that would do that very thing.

What the CAA did INSTEAD OF BEING UPFRONT AND HONEST about their intentions, was to contract PAID SIGNATURE GATHERERS (PSGs, many of whom don't live here) to use deceptive tactics and outright lie to voters, simply to collect a signature for which they would be compensated.

Case in point, the PSGs went door to door at more than one mobile home community, telling voters that while Measure V doesn't protect them (which is true), by signing the petition, THEY WOULD BE INCLUDED IN MEASURE V PROTECTION. This is a bald-faced lie. I was approached by a PSG in front of a CVS store, who told me that Measure V was about to expire, and if I signed, it would be extended. Another lie, and there are many, many more.

When approached by a PSG on Castro Street, I pointed out the vacancy rate clause that would completely repeal rental protections (this PSG told me I was signing Measure V 2.0... wait... what????). He was unaware, unimpressed, and more importantly, could not have cared less. All it meant to him was that I wasn't going to contribute $5 to his coffers.

The reason for my post is not to convince or persuade, but to inform. If you want to change the world, have at it, but don't do so on the backs of others or forsake the truth in the process.

Signatures “appear to be valid”..... hmmm the Santa Clara County and the City of MV elections officials wouldn’t deem the signatures verified if they were invalid. Mr. Noack should fix his so-called reporting. The truth hurts for Mr. Noack but you can’t ignore that MV voters want to fix the costly Measure V.

Residents who signed the measure said Yes to protecting the city’s budget, ensuring that low income families are granted Measure V benefits, and limiting taxpayer funded government bureaucracy that takes money away from libraries and public safety, and more.

This measure is good for Mountain View and we should support it.

It's hilarious that landlords haven't wised up from their failure to gather enough signatures in time, the complete collapse of the John Inks campaign, their failed attempt to sue the City over Measure V, and their failure to prevent Measure V from passing in the first place. Surely, THIS time they'll succeed and won't just be throwing good money after bad.

Whining extortionists, put an end to your undue suffering: you may stop being a landlord today! You will thank yourself tomorrow. You are not welcome.

We love Measure V. Rents have been going up at a far greater rate than incomes over the years. Today, even nominally high earners are struggling to pay the rent on the shabbiest litter boxes, at the mercy of your boundless extraction racket. There are two-three working adult professionals sharing what can only be described as third-world provisional migrant worker colony dwellings that have not seen improvements in fourth years. Yet rents have been going up by double digit percentages and are still riding at that rate wherever Measure V dies not apply. Young families of two working parents with the highest level of education and years of experience are scrambling to find a new home when told that their already monstrous rent is going up by another $500 a month y/y.

You people have not contributed a thing to anything over the years and are opportunistically jacking up prices until it cuts the bone. Jackals.

Stop with your incidious and disingenuous jammering. Let's see how you like the market on the way down!

Again. Being a landlord ain't good for your health nor ours. Might as well not be.

Who told you to invest in RE? Who told you that this was even a legit investment as such? It isn't. It is a racket and the moment things aren't going 100% your way you make a scene. Ever heard of investment risk? What a disgraceful bunch. Go ahead, cut your losses, move on, take your investment elsewhere. Please. In such a tight market as this you ought to be forbidden from buying RE as an investment. Where is the regulation?! Somebody tax the devil out of these fools!! Put that on the ballot. I'll sign.

Yours truly.

Compared to what is at stake, campaigns are cheap. In opposition to rent control Measure V in 2016, landlords spent maybe $1.5 million. Peanuts. The average rent at the 15,000 apartments controlled by Measure V probably is $3,000 per month. Without Measure V, the rents could go up say $2,000 per month (to $5,000 per unit). That would be an extra $24,000 per year - for 15,000 units which is $360 million per year - $3.6 billion over 10 years. So, in the effort to repeal rent control (while pretending to "fix" it) landlords should be expected spend hundreds of millions of dollars in Mountain View. That kind of money can buy any information or lies delivered in any number of ways. We can only be sure that many eligible renters will continue to not even register to vote and many landlords will engage in any and every trick to win the repeal of Measure V. If and when Measure V is gone, most of the current apartment renters will also be gone. Only Googlers will be able to afford those $5,000 per month rents for old, run-down apartments mostly built before 1970.

I have lived in seven countries and nowhere have I seen such horrid living conditions as in Mountain View. What a curse. What a sham. What a sorry lot. Sad little wannabe capitalists ain't good for nothing. Not a darn thing. In Germany the government would fine you into the ground. You'd be given a couple months to comply with the latest standards, which you cannot begin to fathom, I guarantee you. There is this thing called insulation, look it up! One can't heat these apartments. I've tried. Walls made of cardboard. Who are you kidding! Have no shame? We know the answer. Closest disgraceful thing I experienced was in Great (in a certain irrelevant sense) Britain. Those creatures have not managed to learn plumbing in a 150 years, but their prices are something to behold! Way to go, anglos. Hardly any trees. But plenty of tarmac and fuming trucks, a gas station on every corner. Parking lots the size of city blocks (think actual cities, they do exist, just because you've never seen one). No public transit to speak of within 9000 miles. No plans. No plans! Has anyone ever heard of city/social/jobs planning? Oh, but for that you'd need a city and a country and a society. You know, that thing that does not exist (just ask aunt Thatcher). Well, here it does not. You people don't know how to live. You never did and never will. Everything happening in this country is indiffensible: your approach to anything and everything is deeply flawed and plain wrong: housing, schools, healthcare, food, relationships, law, economics, finance... Delusional market-worshippers, if only even that was true, there is no saving your soul. Wait, what am I saying: you have none. But I'm digressing, where were we, I mean, where is our rightful profit for owning a dumpster nobody would ever willingly live in!! Do you really think you have a self interest? Do you? Pursuing it too? Sad little creatures. Ask the fed to print you some money to dry your tears. Ah, wait, we've been there. And now these tenant dare to withhold half their income from us! So unfair! Cry market. Think it will love you back? Writing some laws, are we? For private interest? Hm, smart we are ain't?

Ekim, you are wrong: you really should appreciate (not in the sense of enjoying but in putting weight on) what I'm saying. Putting your savings in rental was a bad idea. On many levels. Nobody forced you to do that and nobody should guarantee you any return. Not too late to exit. It's not just MV, anywhere within a drive. And yes, we are forced. We, as in people who work here. If one leaves another arrives and they are forced. Don't be so smug. There is a good chance I've worked harder and longer than you, studied more than your entire family and friends combined and have saved more of my income each year than anyone you've met. And still have no choice but to rent. The higher the rents the more I'm forced. Not to mention everyone else. You know this, that is the essence of your racket, that is why this is extortion. Buying a well in the desert with the intent of extracting fees from every gulp by the thirsting is not an investment. It is rent seeking. There is no good reason for the state to allow you to do this, let alone facilitate it. And they aren't, not for a good reason. Here you are campaigning to twist the law to enable yourselves. Pity you.

You all would not be here advocating for legislation to guarantee profit, if your "investment" had not been a bad idea and/or you'd not be engaged in an extortion racket. I have spoken to a number of your clueless out of city and out of state hired agents collecting signatures: they had no idea what it was for and when I educated them, decided to pack and leave.

“You people don't know how to live. You never did and never will. Everything happening in this country is indiffensible: your approach to anything and everything is deeply flawed and plain wrong: housing, schools, healthcare, food, relationships, law, economics, finance... Delusional market-worshippers, if only even that was true, there is no saving your soul. Wait, what am I saying: you have none.”

It’s clear you loathe everything about “you people” and “this country”... so please, don’t let the door hit you on your way back to whereever it is you came from.

Peace.

Simply put,

John Inks was the one that started this process, but couldn't even get more that 13% of the City of Mountain View voters to vote for him.

Do you really think this will pass. Especially where individuals like myself will demonstrate his violations of the City Code of Conduct in the past. And his financial ties with the Landlords, Developers, and the California Apartment Association? As long was those in the city can be informed as to the cheating he did in the past and is trying to do now, it will not pass.

@UmwillingTenant

You do realize what happens when property owners "stop being a landlord", don't you? In case you need a reminder, it looks like this:

NOTICE OF DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL

[yadda yadda yadda] to construct a xx-unit rowhouse development to replace yy existing apartment units [yadda yadda yadda]

I've been seeing a lot more of it in my neighborhood the last two years.

Umwilling Tenant,

You state, "Go ahead, cut your losses, move on, take your investment elsewhere. Please. In such a tight market as this you ought to be forbidden from buying RE as an investment."

So if the landlords DO act as you demand, you'd better start packing your bags NOW. Already several landlords have sold their apartment buildings to developers who will remodel to expensive condos. Since you are already whining about your rent, you can bet you won't be able to afford the price of these condos. You want the landlords to move on... and what do you think will happen with the apartments? Are they just going to GIVE you one?

Grow up. Sure... I'd like ten acres in Woodside, but I worked hard all my life, saved my money, was careful with expenses and bought a house in a city I could afford. Nobody can have what they want just because they want it.

I don't begrudge landlords a decent profit. Their profit is their salary - so would YOU work for no salary? It probably would be best if you took your own advice and "moved on". Stomping your feet, demanding your way, and complaining like a child will get you no where.

I heard the June 2020 presidential primary has been moved up to March 2020. Will this REPEAL OF RENT CONTROL be on the March 2020 ballot? Figure landlords with HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars to gain from "market-rate" rents will this time spend TENS OF MILLIONS to get the repeal passed. And the campaign to pass the SNEAKY REPEAL will be no more honest that was the petition drive that tricked many voters into signing.

John Inks losing the MV City Council election by such a wide margin is a clear referendum on the Sneaky Repeal petition he was responsible for filing with the City of Mountain View for the 2020 ballot. The Sneaky Repeal will go down in flames just like John Inks City Council bid.