The Press-Telegram takes on all you apartment renters

Well, it had to happen; sure as the Long Beach City Council tonight will consider extending–if not an olive branch–then some money and concessions to apartment renters as the city’s stock of rentable apartments falls low, Press-Telegram editorialists gallop the other way.

Which way? Away from the whole notion of rentable apartments–and this in a city with a community college and a university, whose students don’t need affordable housing at all.

You want the P-T’s version of the truth? Can you dig it? How about this:

“Whatever the number [of rentable apartments is], even if it were close to zero, we cannot see how that is in any way the concern of local government. We see fewer vacancies as a sign of a healthy market functioning by supply and demand.”

There’s your free market, John and Sally Lunchpail–a free market unfettered by any concept of affordable housing for people who just can’t afford to buy a condominium.

Why are apartments suddenly such a bad thing? Why does everyone hate renters? After all, it’s not like condominiums are these architectural triumphs–that would be the sod house or, possibly, the yurt.

Apartments are the bad guy here because houses are so expensive; because condominiums, which usually run cheaper, are the last affordable way to own your own home. And because apartments are just condominium conversions waiting to happen.

The notion of home-ownership–even if it’s a condo, which isn’t a house–is something most of us do aspire to. Cities pride themselves on on making that part of the American Dream available to all. And that’s a fine thing. In a perfect world, we’d all own houses.

But gee, P-T, when those last metallic ribs of the welfare state get shipped off-shore–the ones stamped “U.S. Steel”– how about saving a few apartments for the rest of us?

Tags: California, condominiums, condos, Long Beach, Long Beach City Council, press telegram, renters' rights, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas, U.S. Steel