SF Tenants Testified against CitiApartments at Board of Supervisors’ Land Use Committee

This Friday, join the bold effort to deliver affordable housing for the Bayview!
Balazo Gallery
2183 Mission Street
May 16th, 5:30-8pm

Despite millions being spent against us, committed volunteers have put Proposition F in play– collecting over 11,000 signatures in 10 days, reaching out to political clubs and community groups, running nightly phone banks, and dropping literature on the weekends. These true heroes have been doing the work to support our families struggling to make it here.

Now we need your support.

Come out to get energized and connected with the campaign, have some fun (with Eric Quezada on the ones and twos), and make a donation.

There’s a No on 98 outreach tomorrow in the Marina. The San Francisco No on 98 campaign is on track to distribute 100,000 pieces of literature before the election (which is in 25 days!), but they need your help. If 98 passes, none of the rest of the work we do in California matters at all.

Reminder—help save rent control and get the NO on 98 word out in the Marina Saturday, May 10, 11 AM. Meet at the Marina Library, 1890 Chestnut (at Fillmore) to get literature and a precinct map.

There’s less than 25 days left to election day, so we need your help to save rent control!!

This Monday come support CitiApartments tenants and CitiSTOP campaign volunteers as we show the Board of Supervisors how CitiApartments mistreats their tenants and raises all our rents!

WHAT: Hearing in front of the Land Use & Economic Development Committee
WHEN: Monday May 12th at 1pm
WHERE: City Hall, Room 263 (on Polk St between McAllister and Grove)

In 2005, the City Attorney’s office filed a lawsuit against CitiApartments for unfair business practices, but today, in 2008, CitiApartments continues to buy dozens of buildings across the city, using aggressive and illegal tactics to evict long-term tenants and raise their profit margins. This is our chance to remind our lawmakers that CitiApartments is still a problem and to ask for their help in making Citi behave like a good landlord.

We have been remiss in announcing the No on 98 rally today, at noon, at Civic Center.

The Chronicle wrote a typically terrible article about it today, repeating the canard that rent control somehow stops people from building housing. The truth is that no housing built in San Francisco in the last 29 years has been subject to rent control. So unless developers were planning on going back in time three decades to sneak in some four-unit buildings, I think the argument’s pretty damn crappy. More likely causes of the lack of rental housing are the real estate bubble, but more systematically the way building housing for sale generates short term, rather than the long-term profits of rental housing.

Save rent control! Save environmental protection laws! Save city planning!

STOP PROPOSITION 98! YES ON PROPOSITION 99!

Join us for a fundraising, information-sharing party.Eat, drink, dance, and get educated.
Come to the home of Iris Biblowitz and Fran Taylor, 2982 26th Street, near Bryant in the Mission

Saturday
May 3, 6 to 9 pm

#27-Bryant, #12-Folsom, #48-Quintara, #33-Ashbury, #9-San Bruno, walk from 24th Street BART or Mission buses / indoor bicycle parking / so-so car street parking
Not accessible (up 30 steps) / large, pushy dog on premises

Can you imagine San Francisco without rent control?
Proposition 98 would eliminate rent control in all California-
Our city could be changed forever - now is the time to fight back!

Join Pride at Work’s election outreach. New volunteers are welcome!
We are working on three issues in coalition with community groups and labor:
NO on 98 to Save Rent Control!
YES on A to support SF schools and teachers!
YES on B to support city workers and preserve city services!
Phone bank this Monday, April 28th
and every Monday until the election
join Pride at Work Phone Bank nights when we call LGBT voters.
When: 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. Dinner is provided.
Where: SEIU 1021; 350 Road Island (entrance on Kansas & 17th)
accessible by MUNI 10, 19, 22 or 33
You can also join the general community labor phone banks Tuesday-Thursday, same time same place.

The Tenants Unions sends us this alert:

No on 98!
Yes on 99!
Help Save Rent Control April 25th!

The Apartment Owners Association (AOA) has contributed over $200,000 to pass Proposition 98 in California. If Proposition 98 passes, members of the AOA will profit from the loss of Rent Control and Just Cause.

On Friday April 25th, the AOA will conduct a workshop at the Oakland Airport Hilton to teach landlords how to EVICT tenants.

The AOA is a landlord group calling those that oppose Proposition 98 “Terrorist” and in their literature they state,” It is a War to eventually make rent control and eminent domain illegal!”(AOA Website)

As Robert posted, the numbers so far look good on Prop 98. We cannot get complacent, though, since whether people support the proposition or not is irrelevant if they do not get out to vote. So here are some events happening today and tomorrow that you can join in:

No on 98 Happy Hour
I’m cosponsoring this event, which will take place Friday (tonight) from 6-9pm at Dolores Street Community Services, 938 Valencia (between 21st and 22nd)

Prop 98 Lit Drop
Saturday, 11am at Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia.

Queer Benefit for No on 98
Saturday, 6-9pm, the Metro Bar, 2124 Market at Church.

Voters Not Fooled by Landlords’ Hidden Agendas Scheme to Abolish Renter Protections and Rent Control

A new survey of California likely voters released March 26 by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) found that 41% of likely voters would vote “No” on Proposition 98, while only 37% would vote “Yes”. On the other hand, by a two-to-one margin (53-27), voters were inclined to support Prop. 99. Both measures are on the June 3 ballot. To view the press release, click here.