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Campaign signs not always tenants’

Paul Hogarth
Monday October 28, 2002

To the Editor: 

 

Robert Cabrera, president of the Berkeley Property Owners Association, says (Daily Planet, Oct. 23) that landlords won’t lower rents on vacant units if it means they’ll get stuck with a tenant who actually wants to stay in the community for more than a year. He should know – he has a lot of vacant units right now. 

I have noticed that many of Cabrera’s buildings currently have “Shirley Dean for Mayor” signs in the windows. A friend of mine lives in one of his buildings, and she told me that all of the Dean signs in the building are on the windows of vacant apartments. It is a testament to landlords’ willingness to keep an apartment off the market, in the hopes that they will find a “sucker” who will pay a high rent, that we find so many Dean signs around town. Voters should be aware that not all of these signs were put up by tenants who actually live in the building. 

 

Paul Hogarth 

Rent Board Commissioner 

Berkeley