Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Fair Return

Dear Readers,

Apparently you all took Gilbert’s warning to hide in your bunkers much too seriously. Despite the predictions of a large and unruly turnout, only one lawyer showed up to address rent control at the Nov. 20 Takoma Park City Council session. The pitchfork- and torch-wielding hordes of landlords and tenants are presumably sharpening their tines and trimming their wicks for the December 11th public hearing on the proposals that were unveiled Nov. 20.

The proposed revisions to the city’s rent stabilization ordinance were made by Berkley, California consultant Kenneth Baar, Ph’ D, attorney, expert on rent control, and author of such urban-planning page-turners as “Hungarian land use policy in the transition to a market economy with democratic controls (From planning to markets : housing in eastern Europe).”

The mayor was so pleased with the proposed revisions she did six cartwheels across the council podium. Actually, she just smiled, but for our reserved Mayor Kathy Porter that’s almost the equivalent of 6 cartwheels. She praised Dr. Barr for delivering what she felt was a fairer, simpler, more cost effective plan, as the council had requested.

In a nutshell. Dr. Baar recommends that the city’s rent stabilization ordinance be revised like so:

Continued at granolapark


- Gilbert

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