Yes, that may be the current law but there is absolutely no guarantee that they couldn’t go after post 1979 buildings too at some point. We have unfortunately a progressive majority BofS and again with the majority of renters if this ever gets on the ballot we would be screwed. In my opinion, the Mayor really F’d up when he decided to go with that Christiansen(?) supervisor. She ran a horrible campaign and was no match for Peskin. Let’s be frank, why would you not back the Rose Pak candidate who was chinese who can get the chinese vote in North Beach/Chinatown? Idiot. Almost as stupid as letting Jane Kim’s Tenant Rights Legislation go through when you admit it yourself that you had concerns about the roommate provision that allows a tenant to bring in more roommates based on the fire code guidelines and not the least terms. The moderate supervisors also caved in and voted through this trash legislation. Hopefully, there will be a court challenge.
Let’s hope JB can get it right and help turn the tide some.
The 1979 cutoff is decided by state law, so there is a possibility it can change in the future. As to the rules regarding buying out tenants, there are people specializing in this niche. Mostly it’s good negotiating skills. You can go nuclear and invoke Ellis Act, which is withdrawing the unit from the rental market for a number of years.
We were saying the same thing in 1983 when we couldn’t recruit people from our Atlanta, Columbus or LA offices to WC headquarters, even with our significantly higher salaries.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t afford housing though. They just didn’t want to “trade down” and have to live in Concord or Martinez. Compared to what they had, anywhere but WC, Lamorinda or Alamo/Danville was a trade down. And, they couldn’t afford those BA enclaves I mentioned.
And, I remember years later, after the Chevron-Gulf merger, how many highly compensated former Gulf employees from Houston moved into my Antioch neighborhood. (it was very different then) They were constantly grumbling about having to live in Antioch due to BA housing prices and how their country club abodes back in Houston were so much better. To their credit, they all eventually found their way back to Houston.
Things never really change. They just get “rediscovered”.
In my union experience - teamsters and AFSCME - , most union members are sheep. They follow, They tow the line. They don’t even bother to think critically. They were the original “hate the rich” purveyors before the progressives and Bernie made that the panacea for anyone with envy. Keeping up with the Jonses has turned into take it from the Jonses.
