Redwood City: “Mobile home parks are invisible pawns in battle over Saltworks project,” by Dean Preston, San Jose Mercury News, July 16, 2010
In one of the most contentious development fights in the Bay Area’s recent history, America’s largest private company, Cargill Inc., and Arizona-based luxury home developer, DMB Associates, propose to build a new city of 30,000 people on retired salt ponds in Redwood City. The development, which would build 12,000 new units, has been fiercely contested by environmentalists, led by Save the Bay, who seek to restore the salt ponds back to tidal marsh.
Largely invisible in this clash are six mobile home parks on Bayfront Road, east of Highway 101 in Redwood City, which provide affordable housing to many hundreds of area residents. The closest existing neighborhood to the salt ponds, they are only separated from the proposed development by a fence and narrow flood canal. Residents currently enjoy fresh Bay breezes and some have sweeping views across the Bay to the East Bay hills.
Santa Monica: “Renter protections may reach ballot,” by Kevin Herrera, Santa Monica Daily Press, July 15, 2010
In addition to a proposed sales tax measure, Santa Monica voters may also be asked to amend the City Charter and grant more protections to renters.
The City Council, with a 6-1 vote, ordered city staff to draft a proposed ballot initiative that would give tenants more time to respond to minor violations before they are served with a three-day notice of eviction. The measure would also protect seniors, the disabled and terminally ill tenants from owner-occupancy evictions.
Richmond: “Richmond landlord facing felony trial in dog’s near-fatal beating,” by Malaika Fraley, Contra Costa Times, July 13, 2010
A Richmond landlord charged with beating a tenant’s miniature pinscher and then keeping the injured dog in a tightly sealed garbage bag overnight has been ordered to trial on two counts of felony animal abuse.
Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Barbara Hinton also ordered Sharon Sayler, 65, to have no unsupervised contact with animals after learning during a preliminary hearing Monday that Sayler has been volunteering at a humane society charity store in Siskiyou County, and recently worked at an animal shelter there.
Sayler was previously ordered to stay away from the Richmond four-plex she owns and where she had been living next door to Saul Hernandez and Felicia Minor, working parents who own the pinscher, Taz.
California: “Jerry Brown Investigates Banks’ Treatment of Foreclosure Tenants,” by Gabe Treves, BeyondChron, July 13, 2010
At the urging of housing advocates, California Attorney General Jerry Brown has launched an investigation to ensure compliance with tenant-protection laws by banks and private investors acquiring tenant-occupied, foreclosed properties. The investigation, announced this week, comes after Tenants Together and 20 allied housing rights and public interest groups from across California brought rampant violations of tenant protection laws to the attention of the Attorney General. The coalition urged Brown to take action in response to a pattern of illegal conduct and tenant harassment by banks, real estate agents, and lawyers in their treatment of tenants after foreclosure.
Nation: “When your landlord lives upstairs,” by Leah L. Culler, MSN Real Estate, July 12, 2010
It’s the third day of the month and you realize you forgot to write your landlord a rent check.
Lucky for both of you, your landlord lives right upstairs. Paying rent is a breeze. If you ever get locked out, help is just a few feet away.
These conveniences are part of the reason Wendy Oakeson has enjoyed living in the same building as her landlord. She’s done it three times now.
“Overall, it was a great experience,” she says. “It’s super convenient. If you have a maintenance problem, you just knock on their door.”
But living in such close quarters with your landlord comes with its fair share of challenges. What happens when the landlord takes your parking spot, for example? Here’s a look at the good and the bad of paying rent to the guy upstairs (or next door).
