Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ucbvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!akgua!mcnc!decvax!ucbvax!wildbill
From: wildbill@ucbvax.UUCP (William J. Laubenheimer)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Renters' Leverage
Message-ID: <726@ucbvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Apr-84 19:44:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.726
Posted: Mon Apr 23 19:44:21 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 15-May-84 02:38:19 EDT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley
Lines: 31

>   That's it.  If you are renting, and your rent is raised because of changes
> to the apartment that make your life better, go for it.  If not, MOVE OUT!!

> 			Burt Janz @ Axiom Technology, Newton MA

Easy for you to say. Try this in someplace like Berkeley, where the vacancy
rate runs less than 1% for most of the year. Threatening the landlord with
moving out only works when (1) there aren't zillions of people looking to
move in, meaning the landlord isn't in danger of losing money while waiting
for another tenant; and (2) you have someplace else to move into.

Sure, you can find a place if you want to work at it, but this is difficult
when you are also trying to get your dissertation finished at the same
time (which I am), and even more difficult if you are working full-time
(which I am not). Even just after the end of the school year, it can take
a couple of weeks of concentrated effort to find a good place, and this
is the time when there are the most vacancies. This is one reason why
the City Council saw fit to pass a rent control ordinance.

Unfortunately, the rent control ordinance has become part of the problem
instead of part of the solution. One of the reasons why the vacancy rate
is so low is that hordes of Yuppies, who normally represent vastly
superior tenants to impoverished graduate students such as Yours Truly,
have descended on the city in order to take advantage of the phenomenonally
below-market rents which prevail.

                  ____                  Bill Laubenheimer
      ___       /      \       ___      UC-Berkeley Computer Science
     /   \     |  o  o  |     /   \     ucbvax!wildbill
----------------------------------------
          ...Killjoy was here!