When Gavin Newsom was running for mayor, he was criticized by the left for being too pro-business.  After his gay marriage stunt, you don’t hear the lefties criticize the mayor much…until this week.  Newsom vetoed an anti-landlord bill sponsored by Supervisor Chris Daly last Friday afternoon, before leaving for an international trip.  The bill would have required property owners to disclose evictions of disabled or elderly tenants to at showings and open houses.  Newsom supported an amendment which would have required sellers to notify serious buyers that a disabled or elderly tenant was evicted in order to sell the property (which in itself is a silly law), but the Board refused to change the measure.

Newsom’s staff has said that he also will veto another Daly-sponsored bill which would require property owners to appear before the Planning Commission before being allowed to convert a rental property to condos.  The Sups are expected to approve that bill today.

Tenants’ rights groups are outraged by this display of common sense by their mayor and are planning a rally on the steps of City Hall tomorrow.  Here’s the flyer they are circulating:

In the midst of a severe eviction epidemic, Mayor Gavin Newsom is vetoing 2 pieces of legislation aimed at curtailing unjust evictions. The legislation would (1) require Planning Commission hearings on condo conversions (leading to prohibiting TICs created through evictions from becoming condos) and (2) require realtor disclosure of evictions when showing vacant units.

Since he was a Supervisor, Newsom has consistently voted against tenants and endorsed measures which would have repealed rent control. Rumor has it that he will place a rent control repeal measure on the June ballot–we can’t sit by and let him get away with promoting the evictions of tenants.

JOIN US TO RALLY AGAINST GAVIN NEWSOM

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 12 NOON, CITY HALL (POLK ST STEPS)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 24th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.