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# Letter: City's Rent Hike on Hot Dog Stand Shows Double Standard for Landlords
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/072702-story/
- Published: 2002-07-27T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:34:23.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Pier, #archive-import

*By Robert V. Heldman Santa Monica*

I read with interest your front page story of 07/22/02 “City to Raise Icon’s Rent” in which it was pointed out that the city manager of Santa Monica asked the City Council to raise the rent currently paid by a beachside hot dog stand (Hot Dog on a Stick) from $550 per month to a “market-rate rent” of $2,200 per month — a 300 percent increase. The hot dog stand has been in the same location since 1945.

I, too, like the City Council, am a landlord in Santa Monica but cannot raise rents to “market rate” unless my tenant voluntarily vacates the unit — which the hot dog stand has not done. This year, provided I have pre-paid my tenant’s rent control fees to the Rent Control Board 13 months in advance, I am allowed to increase my tenant’s rent by $11 per month, versus $1,650 per month the city is allowed to increase its tenant’s (the hot dog stand) rent!

In that same article, it was explained that the city ended its month-to-month lease with the Boathouse restaurant on the pier, for which it was receiving $5,559 in basic monthly rent and fees. The city then leased the building to Bubba Gump Shrimp for $12,306, a monthly increase of $6,747 or 120 percent! If I, as a landlord, attempted to replace a perceived undesirable tenant with a more desirable one, I would be prosecuted by the city attorney for “harassment” and subject to considerable penalties and fines.

Is this double standard between a citizen as a landlord and the city as a landlord a beautiful thing or what?

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 27, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/072702.pdf?ref=smdp.com)