Psycho Posted April 28, 2007 Report Share Posted April 28, 2007 Saturday, April 28, 2007 Hon. Jim Graham Council of the District of Columbia 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 105 Washington, DC 20004 Re: Rent Control Dear Jim, Outside of Dorothy Brizill, nobody is more critical of the DC City Council than I and unapologetically so. Since you have been the most vocal on the issue of rent control, I would challenge you to propose legislation that would improve the lives of renters in DC drastically. Despite the recent claim in the local media how great the economy is in the Metro DC area, it is not that great. The truth is, 42% of the people in Metro DC according to NBC 4 TV are living paycheck to paycheck, and 35% would face eviction if they lost their jobs as unemployment income would not be enough. Click here …. http://video.nbc4.com/player/?id=96023 What is the cause of people living paycheck to paycheck? Well ask Mayor Fenty! It is his good friends who are bleeding all of us into the poor house! We are talking about Fenty's buddies in the real-estate (developers) industry who keep on gouging people with unjustifiable rents, condos that go for more than a four bedroom house, but this is the price we all pay when developers have to kick out big money for politicos like Adrian Fenty, Muriel Bowser, Mary Cheh and those fat checks and freebies they got. Yet, our rents or mortgages go up 5.5% a year but our pay only goes up 1.75% and it has been at this pace for the last eighteen (18) years. It is rents and nothing else that is hurting DC, and rents have been the tool the gentrification to chase minorities and the poor out. (DC Rent Control should be fixed at yearly increases not that of the CPI + 2% but at 1.75% which is the average annual wage increase for a worker). The truth is, it has been the Democrats on the DC City Council who intentionally allowed rents to skyrocket while talking out of the other side of their mouths how much they care about the middle class and poor! Yet the unfairness of our DC City Council to line the pockets of the rich at the expense of the middle class and poor is seen in their voting themselves a $24,000 a year wage increase because of higher rents and so on, but they did not vote for any of "us" to get a $24,000 a year wage increase so we can meet our rent increases. What you did of recently was wholly insufficient to combat back breaking rents and their brutal increases that are 4 time greater than wage increases! I challenge you to do better! Respectfully, Jonathan R. Rees Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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