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You want to be in a Brooks Brothers riot? Just dress sharp, and be tomorrow at 8:15am at the east entrance of City Hall! The SF TIC coalition is sponsoring a gathering to celebrate the Condo Conversion lottery, which will take place inside at 9am. You'll get free Peet's coffee, and you'll hear the plight off these poor TIC owners who can't convert there place into a condo, and how it's a heavy cross to bear, and how everyone hates Chris Daly.
Then somewhere north of 1,700 tickets (including our little single one!) will be metaphorically mixed in a giant non-safeway non-plastic bag, out of which maybe 50 will win (197 units will be converted to condos, and the lottery is open to building with at least 3 units). Of course, those who don't win still get to be homeowners in SF, so nobody will cry for them. On the other hand, odds of winning keep getting worst every year, and the process is so slow new entrants can expect now to wait 12 years for conversion. Chances of winning have reduced by half over the last five years! How unfair is that?
The reason for rate limiting the number of condo conversions was to reduce evictions and protect renters. But evictions have been down every year, and if they happen, it's prior to creating the TIC anyway. Let's just say the condo conversion lottery is just another of these SF irrational idiosyncrasies which make the city so endearing. So, are you for or against condo conversion lottery reform?
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Because obviously property owners in super-expensive SF need my pity...never mind that rents are still through the roof and rarely reflect any changes in the real estate market. In fact, I expect 'em to go up since former home owners are going through foreclosure and are only going to add to the already huge pool of renters who will never be able to afford to purchase. :P
Would you like the likes of Chris Daly in charge of YOUR life savings, iris?
More seriously, people in SF really have to stretch to become first time home buyers, precisely because of the high real estate values here. The condo lottery makes this vastly more difficult, and is one of the many reasons that the middle class are moving out of San Francisco (along with the poor quality of the schools).
The efforts by the so-called "pro-tenant" activists here to pull as hard as possible on would be homeowners to keep them from actually getting a place of their own is just disgusting.
Correction, the efforts ARE disgusting.