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.
5 comments:
The San Francisco Chronicle is right: I think Page Mill Properties is being treated unfairly. Sure, Page Mill may not be the most diplomatic landlord that it could be, but they have actually made positive changes since they took over the apartments. There are a handful of critics of Page Mill, but they are more interested in tearing down the company[--and harming EPA--than they are interested in positive change for our community. I think Page Mill is doing a good job. I don't like that my rent was raised, but I like the positive impact they have had on our community. I will take that any day of the week over the destructive behavior of Chris Lund and his four or maybe five supporters. They have made a mountain out of a mole hill. Let's all focus on the bigger issues here: fixing our city, providing jobs and getting the criminals and drug dealers off our streets. Just look at the police officer that was almost killed this weekend. This is where we should be concentrating our efforts on fixing our community.
It is time to stop fighting and put aside everyone's differences. It is good that the Page Mill people are willing to talk with the city. Let's hope that the city is smart and puts aside its differences to and that everyone puts down their swords and stops fighting. The landlord is trying to do a good job and so is the city. Now they must meet in the middle for the interests of all of us. There are too many things that we need to accomplish as a community. We need positive change, just like President Obama is trying to do! We will never do anything positive if all we do is fight. I hope the city sits down with the landord and work together. There has been good progress recently at WoodlandPark as the landlord is starting community programs for kids. That is a positive change that we all should be happy with.
I have a couple of thoughts here. First, no one should think that these comments are from the San Francisco Chronicle. They are rather from a rogue video blogger named Zennie who clearly has not done any fact checking, doesn't understand the least about East Palo Alto, and is probably being paid by Page Mill Propaganda.
Second, I think one needs be aware of how absolutely disingenuous Mr. Shore is. How is it that you claim to be interested in "sitting down with the city" when you are actively filing lawsuit after lawsuit against the city, even when the city has done nothing wrong. Rather, it is Page Mill that is going on the offensive, breaking the law, attacking tenants and city employees, and then filing many bizarre suits against the city. I mean, c'mon, how many honest people file lawsuits trying to take away alleyways from the city? Maybe I should try to use public retirement money to sue East Palo Alto and take away University Avenue....hmmm, don't want to give Mr. Shore any ideas here. Or is that his idea of "being fair" and of "wanting to sit down".
Let us face it, actions speak louder than words or fake PR flacks. Page Mill seems by every outward action to want nothing else but to destroy the City of East Palo Alto. That's a strange way of being part of the City or of trying to "be friends." You can't be friends with people who are trying to rob you blind, especially when they have an army of paid henchman out there trying to do exactly this while they speak about peace, love and brotherhood.
Page Mill's lies need to stop, and then maybe they can stop whining about how badly they are being treated. The City has made a few minor mistakes, true, but Page Mill has used CalPERS money to wage endless litigation wars to prolong their obviously indefensible investment scheme. Perhaps they never even meant to do anything but litigate? Probably, though that doesn't prevent them from sending out the clowns to pretend that they are nice guys, just wanting to talk. Watch your back, EPA!
-an actual tenant, woodland avenue
hmm. First two comments posted within eleven minutes of each other. With the same writing style, with public relations laced language about "positive impact" that NO tenant would use to speak about Page Mill. Which page mill employee wrote them, I wonder? I think I know....
Heck even their promotion video is filled with paid speakers and employees who are not identified as such. Page Mill: actions speak louder than words. Drop your frivolous suits against the city and then we'll see who has good faith. Everything else is smoke and mirrors.
Page Mill Properties is NOT being treated unfairly. They are dishonest and greedy. One of the post's refers to a "handful" of Page ill Property critics. Are you kidding? There are *hundreds* of us.
I am a capitalist and I believe in the landlord's right to make a profit. But with the privilege of owning property comes much responsibility. At the heart of this mess is a predatory equity scheme executed on behalf of CalPERS.
We have to concentrate on fixing ALL aspects of the city, including predatory, unsavory landlords who have picked on the wrong group. BTW, the group has more than just a few supporters of Dr. Lund. We are supporters of justice, equality and fairness for all of us tenants. It's not a popularity contest of Dr. Lund vs. Page Mill, nor is it about charismatic leadership, being a follower of any of that distracting hooey.
Many, many of us appreciate Dr. Lund's work, and we all know these issues are beyond just 1 or a handful of people. THOUSANDS of us have been affected negativity, be it from illegally raised rents to harassment to fear, whether we still live in a unit owned by Page Mill or not.
That ridiculous blogger, Zennie62, is, frankly, a moronic non-issue; he is also a distraction tactic who hasn't a clue as to the issues he references. He isn't a journalist. He's just a blogger, and not a very good one at that.
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