By Frank Palardy Santa Monica
There are endless comments about rent control while the same benefit given to owners through property tax control is constantly overlooked. Property tax came out of the same movement and has a much bigger impact. Renters are forced to pay higher fees for less service because owners don’t pay their share. Meanwhile, you can’t afford to buy yourself. The real issue here is owners increasingly think because they’re worth more in dollars, they’re worth more in general. This is plain bigotry and nothing new. Santa Monica has always been about bigotry and corruption going back to when Raymond Chandler set his novels here. This recent scandal about our old ladies is beyond even what Chandler could have written. Go ahead and take away rent control and get rid of property tax at the same time. While you’re at it get rid of all the other benefits that have accumulated like schools, sewage systems, roads and whatnot. Let us fight for our place to live with our own hands. Somehow I doubt the Golays and other landlords will do so well in that world, and maybe it would be a better place.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 27, 2006. Read the original PDF.