Once more without feeling

Because of course.

Of course.

Once was not enough and so the landlord at 470 Central is trying it once again, he’s sent out eviction notices as the rent stabilization ordinance is on pause — cause of the new ballot initiative — just in time for the first day of school.   From the East Bay Citizen:

On Wednesday, just days before the start of a new school year, three families received 60-day eviction notices from the owners of the complex, known in popular parlance as 470 Central. Three additional tenants were given three-day notices for non-payment, said the Alameda Renters Coalition.

…

The renters’ group laid blame for Wednesday morning’s on the Alameda landlords group behind the voter referendum.

“The no cause evictions were made possible by “Alamedans in Charge for a Fair and Affordable City,” said Eric Strimling, a spokesperson for the Alameda Renters Coalition. Strimling added that tenants who were issued three-day notices for non-payment have documentation to prove their rents were up-to-date.

Participation trophy

The City of Alameda has released a statement about Charlottesville:

While recent actions in Charlottesville, Virginia shine a harsh spotlight on divisions in our country, in Alameda we continue to stride towards a future where the ideals of peace and freedom; love and justice; tolerance and diversity are universally embraced and protected. Our City policies foster an atmosphere of inclusion and respect for all. Alamedans cherish and respect freedom of speech and the wide range of viewpoints and opinions that make this community so unique. But we reject hate, violence, and bigotry. Instead, our community supports and empowers one another. We can listen, and be heard. We can be vigilant, kind, and strong. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” That love is our future.

While we should still oppose Nazis and white nationalists, we should probably all — at least in this town as much as we can — try not to be dicks to each other quite so much.  I know I’ve been having a really difficult time with what everything going on nationally.  I’ll be honest, last week I was Googling fallout radii from a nuclear explosion.  I eventually landed on hoping that I would just die from the initial blast rather than suffer through radiation poisoning.  But with this administration there is no dwelling on one horrible thing for very long since there’s always yet another terrible thing right around the corner.

I just can’t anymore

This is the demonstration that Donald Trump just praised: pic.twitter.com/hPwSTekjki

— Eugene Robinson (@Eugene_Robinson) August 15, 2017

Throw away yesterday's statement. This is what Trump believes: people protesting with KKK, white nationalists & Nazis were "fine people."

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) August 15, 2017

In case you missed it: Trump’s News Conference in New York: Video and Transcript https://t.co/Z9DgXKfbqS

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) August 15, 2017

This Vice News Documentary from Charlottesville Is Horrifying

Interview prep

Another snip from the July 18 City Council meeting.  This comes at the conclusion of the public comment for the Planning Board nomination agenda item.  Trish Spencer is super agitated and super defensive about what has just happened.  Even though her supporters managed to wrangle up some folks to come out to balance out the largely negative comments, Trish Spencer is not basking in the glow of public comment which she used to adore.

Much like another elected leader who is fixated on the person who held the same position right before him, Trish Spencer is constantly comparing herself to her predecessor and announcing how she does things differently, including conducting interviews of applicants to various boards and commissions.

Check on it

Another video from that July 18 City Council meeting. This is from Laura Thomas of Renewed Hope.

Laura Thomas makes an excellent point in this clip about the duty of the Planning Board members. Meaning that if the members are voting against a project without a defensible reason to vote against the project (aka doesn’t meet zoning or land use) then they are not doing their duty as a Planning Board member. Watch here:

Can’t ignore the boy next door

When the topic of the housing crisis comes up inevitably some fingers begin pointing at foreign buyers and how we need to rein that in because it’s much easier to blame an external source than look inward to see if we could have, historically, been the cause of the problem and are currently either not helping to alleviate the problem or possibly making it worse.

City Lab tackles the issue of foreign investments in US real estate, from that post:

[F]oreigners accounted for five percent of the number of units purchased, because on average they buy more expensive homes in more expensive areas than the average US buyer.

Many of these buyers, 42 percent, are “non-residents” who may indeed be leaving their properties vacant some or all of the time. But there’s another even larger population of foreign buyers that isn’t getting much attention. The lion’s share of the homes, almost 60 percent, were bought and occupied by people who reside permanently in the United States as either recent immigrants or foreigners on work, student or other visas.

Talkin’ bout cash money

They’ve been available for a while, but if you were interested and didn’t know the semi-annual campaign disclosure documents are available on-line.  The biggest “campaign” going on is, of course, the landlord’s initiatives.  Plural.

A lot of money has been pumped into these initiative on the landlord side, you can take a look at the contributions and expenditures for these groups:

• Alamedans for Fair Rent Control. A notable contribution came from a Trish Spencer appointee to the landlord’s seat on the RRAC who has since resigned.
• Alamedans in Charge
• Ballena Village
• Timber Dell Properties

Good morning, Alameda!

You know I am a super fan of anything Alameda politics related.

Well, the newest entry into the world of Alameda politics wonkiness is a radio show (!!!!) about what’s going on in City government.  It’s taking the world of Twitter’s #alamtg to the masses (sans gifs unfortunately) in a portable audio version.

Hosted by Angela Hockabout, you can find more details about the genesis of the show here.

Asked and answered (over and over)

Did I promise video of the joint MTC and ABAG meeting where Alameda’s Mayor completely embarrassed herself by doubling down on misunderstood information about Brisbane’s housing numbers?  Well if I didn’t promise it, here it is anyway.

So let me set the scene up for you, sorry the videos are a bit on the longer side, the first one is pretty wonky, but it happens around one hour 11 minutes into the meeting.  This is when staff answers questions about the Brisbane numbers.  TL;dw: the numbers came from the Brisbane’s Priority Development Area (PDA) application.

The first speaker is the representative to ABAG from East Palo Alto. The second speaker is a supervisor from Sonoma County. The person answering questions is staff.

Job/housing imbalance

Oh and here’s another article about jobs being added faster than housing. From Curbed:

The verdict: San Francisco (or more accurately, the SF-Oakland-Hayward census area) created only one new home per 6.8 new jobs between 2010 and 2015.

Compare this to the period from 2005-2010 (which includes the recession), when homes beat out jobs by 1.6:1.

That comes out to an average of three jobs per home for the entire 2005-2015 decade. Which isn’t the worst—San Jose edges us out with 3.2, for example (although their short-term imbalance since 2010 is only 5.5).