Talk about a stress creator…Government wants to create classs warfare
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“I thought it was only on vacant homes, not vacant property,” said James Liu, who lives in Fremont and owns five steep lots on Ascot Drive in the Oakland hills. Liu bought the adjacent parcels in 2012 and 2013, thinking — naively, he admits — that he could develop them, despite their 50 percent slope. But architects and engineers told him it wouldn’t be possible. He put them on the market twice, with no takers. Meanwhile he’s paying $3,000 per year in property taxes on each lot, plus another $3,000 per year to have them cleared of debris.
He said the the additional $6,000 per parcel tax is not just about money. “It’s about fairness. It’s not something I realized could happen in America.”
Hahaha 
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Badeamic grew up in Romania, where the communists imprisoned his grandfather and seized the family’s property, forcing them to flee the country. He said the tax reminds him of what went on in the early days of the communist regime there. “I never thought I was going to see this here, in the bastion of capitalism,” he said.
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Stories you shouldn’t miss for Jan. 23, 2019:
- The Oakland City Council may expand rent control to owner-occupied duplexes and triplexes in the city, reports Ali Tadayon of the East Bay Times $. The proposal, authored by Councilmembers Dan Kalb and Noel Gallo, is scheduled to be heard by a council committee next week. In November, Oakland residents voted to extend just cause eviction protections to owner-occupied duplexes and triplexes.
Oakland is just getting worse and worse…
Hey, that is something I would say…
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The guy thought Oakland/Berkeley is the “bastion of capitalism.” Laugh die me. 
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Lol. rookie. Pay your tuition.
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A block away from my rental.
My rental is much much farther away - 3 times yours.
Any sign of Fruitvale gentrifying? Is it the last stronghold?
Fruitvale area is mostly Latino as far as I can see. It’s probably slowly gentrifying, can’t really tell.
But it’s far from the last stronghold. If you go further south to Coliseum/98th Ave area, you’ll see that in the commercial zones along International there are far fewer shops and in worse conditions than Fruitvale. It’s an indication of the income level of the residents nearby.
A rapid bus transit system is being put in place along International from San Leandro to downtown Oakland. Many sections are already done. The purpose is to provide fast transit service for residents along the way so they can take jobs farther away from where they live. We will see how effective it is. When I first heard about this I thought it would just help spread crimes around to a larger area similar to what BART did.
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I feel sorry for the guy I read about who bought several vacant land parcels in Oakland hills but all turned out to be unbuildable, and now he is going to have to pay $3k per parcel per year on top of other costs. What a trap.
For unbuildable land they should have some exception to exclude them. Otherwise those owners will probably band together and sue.
I think this tax is on structures not land
This article talked about empty lots.
And it’s $6k/yr, not $3k.
6k a year in addition to regular property tax. That’s ridiculous…
