Take Action Now to Stop Your Rent From Skyrocketing!

Contact Your City Council Member to Urge Them to
Oppose Council Member Parks' Earthquake Proposal
Which Will Raise Your Rent and Might Displace You!

LA City Council Member Bernard Parks' motion is a direct attack on low income and working renters in this city.

Parks wants tenants to bear the full burden of any earthquake retrofitting costs, while giving landlords a complete free pass and providing them significant rent increases by allowing them to by-pass rent control laws.

Under the guise of saying he wants to provide earthquake safety, Parks action will shake up the lives of tenants with a massive economic earthquake.

Other Council Members, and even the Apartment Association, are seeking state bonds funds to pay for the retrofitting in an effort to avoid economic calamity to both tenants and landlords.

Yet, Parks states he wants a simpler solution. And that simpler solution is sucking more money out of the pockets of those who can least afford to pay.

Parks also appears to be confused about the rent control law. He states that he wants to allow landlords to recover the full costs of the retrofitting, not just 50%. But, the rent control currently allows that for this type of work, but there are protections to tenants built in to cap the rent increases and to provide for temporary or permanent relocation benefits.

What it appears that Parks really wants to do is to eliminate those tenants protections by getting rid of the rent increase cap and relocation benefits.

With over 60% residents tenants, Los Angeles is a city of renters. Unfortunately, over 50% of renters are paying unaffordable rents. They can't afford to pay more. But, Bernard Parks wants them to.

Tell the LA City Council to Oppose Bernard Parks Rent Increase Proposal.

Help Make This Outrageous Proposal Dead on Delivery to the City Council.

Los Angeles City Council Contact Information:

Write & Mail to:

LA City Councilmember ______________

LA City Hall - Room ____________

200 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Email & Call:

Los Angeles City Council Members:

GILBERT CEDILLO

213- 485-7001 Rm 470

councilmember.cedillo@lacity.org

PAUL KREKORIAN

213-473-7002 Rm 435

councilmember.krekorian@lacity.org

BOB BLUMENFIELD

213-473-7003 Rm 415

councilmember.blumenfield@lacity.org

TOM LABONGE

213-485-3337 Rm 480

councilmember.labonge@lacity.org

PAUL KORETZ

213-473-7005 Rm 440

paul.koretz@lacity.org

NURY MARTINEZ

213-473-7006 Rm 425

councilmember.martinez@lacity.org

FELIPE FUENTES

213-473-7007 Rm 455

councilmember.fuentes@lacity.org

BERNARD PARKS

213-473-7008 Rm 460

councilmember.parks@lacity.org

CURREN PRICE, JR

213-473-7009 Rm 420

councilmember.price@lacity.org

HERB WESSON, JR

213-473-7010 Rm 430

councilmember.wesson@lacity.org

MIKE BONIN

213-473-7011 Rm 475

councilmember.bonin@lacity.org

MITCHELL ENGLANDER

213-473-7012 Rm 405

councilmember.englander@lacity.org

MITCH O'FARRELL

213-473-7013 Rm 450

councilmember.ofarrell@lacity.org

JOSE HUIZAR

213-473-7014 Rm 465

councilmember.huizar@lacity.org

JOE BUSCAINO

213-473-7015 Rm 410

councildistict15@lacity.org


* In case the email bounces back from a specific Council Member, please call the office of that Council Member to get correct email address.

I just got an email about the issue, that Parks wants to pass along the costs of quake retrofits onto tenants. Stop that proposal. It's not fair.

Costs of capital improvements are in the rent increases which are between 3% and 8% a year. We haven't seen inflation above the 4% level in over 20 years. In the past 5 years, it's been very low, as low as 1%. So the rent increases have exceeded inflation substantially.

Furthermore, more study of other cities should be done, quickly. San Francisco is pushing repairs, which is good, but it's going to take rent controlled units off the market due to unsafe construction. I suspect that will happen in LA as well, which is also undergoing gentrification. To offset the number of rent-controlled units taken off the market, we need ways to put more units under rent control. Rent control is one of the things allowing families to stay in LA amidst gentrification. Move the cut-off date from 1978 to 1988, to slow the increase of rents in those newer units, which are already 25 years old. A unit that is 25 years old is nearly fully amortized - an investor buying the property at 11x the gross income would almost have fully paid off the investment, and the unit is either going to be torn down or undergo regular repair. If it's torn down, a much more expensive apartment will replace it, and more families will be ejected.

Finally, if costs are to be passed on to tenants, there is already a provision in the current laws that allow the landlord to pass 50% of the cost onto the tenant. If 100% is passed onto the tenant, it'll lead to corruption. The landlord won't have any skin in the game, and won't negotiate a good price for the repair. If the tenant is going to pay all the costs, what'll happen is that construction companies will price-gouge the tenants. In fact, I would not be surprised if the landlords and the construction companies collude to raise the price, then the construction company would kick money back to the landlord.

I support retrofits and safety, but I also support tenants fairness.

Scary 'news' not-new...another attempt to gouge those who are working but renting from wealthier OWNERS [ not landLords, not lords at all ! ].

Please help clarify here and elsewhere :

do we only contact our own local City Council person ?

Will any others care or take our contacts w/them if not in their district ?

[Great info listed here clearly, thanx ]

DO MORE THAN JUST ONE OUTREACH TO CITY COUNCIL who is suppose to answer and respond to their constituents...tho they seldom do.... Call AND write AND email....with name and address when possible....or with another's if that is helpful.

Where else can this be reposted and exposed to elicit more than the usual American Passive Spectator sportship that allows the worst to happen with laments coming later - too late ...

Please name some actual re-sources or possible sites/ places that will help Activate or Support or Act to insure that property owners dont rule everyone else's lives and profit from them too.

Where and what is contact information for any Renters helpers or where info on meetings, petitions, actions are done ?

Who are people to contact for us to VOLUNTEER NOW to prevent this next attempt to hijack our City with it's always-increased-rent-annually-already-poorer-renters sitting back waiting for the 'other person to do it' ?

Can someone provide the Name or emails of those who are 'our leaders' or already more involved and KNOWledgable than us, 'little people'...who pay and pay and own nothing. Those involved in any organizations already formed ? Or any new orgs being formed as we write now ?

Who else has influence over our [ our ? ] City Councilors so they dont go bezzerk [spelling is correct here ] buzzardk and listen to those who dont give a care about anything but their money, profits, budgets and like to pass-it-on to anyone 'else' or down-the-long-hill-for-later when they booted out of their govt'l offices ?

There must be better ways than we have so far found to unite and create some positive motions [out of fear ...if that is all that arouses most people who prefer their TV to talking/ writing live to any stranger they've never seen before ] .

Can we do something definitive and useful from this site ?
Are there more read or noticed ones also [not denigrating this one but the viewpoints are often limited and stuck in 1 place]...or go where else locally in LA City?

Any other govt entity have influence over city, like County, State, other govt officials that can 'oversee' some of the foolish attempts to break the city's stability [the renters hold the place in some place, without which the city totters...]

The benefactors of the earthquake reconstructive work are the OWNERS, not the renters....

the renters pay rent for a stable, safe, inhabitable apartment, not for the property upkeep which should-be-an-owner's-obligation, as their property values [and rents] keep increasing [rents never go down !!! never ! ] . They should not ever be obligated to take the responsibility of the richer owners and pay for what is not so beneficial to them in the long run.

If an earthquake occurs, any time, soon or later, the retrofitting may or not be that helpful, regardless of what construction experts like to claim. They also make $$$ from the work and materials involved and are not altruistic in their fear mongering as are others also.

Who else can we ask to JOIN a movement to protect renters from this extracting more $$$ from the the Rent Control Ordinance that intended to PROTECT renters, not find loopholes to gouge them more.

"Those of you in water-short regions – MOVE. Do it NOW while you still have “choice”. You will soon have no choice, it’s only a matter of time and then you’ll be looking for a place for your sleeping bag among all the other refugees.

Last year, over 30,000,000 refugees were looking for a place to live – what do you suppose it’s going to be like when it’s 3 billion or 6 billion bodies you’re having to step over to find a place to park?

We’re only now at the very beginning of the ‘effects’ that will worsen each year.

At this rate of temperature increase the temperature anomaly in 33 years will be more than 8°C (7.26°C + 0.8°C, the present temperature anomaly) and the world will be facing total deglaciation and extinction between 2047 and 2053.

Although still not widely understood – no life can survive the temperature increases projected (which if you research even further, range over 15°C).


Deglaciation means rapid sea level rise, inundating the coastlines and cities of the world. Over 3 billion people will be displaced if they are still alive. These temperatures also mean global food production will drop to virtually zero sometime between now and 2050.


The growing body of evidence is pointing to “worse and worse” with the ultimate “worst case scenario” now a 100% likelihood.

It’s more than missing ice and rising temperatures and drought or floods that we face – the real culprit is human ignorance and apathy. Our hubris is still with us, even growing in America – the land of the stupid – with most yet believing (without evidence) that we can either solve the crisis or that it’s not actually happening.

Both views are dead wrong as the evidence shows. But I’m not going to engage such mindless stupidity anymore, it’s robbery of my time, my life, and what future I / you have left. I do not owe idiocy anything. Better to spend it doing what you love and embracing those you love."

and a comment:

[quote]I’m right there with you – done trying to convince people about the unfolding climate disaster. They’ve all taken the blue pill and stayed in the matrix. Hard to blame them b/c what’s unfolding is heartbreaking. On the other hand, justice is blind, and we are all to blame in some way or another, so her sentence will be doled out to all of us one way or another. As you said, time to go enjoy the time we have left. Thanks again for all the great commentary.[/quote]