Tomorrow, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors are scheduled to vote on legislation that will prevent condo conversion in buildings where owners have used legal means to evict tenants so that they could live in their own homes.  Huh?  And, they want to make this law retroactive to 1999.  What are they thinking?

The argument by various tenants organizationsand some of the supes goes something like this: The purchase of multi-unit buildings by parties who purchase the property as tenants in common is bad for the city because it reduces the number of units available for rental by tenants.  While this may be true, who do they think is purchasing these units?  In my experience, it is San Francisco residents, living in rental units, also known as tenants, who are purchasing these units.

Bad for the city?  I don't think so.  Not only are these tenants the Buyers of these TIC units, but the city also benefits because these units are purchased at current market rate, greatly increasing the tax base to provide services to all citizens of San Francisco.  Hopefully, a little bit of sanity and wisdom will prevail at tomorrows meeting and the Supes will realize that this legislation makes no sense.