Sunday, April 19, 2009

Who is being treated unfairly?

An ongoing battle over rent increases has raged for months between the City of East Palo Alto and Page Mill Properties. The battle has been fought in court with the city losing two of the court cases brought against it by the company. This entire issue has pitted the rights of the tenants against the right of the landlord to raise rents.

An East Palo Alto tenant group and local activists protested the rent increases with marches from East Palo Alto to Page Mill Poperties' administrative offices in Palo Alto.

In an interview with East Palo Alto Today, Page Mill Properties' General Counsel Jim Shore said that Page Mill Properties would now like to work positively with the City of East Palo Alto. You can read his remarks in the East Palo Alto Today article which discusses the latest court ruling in the ongoing legal battle.

Since the interview, Page Mill Properties has filed another lawsuit against the city charging that the East Palo Alto Rent Stabilization Board wrongly denied 44 claims from Page Mill Properties for exemption from rent control.

Now an article has appeared on the SFGate.com website alleging that Page Mill Properties has been treated unfairly. We'd like to know if you would agree. You can read all of the articles that have appeared in East Palo Alto Today and on the EPA Today website about Page Mill Properties and the rent issue.

Given all that you know about the current dispute between Page Mill Properties and its tenants and the company's legal battles with the City of East Palo Alto, whom do you think is being treated unfairly? Is it the City of East Palo Alto? Is it Page Mill Properties' tenants? Or, is it Page Mill Properties? We would like to have your comments on this issue. You can post your comments below.

Updated 4/20/09 at 6:21 p.m.