Renters and apartment owners must equally share the financial burden of earthquake retrofitting, the Los Angeles City Council agreed Wednesday, capping a more than year-long debate that allows the city to begin implementing the most sweeping mandatory seismic laws in the nation. [...]
Owners can pass half the retrofit costs to tenants through rent increases over a 10-year period, with a maximum increase of $38 per month.
— latimes.com
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7 Comments
Ah, the pipe-columned, soft-storied carports of the 'sixties. These have ended up causing lots of problems.
The landlords will get a lot more than half the cost when they start selling the retrofit as an amenity...
I was living few doors down to 'La Traviata' during Northridge earthquake. That small section of Santa Monica was devastated. A lot of those soft-storied carports were bent out of shape with floors hanging down and crooked.
Oh, by the way, the rent just went up.
Many of these apartments filled with tenants from rent control days of Santa Monica to date. I have some friends who still pay +,- $500 and their "new" neighbors $2,500-3,000. Of course, my friends have been living in the same apt for over 30 yrs.+, and c/wouldn't afford the new rates for the area. SM is now out of reach to people except the tech workers whose rent subsidized by the company they work for, ie; silicon beach.
Rent control is one of the reasons Santa Monica is so overpriced and full of retiree nimbys.
I guess now renters will have to ask if their new pad will go up $38 per month. Makes no sense why they should pay. They don't own the building or their unit as one would in a condo.
Obviously you are misguided about Santa Monica and its rent control/history, or, you are an invincible 20 something conservative to blame it on retirees. Locally, greedy speculative landlords who are Donald Trump types use the same rhetoric over and over for years.
I have lived in Santa Monica since 70's for few decades (though, I don't live there anymore) and saw countless political, speculative and social arguments on the subject as I saw city change in front of my eyes. Rent control is one of the big reason that the city still has a reasonably diverse population which makes it beautiful and livable for all. If and once the rent control is gone, it will become Manhattan on the bluffs. Things are going in that direction for some time now anyway.
Here is a little more recent background before you blame older people.
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2015/03/ellis_act_rent_control_evictions_santa_monica.php
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