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Anti-Tenant SF Democrat Assemblyman Leland Yee
This excellent article by Paul Hogarth from beyondchron.org is a must read for all tenants and for all who need to learn that to vote Democrat or Republican is to vote for landlords and against tenants and rent control. Leland Yee, former member of the Board of Supervisors, now an Assemblyperson, is a leading anti-tenant voter in the Assembly, coming from "progressive" San Francisco. Yee is now running for state senate. Is there a Peace & Freedom or Green Party candidate, by definition pro-tenant, running against him?
And of course, we must ask, is Paul Hogarth registered Democrat or has he learned that the Democrats are anti-tenant and Peace & Freedom Party and the Green Party are pro-tenant by definition? Political opportunism is despicable and reactionary. No party can claim to represent both sides of an adversarial dispute, and when it comes to the litmus test of rent control, the only right side is to support rent control. Any person running on the P&F or Green Party ticket must either support rent control and tenants or they do not receive the support of their respective party. Those are the only candidates worth voting for at any level of office.
From: http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=2944#more
Guest Editorial: Yee No Friend to Tenants
by Paul Hogarth‚ Feb. 15‚ 2006
In his State Senate campaign against San Mateo Supervisor Mike Nevin, Assemblyman Leland Yee claims to support rent control. His website boasts that he is a “consistent voice for renters,” calls rent control and tenant protections “essential,” and claims that as a San Francisco Supervisor and then a California Assemblymember, he has “opposed efforts to weaken or undermine tenant protections.”
For affordable housing activists like myself, that doesn’t even pass the laugh test. Not only has Leland Yee been on the wrong side of crucial battles to protect affordable housing in the Bay Area, but in some cases he has even led the charge against tenants.
Voters in State Senate District 8 (which includes the west-side of San Francisco) should not be fooled by Leland Yee’s vain effort to reinvent himself, and take a close look at his long track-record against affordable housing before voting in the June primary.
In November 2000, as a San Francisco Supervisor, Yee opposed tenant- friendly measures on the ballot such as Prop H (which cut back on capital-improvement pass-throughs) and Prop N (which would have stopped the rash of Ellis Act evictions.) In 2001, he was one of only 3 Supervisors to vote against Jake McGoldrick’s crucial TIC legislation that allowed thousands of tenants to remain in San Francisco. Around the same time, Leland Yee sponsored legislation to fund $100,000 in free legal services to help landlords evict their tenants.
As a state Assemblyman, Yee’s position on rent control has gone from bad to worse. In 2003, I went to Sacramento with ACORN, the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and the Western Center on Law and Poverty to lobby for AB 1217, Mark Leno’s legislation that exempted residential hotels (SRO’s) from the Ellis Act. We knew that we had a tough battle on our hands – a battle that was only made harder after Yee let his colleagues know that he would oppose it.
As we roamed the hallways of the State Capitol, Assembly staffers questioned us why their members should vote for Leno’s legislation when his own San Francisco colleague wouldn’t even support it. AB 1217 finally passed on the Assembly floor by a 41-vote majority – but only after a conservative Republican switched sides and voted for it. Leland Yee abstained. Even having the Bay Guardian call him out on his lack of support/a wasn’t enough to drop Yee’s knee-jerk allegiance to the real estate lobby.
Housing activists from other parts of the state are incredulous that San Francisco could produce such an anti-tenant legislator like Leland Yee, who is considered by many to be the most anti-rent- control Democrat in the State Assembly. If we aren’t careful, he might get promoted to the State Senate.
(Ed note: Guest Editorials are the opinions of the author and not necessarily the opinions of Beyond Chron. Editorials can be submitted to casey [at] beyondchron.org)
From: http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=2944#more
Guest Editorial: Yee No Friend to Tenants
by Paul Hogarth‚ Feb. 15‚ 2006
In his State Senate campaign against San Mateo Supervisor Mike Nevin, Assemblyman Leland Yee claims to support rent control. His website boasts that he is a “consistent voice for renters,” calls rent control and tenant protections “essential,” and claims that as a San Francisco Supervisor and then a California Assemblymember, he has “opposed efforts to weaken or undermine tenant protections.”
For affordable housing activists like myself, that doesn’t even pass the laugh test. Not only has Leland Yee been on the wrong side of crucial battles to protect affordable housing in the Bay Area, but in some cases he has even led the charge against tenants.
Voters in State Senate District 8 (which includes the west-side of San Francisco) should not be fooled by Leland Yee’s vain effort to reinvent himself, and take a close look at his long track-record against affordable housing before voting in the June primary.
In November 2000, as a San Francisco Supervisor, Yee opposed tenant- friendly measures on the ballot such as Prop H (which cut back on capital-improvement pass-throughs) and Prop N (which would have stopped the rash of Ellis Act evictions.) In 2001, he was one of only 3 Supervisors to vote against Jake McGoldrick’s crucial TIC legislation that allowed thousands of tenants to remain in San Francisco. Around the same time, Leland Yee sponsored legislation to fund $100,000 in free legal services to help landlords evict their tenants.
As a state Assemblyman, Yee’s position on rent control has gone from bad to worse. In 2003, I went to Sacramento with ACORN, the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and the Western Center on Law and Poverty to lobby for AB 1217, Mark Leno’s legislation that exempted residential hotels (SRO’s) from the Ellis Act. We knew that we had a tough battle on our hands – a battle that was only made harder after Yee let his colleagues know that he would oppose it.
As we roamed the hallways of the State Capitol, Assembly staffers questioned us why their members should vote for Leno’s legislation when his own San Francisco colleague wouldn’t even support it. AB 1217 finally passed on the Assembly floor by a 41-vote majority – but only after a conservative Republican switched sides and voted for it. Leland Yee abstained. Even having the Bay Guardian call him out on his lack of support/a wasn’t enough to drop Yee’s knee-jerk allegiance to the real estate lobby.
Housing activists from other parts of the state are incredulous that San Francisco could produce such an anti-tenant legislator like Leland Yee, who is considered by many to be the most anti-rent- control Democrat in the State Assembly. If we aren’t careful, he might get promoted to the State Senate.
(Ed note: Guest Editorials are the opinions of the author and not necessarily the opinions of Beyond Chron. Editorials can be submitted to casey [at] beyondchron.org)
For more information:
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?...
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Its only fair that if you're going to post this about Leland Yee, then you should also post the other article written by McGoldrick about him:
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=2949#more
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=2949#more
Thanks for the kind words about my article. As for your inquiries about my party registration, I am actually a Democrat. If I wasn't, I would be compelety powerless in voting to deny Leland Yee the Democratic nomination for the 8th State Senate District -- and (by default) the general election in November.
While I agree that there are many opportunistic corporate Democrats like Yee, activists in the Green Party and the Peace & Freedom Party need to understand that you have more allies than you think in the Democratic Party -- Chris Daly and Tom Ammiano to name a few. The situation would be a lot worse if we all chose to quit the Democratic Party and surrender it to the real estate lobby.
Progressives need to forge a multi-partisan coalition. I'm a Democrat, but I am always happy to forge alliances with non-Democrats who share my values. After all, that's why I'm an active member (and former officer) of the Harvey Milk Club.
--- Paul
While I agree that there are many opportunistic corporate Democrats like Yee, activists in the Green Party and the Peace & Freedom Party need to understand that you have more allies than you think in the Democratic Party -- Chris Daly and Tom Ammiano to name a few. The situation would be a lot worse if we all chose to quit the Democratic Party and surrender it to the real estate lobby.
Progressives need to forge a multi-partisan coalition. I'm a Democrat, but I am always happy to forge alliances with non-Democrats who share my values. After all, that's why I'm an active member (and former officer) of the Harvey Milk Club.
--- Paul
For more information:
http://paulhogarth.blogspot.com
The concept that Democrats are against rent control, by definition is more than misguided, it's complete Rubbish.
Whoever wrote this should take that basic course in journalism that reminds the would-be writer to check facts first.
Whoever wrote this should take that basic course in journalism that reminds the would-be writer to check facts first.
Apparently the McGoldrick crowd does not know how to read. As the above article clearly states, Yee has been actively anti-tenant, and it took a Republican to put through one piece of pro-tenant legislation. This can only mean that this legislation was so bland that any decent person would vote for it; and clearly Yee did not fit that description.
The anti-rent control and anti-tenant actions and statements of Democrats Leland Yee, Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom, Ignacio de la Fuente and Jerry Brown, to name a few, demonstrate that the Democratic Party is a capitalist party, the same as the Republican Party, paid for by the same large corporations, to carry out the same capitalist, anti-tenant, anti-workingclass agenda, namely the primary goal being to maximize profits for the capitalist class, always anti-workingclass by definition. The only reason the Democrats exist is to pretend, at times, to represent the workingclass, so that workers will vote for the Democrats instead of voting Red (P&F) or Green, and then when in office, they promote the same capitalits agenda as the Republicans. This is an obvious con game and can only result in destruction of all gains of the workingclass. It is insulting that anyone should be expected to play games with their vote which is what the Democratic Party promotes.
As to Chris Daly and Tom Ammiano:
Chris Daly's latest horror is his gun control initiative, which he knew very well would not stop violent crime as Chicago & Wash. D.C. have gun control laws, and violent street crime continues as the criminals do not turn in any guns. He knew his law consisted of denying Second Amendment rights to San Franciscans to own hand guns. So now, if this unconstitutional law prevails, only the criminals and the police will have hand guns, but law-abiding San Franciscans will have to turn in their hand guns. I hear some such people will have rifles instead, far deadlier. Gun control is always a reactionary smokescreen for addressing social problems with money and education. I have yet to hear from the entire Board of Supervisors about the scandal with the SF Police Department and its daily police brutality. It is clear that the entire 2200 member SF Police Department, who make $80,000 to $150,000 a year plus benefits, should be shut down, and the funds from that worthless gang should be transferred to the education and social services departments to train people for decent paying jobs. That is how we eliminate street crime.
Tom Ammiano's list of reactionary positions is in short: He claims to feel "Israel's pain" but has nothing to say about the Palestinians; he supported both stadium swindles; he supported the illegal cross on Mt. Davidson, which included the privatization of public land; he supports the entire Democratic Party ticket, including all the death penalty advocates (president, 2 senators), and he sits illegally in office in a final term for which he had no business running.
The Democratic Party is a capitalist, anti-Palestinian, death penalty, anti-tenant, warmongering, anti-civil liberties, election-frauding party the same as the Republican Party. On the Israel issue, for both the Democrats and Republicans, it is not possible to be an elected official with the full support of the Democrats and Republican Parties if one does not support Israel, the US military base for which we pay $4 billion annually to protect US oil profits in the Middle East, at the expense of the lives and land of the Palestinians.
The Democratic Party, like its Republican twin, is profoundly evil and they both need to be cast into the dustbin of history with all deliberate speed. That is why I only vote for either P&F or Green Party candidates, and if I do not find a suitable candidate for a given position, I skip that position. The propositions are always worth the effort to vote. Elections, of course, only confirm the class struggle that has preceded them, and it is through labor organizing that we make the greatest advances. So long as there is no serious labor organizing, there is no progress.
The anti-rent control and anti-tenant actions and statements of Democrats Leland Yee, Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom, Ignacio de la Fuente and Jerry Brown, to name a few, demonstrate that the Democratic Party is a capitalist party, the same as the Republican Party, paid for by the same large corporations, to carry out the same capitalist, anti-tenant, anti-workingclass agenda, namely the primary goal being to maximize profits for the capitalist class, always anti-workingclass by definition. The only reason the Democrats exist is to pretend, at times, to represent the workingclass, so that workers will vote for the Democrats instead of voting Red (P&F) or Green, and then when in office, they promote the same capitalits agenda as the Republicans. This is an obvious con game and can only result in destruction of all gains of the workingclass. It is insulting that anyone should be expected to play games with their vote which is what the Democratic Party promotes.
As to Chris Daly and Tom Ammiano:
Chris Daly's latest horror is his gun control initiative, which he knew very well would not stop violent crime as Chicago & Wash. D.C. have gun control laws, and violent street crime continues as the criminals do not turn in any guns. He knew his law consisted of denying Second Amendment rights to San Franciscans to own hand guns. So now, if this unconstitutional law prevails, only the criminals and the police will have hand guns, but law-abiding San Franciscans will have to turn in their hand guns. I hear some such people will have rifles instead, far deadlier. Gun control is always a reactionary smokescreen for addressing social problems with money and education. I have yet to hear from the entire Board of Supervisors about the scandal with the SF Police Department and its daily police brutality. It is clear that the entire 2200 member SF Police Department, who make $80,000 to $150,000 a year plus benefits, should be shut down, and the funds from that worthless gang should be transferred to the education and social services departments to train people for decent paying jobs. That is how we eliminate street crime.
Tom Ammiano's list of reactionary positions is in short: He claims to feel "Israel's pain" but has nothing to say about the Palestinians; he supported both stadium swindles; he supported the illegal cross on Mt. Davidson, which included the privatization of public land; he supports the entire Democratic Party ticket, including all the death penalty advocates (president, 2 senators), and he sits illegally in office in a final term for which he had no business running.
The Democratic Party is a capitalist, anti-Palestinian, death penalty, anti-tenant, warmongering, anti-civil liberties, election-frauding party the same as the Republican Party. On the Israel issue, for both the Democrats and Republicans, it is not possible to be an elected official with the full support of the Democrats and Republican Parties if one does not support Israel, the US military base for which we pay $4 billion annually to protect US oil profits in the Middle East, at the expense of the lives and land of the Palestinians.
The Democratic Party, like its Republican twin, is profoundly evil and they both need to be cast into the dustbin of history with all deliberate speed. That is why I only vote for either P&F or Green Party candidates, and if I do not find a suitable candidate for a given position, I skip that position. The propositions are always worth the effort to vote. Elections, of course, only confirm the class struggle that has preceded them, and it is through labor organizing that we make the greatest advances. So long as there is no serious labor organizing, there is no progress.
The subject of tenants and tenants rights doesn't explain the anger in these diatribes. What's wrong with you? That's the question.
Sometimes lingering anger at parents causes a general anger at authority figures. This anger can be transferred to other entities that may be perceived as being in positions of power and authority. This may even include institutions such as the Republican or Democratic parties. Thus your anger at Democrats and Republicans and Chris Daly and Tom and Leland and so on. Men?
You should seek the help you need.
Sometimes lingering anger at parents causes a general anger at authority figures. This anger can be transferred to other entities that may be perceived as being in positions of power and authority. This may even include institutions such as the Republican or Democratic parties. Thus your anger at Democrats and Republicans and Chris Daly and Tom and Leland and so on. Men?
You should seek the help you need.
Authority figures indeed. Speaking of Democrats, Republicans, Tom and Leland, not to mention the unhealthy fixation on landlords.
Is it sexual?
Is it sexual?
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