The Bleaching of San Francisco: Extreme Gentrification and Suburbanized Poverty in the Bay Area

[displacedtexan]

75. You're absolutely correct!

We live smack dab in the middle of Sf (the Inner Richmond) across the street from GG Park, and all of our young techie friends are looking for vacay homes on the Russian River. This is how it starts.

And for those of you still confused, landlords can't raise the rent more that 1 or 2 percent each year. They can, however, make you miserable enough to move out (which lets them out of your relocation payment). See, if a landlord wants to live in your apartment, s/he can force you out under the Ellis act, but s/he has to pay you quite a bit (sliding scale based on your length of time there, rent, deposits, and your age if you're over 60). There are a few more legit reasons why you can legally be forced out, but it costs the landlord, and they'd rather just run you off. When you're gone, they can offer your place at the current going rate.

We currently pay $3000 per month for a 2 bed/1bath place in a boutique bldg with a European courtyard half a block from the museum entrance to the park. The new neighbors next door are paying $4000 for a dark, dank interior apt the same size. The woman who moved out of there was paying $1600. Her daughter married a movie star, and she moved to L.A.

The googlers don't want to live in Livermore or Palo Alto. I can't blame them. They're like suburbs looking for cities: miles and miles of strip malls. And the googlers are complaining about the human excrement and drug deals going on outside their trendy loft conversion bldgs downtown. They have a point, but they should've researched the neighborhood before signing the lease, IMHO.

Anyway, the problem isn't nearly as simple as reporters pretend it is. The city is magnificent, and I'm having an absolute blast living here after more than a decade on Capitol Hill!