Unintended Evictions - Matt Smith gets it right
From the January 18th issue of the SF Weekly, Matt Smith makes the logical argument that rent control and Chris Daly's eviction protection measures have done nothing but increase evictions and run up housing prices.
"The law of unintended consequences is more than a popular turn of phrase. It's a fundament of economics describing a situation in which government policies reverberate into unplanned, inadvertent mayhem."
"History may have never seen a greater thicket of problems begat by the consequences of official solutions, however, than in San Francisco. One of these brambles is a 1979 rent-control law passed to protect the poor."
"During the ensuing years, scholars wrote libraries of descriptions of ways rent-control laws, San Francisco's included, help push apartments out of the reach of people who need them most. Laws such as S.F.'s cause landlords to take units off the market. They encourage people to squat in cheap units far larger than they need. They motivate people to live decades in the same apartments, and thus never free up space for new tenants. And they have spawned a pied-à-terre culture, in which many S.F. residents retain their in-town rent-controlled apartments while buying country homes, thus keeping cheap apartments from people who truly need them."
"Chris Daly last week made headlines for winning preliminary Board of Supervisors approval for two pieces of legislation falsely touted as "tenant protection measures." Daly's legislation does nothing to stop this jetsam of S.F. humanity being thrown onto the street. To make matters worse, Daly's bills have the theoretical potential to actually increase evictions."
"By reducing the possibility that owners can convert their tenancy-in-common units to condominiums, Daly may actually increase demand for a type of pseudo-condominium loan that allows owners to live in a tenancy-in-common agreement without being tied to their partners financially"
"If the loans become hot, more banks will offer them, the interest rates will drop, and speculators will begin seeing profit in ever-larger buildings, evicting tenants as they go. For tenants, this is not an attractive prospect. Unintended consequences rarely are."
I've been talking about these loans since last summer, but I'm happy that someone from the press is finally pointing out the obvious. 'Unintended consequences' is just what Daly's legacy will be...
It's a good thing our Mayor sees the reality of Daly's silliness and is vetoing both of those misguided measures.
posted by Matt Lanning @ 3:26 PM
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SF WEEKLY'S MATT SMITH CAUGHT LYING IN 2007 JOURNALISM SCANDAL - PAID REPORTER OR PAID HITMAN?
Matt Smith, lead hitman-reporter for a weekly, free, alternative tabloid owned by news conglomerate, Media News has been reported for scandalous journalism. Smith recently wrote a hit-hate piece on an Examiner blogger that was full of inaccurate facts, out of context remarks, false quotes, slander, scandalous accusations, lack of fact checking and lies. What was his motive? Jealousy? Hate? Malice? Envy of the blogger's popularity? Was he actually trying to eliminate the competition to his rag and himself? Or did he make innocent mistakes – and is only incompetent?
Smith has been accused and found guilty in the past by the MSM of false reporting. In a serious journalism scandal in 2007- that of false and inaccurate news reporting - either on purpose or by a lack of fact checking. So even though Matt Smith is paid and edited, he apparently can publish lies, false facts and misquotes on the SF Weekly - and get away with it - WITH PAY. SF Weekly reporter, Smith, is guilty of a journalism scandal. He was caught and outed for unfair and inaccurate reporting of news – by making substantial reporting and researching errors with the results leading to libelous or defamatory statements. Perhaps Matt Smith’s media scandal was a deliberate attempt to promote himself or a means to further a political goal, or benefit his career. His paper did not deny the allegations – thereby proving his guilt.
According to Wikipedia, Journalism scandals are high-profile incidents or acts, whether intentional or accidental, that run contrary to the generally accepted ethics and standards of journalism, or otherwise violate the 'ideal' mission of journalism: to report news events and issues accurately and fairly.
SF Newspaper, Beyond Chron reported on Smith’s journalistic reporting and research errors … Read complete article @ http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=5069
“It is no secret that the SF Weekly’s Matt Smith has trouble getting his facts straight …”
Smith apparently saw a total lobbying amount of $4.8 million on the Clinic’s most recent 990 form and ignored the fact that this was the maximum amount the group was authorized to spend. There is a line item just below that number that asks for the “Total lobbying expenditures.” Had Smith read more carefully, he would have noted that this amount totaled $728.00. In other words, Smith’s total – adopted and quoted without question by a sitting SF Supervisor – was wrong by over $4 million.
Smith’s error may be based more on malice than ineptitude - there is another line that asks about “Grassroots lobbying expenditures.” That amount also totaled $728.00. Smith ignored the title of the key section, which reads "Lobbying ceiling amount." To most people, "ceiling" meets the top amount that can be spent, not the actual expenditure.”
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