Rent Control in LA still rises, not to worry renters can pay more still .....

Also see a comment on LA Rents article which contains this COMMENT: original article:

Los Angeles Right to Housing Collective Fights for Tenant Rights
by Los Angeles Community Action Network http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/05/239243.php

The lies that "rents have gone down" does not include anyone who has been a renter in 1 location ...because no landowner has ever lowered the rent previously required.

Maybe a few places new renters are paying less than those who leased on before, where rents were raised higher and higher by greedy landowner BUSINESSmen, maybe. If over-priced and then lowered to what renters can afford to pay, then only have rents been lowered in any way...from dream rents to real rents...

but anyone who lives in a rental, has not paid less than any month before to retain them...especially if responsible, decent renter is there, maybe a smile or a 'hello , maybe not even that, but the CUMULATIVE RISE adding up each year makes the doubling of rents in the last 20 years... tho no one has had their actual earnings rise like that w/o being criminal...like landowners are legally being.

The ceiling with Rent Control is to keep even the greediest from sending everyone out of Los Angeles because they cant find work here and cant pay exorbitant rents.

Elders, seniors, disabled are paying 80% of their income or 100% on rent alone, no counting utilities. I am. Food banks are saviors and do not increase their fees yearly. The old lie that 'dont pay more than 30% of income on shelter/ home/ rent" has long ago been found to not be realistic.

The homeowners apartment owners associations with their attorneys and PR depts sell our politicians convenient lies like "they need to spend time monitoring the interests on the security deposits collected from renters' which is Work they have to recompensed for. Read the Rent Control reasons for why they keep increasing the same old same OLD falling apart apartments, with minimum repairs legally required done only.

And apt owners are IMPROVING THEIR OWN PROPERTIES when repairs are made, which increases or keeps their values for themselves, yet want to charge renters for these repairs in any and every way.

who are these same old greedy un-compassionate and uncaring BUSINESS OWNERS claiming they need to increase their profits every single year ? yep. apt owners....

and on Pat Morrison KPCC show, they framed themselves as "mom and pop businesses"...how many of those poor ole folk own buildings worth at least over $500,000 now ? huh?

such liars, greedy people with no 'customer service' skills and who hide behind voice mail only and post office box addresses to boot !

no requirement to be reachable directly in Rent Control laws either. What is fair in LA ? only in Pomona, the animals on display."

Please write / call / communicate your needs and concerns to LA RENT CONTROL office and to your Los Angeles City Councilperson any time of year, and express your outrage or worry or suggestion or comment directly. They need to hear more than from apt. bldg owners and their lawyers and hired guns.

{c} maryjanie 2010

Our failed earnings

as sidestepper 2/4/08 [also on Indymedia Los Angeles ]

I just heard an educated economist name Jason Fulton at UCLA say "that the average American earned $1,000 less in 2007 than in 2000" in non-inflated dollars that is....so whatever words are used [recession or not, economic whatever word is convenient to explain what the conditions are that we are trying to live-on, it doesnt matter technically.

What matters is what we Can Afford to pay for our livelihood basics, and they are definitely MORE expensive on the rise.... while most salaries are not raised,e.g. CA pensions were raised by <>

and Social Security raises are not equivalent to % of inflated daily prices. Gas, food, rent, energy, et al.
and

Those who do have jobs are working much more than the usual, previously expected 40 hrs... so by the hour the rates are not comparable to unionized rates which at least regulate some kind of salary stability. Those who think they are 'doing fine' are often also in credit card debt to feel that way, tho some may be solvent,and others in denial and loving every purchase of it.

Many who are looking for jobs may find one but the insecurity of being "laid off" unexpectedly, or of having a medical emergency,where even the copayment may be a big deal. Other next-jobs are less in quality and human-rights effects than in past times, and the illusion of "I can move up easily" is the motto but not the reality of many, with or without that now-irrelevant-but-necessary college degree [with loan still outstanding].

Do I sound like doomed-view writer here ? Yep.

Can't see anything yet that looks promising in our economic or political future. And 'dreams & promises' are only those illusions we enjoy until they Pop and reveal we are still 'here'....the same corrupted place.

What are we exporting that is going to make us return to our pre-cummulative inflated levels ? Then [add up CPI, not core CPI either per year in your city {while Los Angeles has a very very high rate, maybe another place is more normalized}and what do we manufacture, create that is profitably exported from old USA?

The old American Dream of moving up, having our children live a better life than we did, work hard and save for our future and progeny....has evaporated ...a while back... and how is it to
return? unless we are recently immigrated from worse circumstances? from Less dreamy nations/ locations...and then this looks pretty good, for a while anyhow....

Yes, we are well off - comparitively..but moving off that prior USA optimistic place we still believe but not longer live out ... into where other nation-Cultures are...we have it pretty good ! Admittedly our 'why do we now have less ?' & 'We are entitled & spoiled children' attitudes are giving us this let-down perception...while most other lands, nations, & tribes scrub hard for 1/2 of we take for granted daily. The American Dream Dump only means being equivalent to most other peoples in the world, not below them ...yet.

we need a recess ...at least.

I know. My current dollar is not holding me up, as my carefully saved cache [to save this elder from being dependent and hated by her kids] is quickly being depleted, from dollar-value-gone to dipping-in when no one wants to hire an experienced professional educated 'senior'....because the older are not sexy, not fun. Woa is us in this 'youth claiming' society. And we are many,not so few now.

But as I hear it, hope is not currently possible for others even younger and more competitive either, and "today's jobs" are made to squeeze more out of each worker {See Barbara Erienrich "Nickle & Dime-ing it..."book & the classified ads too } trying to please their bosses. Shareholders be damned !

Recessions may come & go, but unemployment figures have been climbing and not receding since last recession...and they may continue...and security & loyalty are no longer known as virtues or values but cost-effects to be discarded.

The experienced and disillusioned know how to continue on, in any circumstaces, but do you ? the hope for a better future kind ? Can you do without all the purchases you now make and expect to keep up? Work more hours is ok with you ? Living in large urban non-hospitable smogged environments sound healthy to you ? Govt corruption unchecked while taxed on you ok ? Where are we now ?