Snuggle up next to your laptops again for this week's installment of a mildly confusing feature in which we ask those ensconced too cozily in your SF bubbles to take a step back, summon your inner C.W. Nevius, and try to understand why some in the outer counties and elsewhere in this country (certainly not us!) might look askance at the way we do things here — if for nothing else than to enjoy an ironic chuckle at our own expense. If all of this seems too difficult, please refer to our other recurring feature, 7 Reasons to Love San Francisco, and be on your merry way.
Today's edition: all those pinko-Commie tenants' rights laws and the power of NIMBYs
San Francisco's the kind of place that makes it very, very hard for a landlord to get rid of a tenant, especially if that tenant has a lot of time on his or her hands to argue various angles in order to stay put. While many here likely take comfort in that idea, being fans of protecting the little guy and being generally opposed to the idea of capitalist landlords, there are certainly cases each year of ne'er-do-wells taking advantage of the system to live rent-free, cases of crazies who post all kinds of signs in their windows hoping for public sympathy against their rent increases, as well as cases of landlords pulling shady tricks like pretending to move themselves into apartments in order to facilitate eviction. Then you have the cases of elderly tenants who open fire on their landlords rather than face eviction, but thankfully those are rare. The Chris Dalys of the world continue to propose laws that protect renters, whether they be in rent-controlled apartments or no, and for those folks lucky enough to have some cash to spend on a San Francisco rental property, it becomes all the more important to screen prospective tenants to make sure you won't be stuck with them until they're dead.