Let’s start with the Council stirring in its sleep, which we noticed at the VERY END of the last meeting, Tuesday the 24th.
Longtime readers may remember that last year (and maybe two years ago) Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava kept talking about maybe helping Anaheim tenants a little by figuring out how the City could somehow ENFORCE California’s weak Tenant Protection Act of 2019. Because (as I said, weak) one of the weakest parts of that legislation was it included no ENFORCEMENT MECHANISM. A few cities and counties elected to enforce it, but not Anaheim. So, if your rent went up by more than 10%, or you were evicted illegally, you are shit out of luck unless you know your rights AND can afford an attorney.
So, that would have been a moderately good thing if Natalie had figured out how the City could enforce that for Anaheim’s tenants (55% of our population), and over a year ago she publicly requested (partly at my urging) that staff put together a plan for that and come back to report. We never heard about this again, Natalie stopped answering my calls or e-mails, so we figured she’d just lost interest in tenant protection. But then OUT OF THE BLUE, last night…
What happened, what has happened lately, to make Natalie and also Ashleigh suddenly remember the plight of Anaheim renters?
Oh I KNOW! Tenants United Anaheim has filed, and started getting signatures, for an ambitious rent control initiative in this town. Which will help tenants approximately 50 times more than what Natalie had even been flirting with last year.
I hope she DOES finally move forward with what she was suggesting, it would be some progress from the status quo, but it is NOT going to take the air out of our balloon, not one little bit. (Who can forget the way Natalie gleefully kneecapped Ada’s Measure A a few years ago by stripping out the most sympathetic part of it – the Sexual Shenanigans Alarms for Maids – and passed it independently?
Two things I noticed in this brief clip – Ashleigh and Natalie are smart well-spoken ladies, Ashleigh is a former federal prosecutor, but the way they struggled to find the right words to describe what they were trying to talk about shows that tenant protections is really something they don’t think about much.
Also, when I saw Greg Garcia answer (for he IS the interim City Manager) I started to wonder if maybe it was recently departed CM Vanderpool who was dragging his feet on this, or even convinced Natalie (who thinks the very world of him!) that it was a stupid idea. That is all. But we did hold a press conference the following day on City Hall steps, and this is what *I* had to say:
[Vern TUA video]
Moving along with the Anaheim news, our good friend Wally Courtney (a realtor who strongly opposed our last two attempted giveaways for the Angel Stadium to billionaire team owner Arte Moreno, became alarmed that the same shit was happening again (see VOC article) and sent in THIS letter to Council which is worth reading:
Dear City of Anaheim:
I have been a commercial real estate broker in Anaheim for over 40 years.
I was an outspoken critic of the previous sale terms of the stadium property and continue today to be concerned about the terms of any future sale.
I have recently read stories about city staff discussing another stadium sale and meeting to discuss the CA Surplus Land Act.
The Surplus Land Act requires that there be “surplus land”. The stadium lease has a requirement that the Landlord (the City of Anaheim) provide “12,500 surface parking spaces”, thus there is NO surplus land. Additionally, the Act requires that a governmental agency take action to declare land as surplus…which Anaheim has not done (and should not do).
Simply put, if you sell the stadium and property to the Angels, you should sell it for its actual value. If the Angels then develop the property, they are not regulated by the Surplus Land Act.
I hope that the City of Anaheim and executive staff will take this position with the State of California in order to sell the property at the “real market value” and not based on any discount because of an affordable housing “requirement”.
Additionally, if/when the City of Anaheim does sell the stadium and parking lot to the Angels, you should be aware of the actual value (which is NOT $150,000,000 for 150 acres).Obviously, land value has increased since the previous canceled sale…and did you know that No Value was given to the stadium structure in that deal! Of course there is value to a stadium that gets about 3 million paying visitors every year. A new stadium could cost over $2 Billion to build.
Land for the “George Apartments” at 2211 E. Orangewood ( directly next to stadium parking) sold over 10 years ago for $4.4mil/acre. Land at Magnolia/Broadway in Anaheim recently sold for over $5mil/acre.
Do the math! 150 acres at $5mil/acre + a “used” stadium = OVER $1 BILLION !!
I hope that you will use this information in order to get the absolute highest market value for this property to benefit the Anaheim taxpayers. We are counting on you!
Thank you,
Wally Courtney.
Finally, the continuing Ament Follies!
As I write this, disgraced former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce Todd Ament is in an LA court trying to convince straight-arrow Judge Aenlle-Rocha to let him withdraw his guilty pleas for felonies that he most certainly committed – a bold move! Actually the decision is probably already handed down as I write at 5. No way I was driving to LA at 3 on a Friday. Almost nobody expects the Judge to okay Todd’s retreat from accountability. It might be worth attending his sentencing a couple weeks from now. But some of my friends, worried that Todd could get off scot-free today, sent in “Victim Impact letters” to the Judge. Let’s see, here’s one from the People’s Homeless Task Force leader Dave Duran: