CommentsA VIEW FROM HERE - In reviewing the campaign statements for the Fab Four Los Angeles Mayoral Candidates (Bass, Buscaino, DeLeon and Feuer), there is no discernible policy difference. Thus, their campaigns are fungible.
Over five years ago on September 21, 2017, CityWatch wrote What if Angelenos Stopped Paying the Wall Street Tax? http://bit.ly/2xjrJEt. As the article explained, the Wall Street Tax is simple. The city fraudulently hypes the price of housing. Thus, mortgages are fraudulently high, forcing people to take out mortgage far above the actual market price. (Also, the higher the sales price, the higher the property taxes and the greater the city’s income.) One way to artificially increase the cost of housing is Spot Zoning.
The lower the zoning density, the fewer families who live on a lot. Thus, an R-1 lot costs less than a multi-unit lot. By definition, R-1 lots are for family homes without any income producing ability. Multi-unit construction is actually a commercial operation, and since it generates income, it is worth more than single family home. Because Spot Zoning allows developers to infringe on R-1 areas, the family who wants a home has to outbid the developer who will add rental units. The Living Space value is always lower than the Developer Space value.
Thus, any rental unit on an R-1 property drives up the value of that property. ADU’s do not reduce housing costs! They always increase housing costs. When a house with an ADU sells, its sales price goes into the comps and the next seller wants the same higher price. If a buyer notes that there is not an ADU, the seller merely says, “you can add one. You are buying the right to be a mini-developer.” (Not only does the owner pay to construct the ADU, but property taxes increase. Also, Family Millennials are not in the market for either AUDs or multi-units; something which Wokers fail to mention.)
For some loony reason, Wokers believe that if they say the multi-unit project in a single family neighborhood is for poor people, the laws of economics are suspended. In reality, when a widow dies and her out-of-state kids sell the old homestead to a poverty pimp for affordable housing, the children demand a premium price. Show me a seller who says, “Since you will build for poor people, I will sell below market value.”
Los Angeles newest and most ardent worker carpetbagger, CD Councilmember Nithya Raman, wants 100% poverty projects to be built in single family areas. Council file number 21-0972 There is a logic to Raman’s approach. 100% poverty projects will qualify for Section 8 Housing vouchers. Thus, poverty projects are more likely to have tenants than market rate units under SB 9 and SB projects.
Whether multi-unit housing is for wealthier people and constructed with private funds or whether it is Raman’s poverty housing constructed with city money from bonds, the developer will pay way above the Living Value for the home. The destruction of each R-1 home reduces the supply of single family homes which also raises the costs of the remaining homes. That drives more Family Millennials out of Los Angeles.
The developers discovered that destroying RSO units was not such a great idea since cheap RSO’s were in the undesirable parts of town, making the new projects hard to rent or sell. The developers were adept at buying low and making thousands of poor people homeless, but they could not coerce people to move into their dense complexes. However, buying R-1 homes north of Franklin Ave and south of Los Feliz Boulevard, as the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council thinks is a peachy keen idea, attracts developers who have been burnt by buying RSO units in a high crime areas.
[Raman’s Motion 21-0972 ‘s] “AHOZ would facilitate the development of 100% affordable housing projects in resource-rich areas by providing new incentives to developers such as height and density increases, reduced parking requirements, and discretionary review exemptions.” (Oct 22, 2021 Los Feliz Neighborhood Council Impact Statement.) The September 21, 2021 Reseda Neighborhood Council Impact Statements likewise endorses poverty projects in single family areas.
Whenever a single family home or a duplex sells for a multi-unit development, housing costs rise because developers pay more for the home and then he destroy it. Very soon, no family can afford to move into an area which developers have targeted. SB 9 and SB 10 and now Raman’s poverty projects are fueling the exodus so that homes in Rancho Cucamonga and Riverside are becoming unaffordable and people are moving to Hemet and out of state.
Most likely the unspent Measure HHH & JJJ funds will subsidize Raman’s poverty projects. What should cost $250K to build will cost $800K or more. History and mathematics tell us that traditional construction corruption will come into play. While buying R-1 homes will be “buying low,” the developers have learned that “selling high” is not so likely. Thus, they’ll get whatever they can loot now and run.
Waiving the Woker Equity Flag, the Fungible Fab Four Will Herald Raman’s Poverty Projects
The last people to blame are the poor people. They have zero voice and less power. Woker Judge David O. Carter revealed the Woker ideology, “White racism caused Black homelessness” so affordable projects must be built in single family neighborhoods. The judge forgot to explain what caused white people to become homeless or why Blacks and Hispanics who own homes in these areas should carry the brunt of Woker reparations.
For the Fab Four, anything Woker is good and anyone who is not on the bandwagon is racist. (That theme did not play so well in Virginia.) Will any of the Fab Four tell the voters that the fraudulently high housing costs are funneled to Wall Street, depriving families of disposable income. What could a family do with a mortgage that was $4K less per month? Imagine how much money they could put away for college educations and thereby reduce the amount their children will have to pay. Oh dear, that’s an bad idea. Wash out your brain with soap;. Wall Street plans on loaning your kids hundreds of thousands of dollars in non-dischargeableable student loans; so, you’re having extra money to save for their educations does not fit into Wall Street’s plans.
As we hear on TV, addicts will tell you anything; they are excellent liars. Los Angeles is addicted to developer money and there is no limit to the lies which the Fab Four will tell you to keep the Wall Street financed development con game in motion.
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. The views expressed herein are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch. You may email him at [email protected])
